C'est La Vie: Liveman 36-40

Episode 36

Inoue returns, attempting to make Jun'ichi interesting. (Spoiler alert: he doesn't succeed.) I think this an episode 10 situation, where some higher-up was like "Jun'ichi plays rugby in the credits. Where's that in the show?" And, in typical Inoue fashion, the episode mainly focuses on an asshole guest of the week, a pal of Jun'ichi's who's bitter that he sucks at rugby, so he fakes an injury and makes life hell for everyone else on the team. (He breaks glass bottles and grinds it into the field. What an asshole! And why didn't Volt recruit him?)

Not really much to recommend this episode. Jun'ichi isn't interesting, and you don't care about the guest character because he's such an immense tool. I expect more from an Inoue script. This is along the lines of that waste of a Maskman episode he wrote about the bullied kid eating evil mushrooms and getting strong.

Episode 37

This episode is bonkers. So crazy and weird. I think a lot of that has to do with -- you've guessed it -- how out of money the show is, so it's set entirely in a weird field and beach side.

OK, it's also a weird concept. Kemp's finally powering up from his Beauty Beast form, and the process is interrupted by Megumi. As the transformation process was causing Kemp to be reborn, he emerges from his seashell cocoon with this condition -- he thinks he's 16 years old. He has no memory of anything past that, of anything to do with Volt. Megumi takes this as an opportunity to try to set Kenji/Kemp on the right path, feeding into his delusion by posing as a high-school classmate. I see that as just how desperate the Liveman are at this point, and how deadly Kemp is. It's not the greatest plan for our heroes to take, and it's something a psychiatrist would advise against -- unless he's insane like Twin Peaks' Dr. Jacoby -- but Megumi feels they have to try SOMETHING.

A big misstep with this episode is having it focus on just Megumi. All of the other Liveman are silent, watching from the sidelines, when I think Yuusuke should have had SOME involvement. Sure, he reached that point of absolutely hating Kemp in 35, but...he has no feelings seeing the possibility of setting Kenji on the path of good and decency? The earlier Liveman episodes were so good at involving all three heroes, but a lot of these later episodes -- especially once Black and Green arrive -- choose to focus exclusively on one of the heroes, and that's a shame.

Anyway, the Fear Beast form is a cool upgrade. It's yet another crazy look for Yutaka Hirose, although not as memorable or unique as the Beauty Beast form. There's just too much going on in the Fear Beast design. The worst part of it, to me, is the giant shoulder with the three red orbs, it just throws the whole thing off, IMO. But it's freaky, and Hirose makes his voice deeper -- Kemp knows he had to shed the image of the Beauty Beast and step up his game, especially since we're heading into the last act of the series.

But we find out in this episode that even as a teenager, Kemp had a helluva ego. Despite how nicely Megumi treats him, there's always this undercurrent of snobbishness and superiority to him. Even without Bias' influence, I think Kenji would have ended up being a pretty nasty person.

Episode 38

Now it's time for Mazenda's upgrade. This episode reminds me of 15, with Gash as Michael Myers, only this one goes even nuttier. The majority of the episode is Mazenda stalking Yuusuke and shooting the shit out of him and anything that surrounds him. That's it! There's a lot of cool night shooting, though, since Mazenda stalks him day and night.

There's a weird subplot about Yuusuke feigning fear and fleeing, which gets him criticized by Black Loser and Green Loserer -- like they should talk -- but it's really Yuusuke buying time while the others utilize his plans to come up with some Super Bulletproof Vests (not sold by Bandai), and hoping Mazenda runs out of ammo in the meantime.

While Kemp left behind his vanity for his latest upgrade, Mazenda discards what remains of her body -- she is shown to be mostly robotic parts and implants now, with the moniker Machine Mazenda. (I always thought it was funny how Palm Gun, which was already pretty deadly, gets upgraded into Palm Bazooka.) She's a one-woman army now!

Episode 39

Kunio Fujii's last script for the series. One more that kind of hearkens back to the themes of earlier episodes -- to quote the theme song, "teaching you the wonder of life." Here Jou befriends a kindly alien who ends up losing his life in order to protect a flower seed he possesses -- the only thing remaining from his destroyed planet. It's a nice thought, it's an earnest episode, and the show has made the case for so many forms of life, and here it's a twofer with an alien life and a plant life. The main problem is that while Jou plants the alien's seed and the episode ends with the flower beginning to bloom...Jou decided to plant it in the Rocky Terrain. That poor planet's last flower is going to be destroyed in one of the many, many tokusatsu battles that occur in the location. Bonehead move, Jou.

Episode 40

Inoue's last script for the series, and it's...Inoue just doing whatever the hell he wants. It's supposed to be a Megumi-focused episode, but he'd rather once again spotlight an asshole guest character. In this case, it's a dickish jewel thief, who paints a target on his back once he steals a jewel that Volt's after. The guy's meant to be roguish and funny and cool, but he's just irritating, and the actor REALLY thinks he's a lock for the next Sentai starring role or something, he's a cocky shit. So, you don't feel bad for him when he's targeted, you don't understand why Megumi supposedly likes him, and you don't give a shit when he turns around and helps the heroes, or reveals that he steals for the sake of unfortunate kids. He just sucks, man. The show definitely could have used some stunt casting here to make something about him bearable.