Sorry, what was I saying?
Red Baron. No, not Richthofen, this is the Japanese one. Whilst both are capable of flight and feats of daring do, this one happens to be a giant robot. There are a few reasons to pick up this particular series. Firstly of course there's the simple fact that you either love tokusatsu or you hate freedom, but I must confess that there were 2 major contributions to my initial decision to purchase this: That I could and that it was cheap.
It's a sad fact that the tokusatsu market is rather underrepresented outside of Japan. despite the huge wealth of shows there simply doesn't seem to be anyone releasing them with the all important english subtitles. The few shows that have been released seem to go out of print quite quickly and rapidly become very expensive and hard to find. So it's good that someone seems to have picked up Iron King and Red Baron again and re released them. Unfortunately this release does seem to be lacking some of the bells and whistles, lacking the booklet of the original release. Going by what was included with original Iron King boxset this is rather disappointing. It would be nice to get some background, production detail or stories from the cast. But we do at least get the show itself. So, whats it like?
Well, it's a 70's tokusatsu production for young boys about giant robots. If you have a problem with this sort of thing then you're not my friend, go away. If you enjoy that sort of thing you may well find something to enjoy here. The plot, such as it is, is rather designed to serve the ultimate purpose of having large metal men punch each other on a weekly basis. To start with Professor Deviler of the evil Iron Alliance steals all the worlds giant robots. All except one. The good one. That would be the one in the title. It's incredible to see just how awesome a world would be if every country on earth was compelled to built a giant robot for some reason. That's 70's futurism for you. Of course it's perfectly reasonable for the Spanish to build a giant bullfighter. What else would they do?
Anyway, the series continues in this way for quite a while, and I confess it did seem to lag a bit towards the middle. Sure, the effects were well done, the designs were imaginative. There was an interesting variety to the plot and tone ranging from noir as fuck to comedic to hallucinatory trippyness. But after a while it did seem to tire a little. And then things suddenly turned epic. Halfway through they suddenly kill off half the cast, including the bad guy! That really made me sit up and take notice again. The stakes were raised, the show was refreshed and we suddenly found our way hurtling towards the epic conclusion in space! It's interesting to see that the production staff were aware of how the show was going, and were not afraid to shake things up a little, or even a lot. It's at times like this though that the lack of extras really bites, as I'm really intrigued to know what was going on in the office around that time.
But aside from all the usual devices that keep you watching, there was one other point of great excitement for me over the course of the series, one that I feel I must address. They say a picture is worth a thousand words...
The word is pantsu.
Now don't get me wrong, there is a lot more to the character than her compellingly short garment. As strong female characters go in kids shows from the 70's she's pretty good. She kicks ass and doesn't manage to captured or mind controlled more than anyone else. When she gets ignored for being a girl it usually turns out she's right. Not a sappy dumb stay at home screamer by means.
But goddamn, that skirt is not long. Seriously, if you ever wonder if you're turning gay watch a few episodes of Red Baron. It's a good test.
Anyway, in some sort of summation then: We have a good solid show, with some fair degree of imagination. They never skimp on the excitement or explosives, but still manage to cram a bit of human drama in with the giant robot action. I can't honestly say it manages to scale the dizzy heights of Ultraman, but it's not afraid to try. Should anyone ever make a show that combine the greatness of Ultraman with the shortness of Mari's skirt I will die a happy man, possibly immediately as I suffer an anime scale nosebleed.
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