Live and Let Die: Liveman 32-35

Episode 32

Yeah, now this is the Liveman I know and love! Thank you, Kunio Fujii, you have redeemed yourself from the Pig School. We get some background on Yuusuke and Kemp and happier days at Academia, and we're shown that Kemp wasn't always such an evil bastard. While we're never told why Kemp's so fond of flowers, it's a rose he's bred that helps soothe a girl's ill mother. When Kemp is seriously injured in a lab experiment gone wrong, his kindness is repaid by the girl who donates the rare, pulled-from-a-comic-book blood type they share.

We get a great showdown between Yuusuke and Kemp, as Yuusuke tries to get through to Kemp, trying to find the person he used to be. It raises a lot of questions about Kemp. He's clearly the most egotistical of Bias' followers, the most evil, the biggest bastard. But he once showed kindness. And when Mazenda has shown some remaining humanity, and Obular has basically reformed, is there hope for Kemp? He continues to be an evil bastard in this episode, as he completely destroys Mai's image of him, and the rose she kept as a memento, but it does makes you wonder. Was there ever good in Kenji/Kemp? It gives the character a shade and you can debate it. I don't think he was ever really kind, I think helping Mai's mother by providing the roses just fed into his vanity, like HE was the ONLY one that could have helped. And the brief glimpses we get at a pre-Volt Kemp in a couple of later episodes make me think that even more.

BTW, I always remember this episode as being interrupted by an urgent news broadcast. While I've read that some stations reran the episode a week later, the only available copy for a long time was the one missing its final act. (It got cut off when Gash showed up to enlarge the monster, so the mecha fight and final scene were cut.) So...a fun story about the days of a pre-download fandom!

Episode 33

People like to make fun of Jun'ichi's first episode being the one where he's pregnant, but...at least that episode TRIED to have some dramatic value, and was a personal journey for Jun'ichi. This episode, Tetsuya's first focus episode, is just...forgettable. It could be the script for any other show. It certainly feels like a script for a different character, because the Tetsuya in this episode is not the Tetsuya we've seen these past few episodes. This is a kind Tetsuya who devotes a large part of his time to making a boy's insane fantasy of having a robot buddy come to life. Tetsuya cares so much that he designs a robot suit -- after the dummy is told that it's too complex to make an actual robot like Koron just so some kid he's never met and will never see after this episode has a buddy.

This always seemed to me like it was originally going to be a Jou episode, as it would fit his kind and caring nature. Also: Mazenda's plan to replace the Tetsuya-dressed-as-a-robot with a similar looking Brain Beast makes her look bad. She actually thinks Black Bison matters, and that targeting him and eliminating him would be a devastating blow for the Liveman! Isn't that cute?

Episode 34

One of Kunio Fujii's tragic star-crossed lovers stories. I like this one, and yet it just doesn't make much sense to me.

Miku, a woman from the future, has a fuzzy yet fond memory of being consoled while being lost as a kid in 1988. When Ashura butterfingers Bias' time-machine and creates a portal to the future, he meets Miku, who uses the portal as a chance to go back to 1988. Volt targets her, since it's their fault she's in the past, and Jou saves her, helping her return to the future, but not before having a fun date montage set to an Eikichi Yazawa song, because it's a Takao Nagaishi joint. Once the woman returns to the future, she realizes the guy who helped her as a kid -- all those years ago -- was actually Jou. Eh, the story could work, but there's just too many coincidences and something about the reveal and realization on Miku's part is oddly staged.

Episode 35

I consider this to be the last real kind of Liveman episode, the last one that's truly in spirit with the earlier, superior part of the show. It's another Kunio Fujii script, and he's shown he has such a great grasp on the hero-villain relations that he should have been given more power. And it's also the only episode where Tetsuya and Jun'ichi behave like they should, even if they're a little too reckless.

Yuusuke's depressed because a day he's dreaded has come around -- when they were both newwwbs at Academia, he and Kenji made a promise to one another that, no matter what, they would meet in five years to catch up on all of the great scientific discoveries they'd both make. Kenji is all smiles, joyous, enthusiastic. This is a different Kenji than the one we know as Kemp, but if you pay attention to his words, the egomaniac is there. Kenji doesn't doubt that he'll be a success, that his scientific discoveries will change the world.

The surprising thing isn't that Yuusuke honors their promise and shows up to their meeting destination, but that Kemp does. And Kemp, of course, is a complete bastard, belittling Yuusuke and their stupid promise, while proclaiming the great genius he's become at Volt. Meanwhile, Tetsuya and Jun'ichi have stalked Yuusuke, knowing he's meeting Kemp -- and they're rightfully pissed at the idea. Yuusuke wants to, in earnest, meet Kemp and try to reach his former friend. Tetsuya and Jun'ichi can't fathom why he'd want to meet up for a friendly chat with the murderer. They're mad, and they're ready to sneak an attack on Kemp. But Kemp attacks Yuusuke first, things go to shit, and it's actually a good thing Tetsuya and Jun'ichi are sneaky bastards, because they end up helping Yuusuke. See? These two don't need to be useless.

The great part about this episode, though, is that Yuusuke comes to the conclusion that Kemp is an evil piece of shit who's beyond saving and needs to die. This is why Kemp is such a great villain, such a nasty sumbitch. The hero who was his friend, who had some doubts, the one who preaches about saving every life...Kemp's so evil that it makes our hero reach his limit, to the point where he finds Kemp unconscious and actually tries to strangle him to death. Yuusuke can't bring himself to finish the job, but that's a pretty morally gray thing to have our star hero even think, let alone attempt. And think of how Liveman would be if it were made now -- Kemp would be a rubber suit and the episode would end with him dancing in the credits with the heroes.

Great lines here. (I might not get these exact.)

Kemp: "Yuusuke, you'll look down from heaven at Volt's victory."
Shortly after, when the fight turns in Yuusuke's favor...

Yuusuke: "Kemp! You'll be looking up at humanity's bright future from hell!"

The episode ends solemnly, with Yuusuke vowing to kill Kemp. And it's sad that the show chickens out of Yuusuke ever having a big, classic Red VS Hirose fight.

Also: Falcon manages to kick Kemp's ass so bad that Bias has to bail him out of the fight. This is obviously the drive for Kemp to upgrade in a couple of episodes.