March Tokusatsu of the Month - Chousei Kantai Sazer X -Talk Up!

[Aoi Kurenai]

Kay, those episode 24 comments were absolutely hilarious:

Lady, look, Takuto doesn't even know how your genitalia work or where they are.

Has got to be the best line ever.

 

[FlashNeko]

Oh, Jackal. You died as you lived:

Completely pointless and out of nowhere.

 

[Lynxara]

I won't say that was a super-great episode, but this is the sort of good fun I expect out of Sazer X. It also is kind of brings together a few ideas I'd had about what the show was trying to do with itself.

[HIDE]- It's kind of weird watching Garade become a comedy character as he edges closer to being defeated. Remember what a badass he was when he showed up? It's kinda how the Zentraedi show up in Macross as howling badasses, yet are ultimately undone by a cheesy love ballad.
- The carrier transforming into one of Chou Seishin's many Gojira-likes is pretty amusing.
- I don't usually care for Sazer X's mecha battles, but this episode is very nicely shot. Good choreography, too.
- ... if this is supposed to be grandpa's been building in his garage....
- There is no pain like the pain of riffback.
- That said, this is a pretty logical upgrade after the three robots had to swap off for so much of the series. I had just been thinking the other day, "You know, maybe people didn't like that Sazer X had three main robots but in most fights you only ever saw one at a time..." Of course, with only about a dozen episodes left, I'm not sure how well they'll be able to use this.
- Oh no, Jackal bled out while waiting for Blaird to bring him pineapple salad.
- ... healing what?
- This may be Gordo's most awesome deadpan take ever... and that guy is, like, the king of deadpan.
- Aqual, my guess here is "the final villain." That's usually how these things go.
- Man, the logic behind Jackal's death and Blaird's survival is even basically the logic behind Roy dying while Hikaru survived. I guess Sazer X really is what happens when someone tries to make a tokusatsu equivalent to Macross. [/HIDE]

 

[nerefir]

I'm gonna finish this show on my own. Have fun with your textwalls and OOO bashing, guys.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Jackal's death is actually the point where I started thinking the crew had found out that the show wasn't going to run a full four courses. Whenever I saw him on screen, I figured Jackal would eventually become the begrudging final member of Sazer-X. The show seems to play up the villains joining the good guys and it seemed obvious to me that Jackal would be next, so seeing him bite the bullet really changed the game.

I still need to get my hands on Macross 7, I've been dying for another series, anime or not, like Sazer-X to watch.

 

[FlashNeko]

Is there some cultural significance to the fact that Blaird really likes natto? It feels like there's more to it than "he likes stinky smelling things" in the same way there was supposed to be some significance to the way Shark and Ad react to white rice.

(Also, does this mean Remmy's sushi tasted like natto?)

 

[Lynxara]

The show seems to play up the villains joining the good guys and it seemed obvious to me that Jackal would be next, so seeing him bite the bullet really changed the game.

Hmm, that's interesting. I never really felt like Jackal was going to join the good guys, but I did genuinely expect him to hang around the show longer. I would've expected him to still be around for the end of the series, not basically just an arc villain.

If Jackal's death was the result of the cancellation then it was a really classy bit of improvising. To me it felt like a logical end for Jackal, a logical development for Blaird, and a really interesting twist on the classic Roy Fokker death. I've seen a lot of homages to that episode but never one that cast a villain in Roy's role.

I still need to get my hands on Macross 7, I've been dying for another series, anime or not, like Sazer-X to watch.

I get the feeling you'd like original Macross and the Do You Remember Love movie, too. I think Macross is probably the origin of a lot Sazer X's ideas about how to blend drama, sci-fi, action, and comedy. Certainly Sazer X seems to homage a lot of Macross's most famous episodes.

Macross 7 was never licensed for a bunch of reasons, but there's a really good fansub of it that should be floating around out there. Let me know if you have trouble finding it. If you want to check out Macross is has two semi-recent DVD releases that shouldn't be hard to find. Both are good.

(Also, does this mean Remmy's sushi tasted like natto?)

Culturally all I know about natto is that it tends to be portrayed as something old people like.

In the case of Remy's sushi, though, I think the idea is that it was pretty awful but Blaird likes it anyway because he's used to eating the space equivalent of MREs. Any home-cooked meal is heavenly to him.

Anyway, episode 28 was really great, the final arc is off to a strong start.

[HIDE]- Patora! Of course Gordo's wife is baffling and awesome. She reminds me a lot of Akiko in the second half of Double-- goofy, yet curiously effective.
- Blaird's scene with Patora is amazing. Everything about Blaird in this episode is amazing.
- Cyclead's Cosmo Capsule comment cracked me up way harder than something should at this time of night. Cyclead is growing on me a lot, he gets some wonderful dialog.
- "Our goal is no longer the Cosmo Capsules." It's on. Sazer X is always at its best when doesn't use hunting Cosmo Capsules as its main plot engine. This is going to be the best story arc ever.
- What a good episode! The funny parts were funny, the fight choreography was tight, a bunch of plots moved along briskly, and the script juggled a million characters pretty effectively. [/HIDE]

 

[Project-Trinity]

The 3 Shoguns were funny.
The way Hawk helped Lion to get his sword was hilarious

[HIDE]Lion "How do we get our weapon out again?"
Hawk: *sighs, grabs Lion`s hand, pushes something on lion`s wrist then thinks that 20th centuries humans are clueless*
The twins in the shower was funny as well....
[/HIDE]

That series was too short thou. Like if toho had suffered a blank. other 2 series (Gransazer & Justirisers) were as long as usual toku yearly shows.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

The series was cancelled, so it couldn't really be helped.

I almost wish it was like Ryukendo where the ratings didn't totally matter because it apparently aired in syndication.

Hmm, that's interesting. I never really felt like Jackal was going to join the good guys, but I did genuinely expect him to hang around the show longer. I would've expected him to still be around for the end of the series, not basically just an arc villain.

If Jackal's death was the result of the cancellation then it was a really classy bit of improvising. To me it felt like a logical end for Jackal, a logical development for Blaird, and a really interesting twist on the classic Roy Fokker death. I've seen a lot of homages to that episode but never one that cast a villain in Roy's role.

I always figured he would become that sort of character who joins the good guys, but does so sorta begrudgingly and takes ages to really act like one of the guys. Even in Justiriser, Demon Knight eventually became one of the good guys, so I just figured something along the lines of that would have happened here. I dunno, I guess there's nothing too logical to it, but I figured that Jackal would just end up joining Sazer-X's fight at some point and settle things with Shark. To see him die really did strike me as "Yeeeaah, this is when they found out the series was going to get axed," because it seemed like the show trying to remove any superfluous characters that might take up too much screen time.

 

[Lynxara]

That series was too short thou. Like if toho had suffered a blank.

The TV network airing Sazer X canceled it. That's why it's shorter than the other two shows.

It's pretty sad in retrospect. Sazer X had a lot going for it and didn't feel very much like anything Toei was doing at the time.