#testujin gunriser

[mediaomnivore]

I have long been interested in Local Heroes (ローカルヒーロー), which is like a tokusatsu-style hero that is themed around a specific geographic location and usually acts as a protector of that place. I love it because it combines my interest in geography and culture with my interest in super hero stories. The drawback, unfortunately, is that these stories are often sexist, with few female heroes and often casting the female characters that are included as either sidekicks or damsels in distress who need saving.

My family partner in Japan is from Iwate prefecture (岩手県) so she helped me procure the DVDs for their local hero's TV show, Iron God Gunriser (鉄神ガンライザー) and its sequel, Iron God Gunriser NEO (鉄神ガンライザーNEO).

These images are from the first episode of the second series. I love all of the Iwate things that I have heard about that are visible in the show. Here, of course, we have the hero himself and his super power suit which has the first kanjji of the prefecture worked into the design on his breastplate. I assume that he's standing in front of Mt. Iwate (岩手山) and we get a full aerial shot of Morioka (盛岡市), which is the capital city of the prefecture.

[mediaomnivore]

Some more things I noticed in the first episode of Iron God Gunriser NEO (鉄神ガンライザーNEO) include the henshin item being an omamori (お守り), which I love. That's not a particularly Iwate-specific thing but it's cultural and cool.

The villains' lair seems to be the prefectural art museum (岩手県立美術館), which I've been to a few times. Also, the protagonist's borther is a blacksmith working in the Nanbu-tekki (南部鉄器) style of iron work that originates in the Iwate area of the country and is named for the Nanbu (南部) clan that ruled the area.

Sometimes people write Nanbu with an 'm,' like Nambu, but that feels wrong to me haha~