The Lesser-Known Toku Discussion Thread

[Mr G]

I've been reading a fair bit about the 'Iron King' series this evening, so I thought I'd ask you guys about it. I guess it all boils down to three questions:
Is it any good?
Is it actually a Tsuburaya show or was it made by someone else? (Amazon, IMDB and wikipedia all seem a bit indecisive on this)
I've heard that the Mill Creek release messes up the timing on the subs compared to the BCI release. Are there any other obvious differences between the two sets? (I ask because there seem to be a bunch of US imports of the DVD going cheaply on Amazon UK at the moment, but they seem a bit vague as to which release they are and I want to get the right one)

Question 1: YES! It's definitely different from other tokus. And it was produced in the 70s so it's sort of funky in a cool way.

Question 2: To my knowledge, Iron King was produced by Nippon Gendai and somebody else I think. I don't believe that Tsuburaya was involved in any way. I do notice that Iron King is listed in the Ultraman Wiki as a Tsuburaya hero...but I am not sure why.

Question 3: If you can find the BCI release, GET IT. The Mill Creek release is garbage. Essentially they took the BCI release, compressed the episodes onto fewer discs which made the quality worse, and did manage to screw up the timing on the subs. Also, the BCI release comes with a nice slipcase with a booklet by August Ragone.

Hope that helps!

EDIT: I went and checked the booklet that came with my set and it says that the show was produced by Tokyo Broadcasting System and Senkosha. :thumbs:

 

[Toku Prime]

That is kinda weird.
Just tossed you a message regarding it, though.

You mean Mikazuki? It's been a long while since I saw it and I can't quite remember if I finished it or not. Still though if anybody ever wondered what it would be like if the creator of Garo did a mecha show, there ya go.

Mikazuki's been on my list of shows to check out, even though it's about mecha -- it's an Inoue-penned series falling between Changerion and Agito, so maybe it's good. Also, I read that Shinji Kasahara's in it.

Thanks again to Cirno for passing along some download links for Mikazuki. I've had this last week off work, but couldn't afford to go anywhere, so I ended up watching an episode of this each evening. Definitely one for Garo and Agito fans to check out. You can tell it's a meeting of the minds behinid both (even though this is before they made either of those shows :sweat. It has the Agito-like focus on the details of the characters lives, and very Horror-like monsters. Episode four is more Faiz-like - it's like the origin story for an Orphanok! It also has my favourite monster in the show - think Godzilla (including the famous roar) mixed with a Horror from Garo. I'm guessing that's entirely on purpose, as according to IMDB the suit actor for Mikazuki is the guy who donned the Godzilla suit for the Heisei era films. So if anybody out there wants some proto-Garo to go with their season three Garo, here it is. Or if anybody likes "a boy and his robot" anime and wants to see a live-action version.

Question 3: If you can find the BCI release, GET IT. The Mill Creek release is garbage. Essentially they took the BCI release, compressed the episodes onto fewer discs which made the quality worse, and did manage to screw up the timing on the subs. Also, the BCI release comes with a nice slipcase with a booklet by August Ragone.

Is the BCI version four disks? I was looking on eBay and while few of them mention whether they are BCI or Mill Creek, it seems that most of them are three disk sets with the occasional four disk set in the mix. I'm guessing the confusion over the show's origins are in part because Iron King really looks like an Ultra, and his facial visor makes it seem like Jean-Bot could be a tribute to him as much as to Jumborg.

 

[Mr G]

Is the BCI version four disks? I was looking on eBay and while few of them mention whether they are BCI or Mill Creek, it seems that most of them are three disk sets with the occasional four disk set in the mix. I'm guessing the confusion over the show's origins are in part because Iron King really looks like an Ultra, and his facial visor makes it seem like Jean-Bot could be a tribute to him as much as to Jumborg.

The BCI release has four discs. All those three disc ones are the Mill Creek releases. I got mine from Amazon with no problems, but later on I had hell finding the old BCI release of Ultraman. It seems like everybody had it listed incorrectly.

Aaaand, would you mind PMing me those Mikazuki links? :anime:

 

[Painted_Outlaw]

Thanks again to Cirno for passing along some download links for Mikazuki.

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[/hide]

No problem, dude.

 

[Toku Prime]

The BCI release has four discs. All those three disc ones are the Mill Creek releases. I got mine from Amazon with no problems, but later on I had hell finding the old BCI release of Ultraman. It seems like everybody had it listed incorrectly.

Aaaand, would you mind PMing me those Mikazuki links? :anime:

Unfortunately the UK is in region 2 for DVDs, so we never got an official release. Amazon UK only seems to offer the Mill Creek version on import (when it's not insisting I've spelt 'Lion King' incorrectly). But there's a few on UK eBay so I'll have a look for a four disk set.

I've sent you those Mikazuki links via PM, though they should still be on the Hi no Tori website.

 

[Toku Prime]

I thought I'd resurrect this as it didn't seem worth starting a new thread, but I've been watching Madan Senki Ryukendo alongside KR Ghost each week. The funny thing is, while it is suuuch a toy commercial (possibly even more so than modern Toei shows) and is not as slickly made as the toku airing at that time, it's somehow actually more fun to watch than Ghost and sometimes manages to be quite compelling. Give it a go if you like Battlizers and key-based gimmicks.

Also, Gamera The Brave. I know Gamera is pretty well known, but I always feel as if that particular movie gets overlooked.

 

[MonoBlack]

Let me use your resurrection bump to ask:

does anyone know of cool lesser known tokus from the 80s or 90s to be lead by women?

 

[Toku Prime]

The only female-lead series I know of that've been subbed are Cutie Honey and Sailor Moon, but they're both from the 2000s.

I've read that Toei's 'Fushigi Comedy' franchise alternated between chibi robots and magical girls. It's the franchise Poitrine comes from. The final entry was about three magical sisters, and one of them was later cast as Ninja White, so Kakuranger had a kind of unofficial reunion episode where they brought the other two actresses back and had them be a trio of ninja sisters with very similar attacks, catchphrases etc. But as far as I know none of the Comedies have ever been subbed.

Similarly I've heard that 'Lady Battlecop' exists, but I've no idea what it's like or if it ever got subbed.

 

[Black Fang]

Hi No Tori subbed Lady Battlecop a few months ago. I burned it to DVD but I haven't watched it yet. It has a pretty good soundtrack.

 

[MonoBlack]

The only female-lead series I know of that've been subbed are Cutie Honey and Sailor Moon, but they're both from the 2000s.

I've read that Toei's 'Fushigi Comedy' franchise alternated between chibi robots and magical girls. It's the franchise Poitrine comes from. The final entry was about three magical sisters, and one of them was later cast as Ninja White, so Kakuranger had a kind of unofficial reunion episode where they brought the other two actresses back and had them be a trio of ninja sisters with very similar attacks, catchphrases etc. But as far as I know none of the Comedies have ever been subbed.

Similarly I've heard that 'Lady Battlecop' exists, but I've no idea what it's like or if it ever got subbed.

Lady battlecop is not bad.

I NEVER found Poitrine and it still bothers me. Everything ive read about the series is a win-win.

Id be cool with a female protagonist as well. I just cant empathize with Kamenrider , for example, because of its male cast.