#heavy metal ninja jiban

[mo-ok]

jiban + puppy

[himitsusentaiblog]

do know why toei stopped making the metal hero series?

Before I get started, I am going to say this is entirely based on my owns speculation and what I know of the way things work with tokusatsu TV shows. That said, my educated guess on why they stopped was that the ratings and toy sales began to tank coupled with a desire to bring back Kamen Rider.  Allow me to elaborate.

The Metal Hero series came about as a replacement for Kamen Rider after Kamen Rider Super-1 ended in October of 1981.

The Kamen Rider series had been on something of a ratings and toy sales slump and it was decided to retire the franchise and try something new as a companion piece to the then booming Super Sentai series.  Enter the Metal Heroes.

There were notable similarities between Kamen Rider and the Metal Heroes with a lone hero fighting an evil organization, with help from his assistants and friends but if anything the Metal Heroes were even more firmly rooted in Science Fiction and the popularity of Outer Space that was raging at the time (partially thanks to the worldwide success of Star Wars) than Kamen Rider ever was.  Just look at the first series, Space Sheriff Gavan.

You have a spaceman in silver armor who travels in what looks like a flying saucer coming to Earth to battle an evil group of space gangsters.  That’s a pretty epic idea right there and you add in the flashy, even trippy, fight scenes and a transforming robot dragon and you have a winner.  It’s no wonder the first three series were all Space Sheriff based.

The heavy Sci-Fi trend continued with Special Megabeast Investigator Juspion with an added helping of giant monster action that had exploded back onto the scene with the impending revival of Godzilla (the 1984 film).

Things kept going with science fiction until World Ninja War Jiraiya tapped into the eternal fascination with Ninja to change things entirely.

Of course, by this point Robocop has made a splash in Japan and inspired a new breed of Metal Heroes, police and police robots starting with Mobile Cop Jiban.

It continued into the 1990s with shows like Special Rescue Police Winspector, Super Rescue Solbrian, Special Rescue Exceedraft, Tokusou Robo Janperson and then to Blue S.W.A.T. which combined the police theme with the alien invaders that had been such a part of the earliest Metal Hero offerings.

After that, something new was needed, the police angle was growing stale so they looked to Insect-Themed heroes to help, creating the B-Fighter series starting with Juukou B-Fighter in 1995.

This is where I have to start guessing at things because I don’t have any solid information but after the sequel series, B-Fighter Kabuto, the Metal Hero series took a serious left turn into much, much more childish material with B-Robo Kabutack.

My guess is that the more mature series weren’t pushing toys or appealing to kids the way they wanted and they tried something much more oriented to children.  I’m not sure it was entirely successful because after the next series, Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack, the Metal Hero series ended, to be replaced less than a year later with a revived Kamen Rider franchise.

As with all things relating to TV Shows aimed at kids and especially ones aimed at selling toys to kids, the reason any of them go away is because of toy sales and ratings.  Unless there is some massive outcry from parents or a scandal (like the complaints of violence launched against the original Kamen Rider Amazon or the jumping death of the child emulating the hero from Moonlight Mask) a series and especially a franchise doesn’t just go away.  So, based on these ideas, Toei decided the Metal Heroes had run their course and the experiment with a more kid-friendly approach didn’t pan out. 

It was time for A New Hero, maybe even A New Legend.

[mo-ok]

genuinely captivated by the jiban suit bc he looks all threatening and imposing but then his big bug eyes light up and

he's suddenly the cutest lil guy you've ever seen 😭😭😭😭

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mad garbo

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this guy is about to fuck jiban up so bad

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shout out suit actor tho buddy really putting his all into getting beat up by that invisible jellyfish

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cool gun ✅ cool sword ✅ big round bug eyes ✅✅

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maximillian sword

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jiban is legally allowed to say nuh-uh 😌

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???????????????????????

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🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

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bites you

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Genuinely I watched one episode of jiban (the Jiraiya crossover) and his "I can legally kill you" catchphrase thing sounded so evil I decided I didn't want to watch any more of it lmao. Which is a shame because the visuals and music are all so good.

he's only legally allowed to kill the biolon monsters so i can ALMOST forgive him. ALMOST.

(just watched him take out jakq tamasaburou. Cathartic.)

[mo-ok]

Last episode the bad guy was called suicidenoid. This episode is a swim suit competition.