June Tokusatsu of the Month - B-Fighter Kabuto

[Lynxara]

Ran's pretty rad, what can I say. Might give her the icon treatment if I can think of something sufficiently amusing. While, I'll even buttrock for her. See? :buttrock:

Ah, episode 6. So much Ran it all over your screen. Actually, while I enjoyed this a lot, it's still a pretty generic and silly episode. Most of the episodes from this batch are, really.

So Ran tries to save a sakura festival by joining an eating contest? It watches like that run of filler they did in B-Fighter around the 30s, where it was mostly uninspired but the alternative was hearing about Saint Papilia so I liked it anyway. The evil mochi that wept sinister black blood was a memorable image.

For episode 7 it's... "crazy karate guy gets possessed by a monster and beats the **** out of everybody." And then a bunch of angry possessed people beat the **** out of everything. Well, that's fun! I'm not sure how I feel about an unarmored karate dude effectively fighting a monster in a Metal Hero show, though. It makes me wonder why this guy isn't the main character.

Hahah, episode 8. "St. Holy." Engrish at its finest. Kohei's voice is in fine form this episode, he really sounds like a fifty-year-old chain smoker or some poor guy passing a stone. This episode is kind of amazing, as we have a monster whose powers also make it look a lot like it's taking a dump. Yeah, I know, it actually lays super-hot eggs, but... very unfortunate visual for it.

I'm taking a shine to Dezzle, the fish-man general. He's got a very cool costume design and he seems to be voiced by the late, great Shiozawa Kaneto. I get the feeling this guy is going to graduate to become some kind of bigger threat later on in the series, he seems to scheme on a grander scale than the other two generals.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Well episode 9 was just about the oddest thing that I've seen in the series so far. Probably the dumbest as well. Would have liked it better if there was some sympathy for the monster, but as it was...it felt like the team just had one really stupid storyteller to deal with.

10 was a pretty solid episode, though I found myself thinking more interaction between Ran and Kouhei would have been neat while Kengo was out of commission. Of course you end up getting the group of young fans, upset that their idol ran away from a battle. I really would like to see more people figuring out Kouhei is Kabuto since he didn't seem to care who knew in the early episodes.

Annnd, hey, look who showed up in his first toku! It's amusing just how much his face stayed the same.
[hide] [/hide]

It makes me wonder why this guy isn't the main character.

Probably because of the whole "I'mma kick your ass" rageroid issues he had going on at the start.

 

[KAGEKI]

Annnd, hey, look who showed up in his first toku! It's amusing just how much his face stayed the same.
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I know that guy, but I forgot his name. Can you tell me what's his name?

 

[Lynxara]

It's the guy who goes on to play Go-On Gold and one of the Hoppers, I think.

The plot of this episode 9 seems to be an unsuccessful rakugoka wanting to study a two-in-one monster of the week that argues with itself so he can learn how to perform multiple roles better. That is pretty friggin' astonishing right there. I mean, the monster even has a Kikaider brain... and it's played Akio Ohsuka?

This was one of the more interesting Kabuto episodes for me... mainly, it felt like the kind of inspired craziness I expect to see when I sit down to watch B-Fighter. The one-off monsters in B-Fighter tended to have memorable personalities and this is the first thing I've seen the show do with a monster that wasn't pretty generic.

Episode 10 is about a monster kangaroo that... uh, eats the skills of champion sports fighters? And he starts with the crazy kendo guy? You're doing a lot of SO JAPANESE episodes, B-Fighter Kabuto, this is honestly kind of weird. At least this is a pretty good kangaroo monster. Like, I can't see someone doing much better once the idea of a kangaroo monster is on the table.

So I can't help but notice that Tentou's Jamming Beam makes the sound effect that would play in Centipede whenever spider was on the field. It's just sped way up, in the sort of way that only happened in the game at insanely high levels. Yeah, this is honestly the kind of thing I enjoy in B-Fighter Kabuto at the moment. Lookin' forward to episode 25.

 

[Forever Knight]

Kick Hopper/Go-On Gold IS one of the very few to have been to all sections of the Toku world. Sentai, KR, Ultraman, Metal Heroes.

 

[Lynxara]

What was his role in Ultraman?

 

[KAGEKI]

It's the guy who goes on to play Go-On Gold and one of the Hoppers, I think.

Kick Hopper/Go-On Gold IS one of the very few to have been to all sections of the Toku world. Sentai, KR, Ultraman, Metal Heroes.

Wow, he looked super young when he was on B-Fighter Kabuto. He hardly looks recognizable without his blonde highlights.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

[hide]This was a pretty cool episode, I'm surprised that they actually had Kengo speaking a bit of English again, figured it was going to be a bit thing during that episode with Kouhei taking the test. Was thinking it would have been amusing to have Erika speaking English throughout the entire episode.

So basically she's his adopted sister? Something along the lines of that is what I picked up from the episode. Seems that her parents were killed in a generic boat explosion about 10 years ago and now she's back to kick ass and take names. She was an interesting character, kind of the type that I could have seen developing a pretty psychotic demeanor, she seriously didn't seem to care that the others weren't able to transform and that they were in a lot of pain until her final confrontation with Dezle.

So she ends up getting killed and...we're supposed to feel bad or something! I didn't really feel much of anything, probably because she was only here for about an episode and 70% of that episode was her being kind of a crazy bastard in doing whatever she could to capture that monster. Cool storm scene, though, figured someone was going to kick it as soon as that happened.[/hide]

What was his role in Ultraman?

He was an uncredited extra in an episode of Max.

I can think of tons of people doing two franchises or more, but it gets really foggy after that.

 

[MetalSymphony]

So 9 was about not only a guy who does traditional Japanese comedy (The name of the form escapes me) but a mis-matched Kaijin at odds with itself. Funny stuff.

10 has Bone Kangaroo kidnapping master fighters and a leadership crisis for Kohei....and it got it's hole cemented up. :eyebrow:

11 starts with a barrage of English then moves to a Oil sucking lung fish (or something) , goes on to love interest betrayal (though a mild case) and ends with cliche tragic ending #2. Not one of the better episodes IMO.

not enough time for 12 before work, so i'll catch that one tomorrow.

 

[Forever Knight]

What was his role in Ultraman?

Some extra in Tiga (I think).

Nothing notable but the fact still remains.