Flashman Episodes 8-9

Pivotal two-parter that introduces characters who will remain an important part of the show until the end. In this adventure, the Flashman must protect a scientist and his family once they become the target of Mess. The scientist's newly finished invention -- a time machine -- has a component which ends up interfering with Mess's latest plan, which involves a Beast Soldier that can easily slip through dimensions, and it kidnaps kids and stows them away in another dimension. (Sara and Bun are eventually caught and trapped, too.)

So, these episodes are kind of combining the monster dilemmas of episodes 6 and 7, but they're varied enough that it's not all that noticeable unless you've seen this show too many times, like me, or some asshole, like me, points it out. Not only is this monster and predicament differentiated enough, but it's not entirely the point of these episodes. The most important thing is the introduction of the Tokimura family, their history, their past and future connection to the Flashman...

Twenty years ago, as they walked one evening, Dr. Tokimura and his wife had their child abducted right before their eyes. They were hit with a mysterious beam, their child vanished, they lost consciousness and eventually woke up with altered memories and a mysterious piece of technology in hand. To be honest, I never really understood this. The Alien Hunters choose at that moment to nab the baby Tokimura; why leave the mechanism? Was it a mistake? That's pretty sloppy work for Kaura or his squad. How's this thing even left behind? Or was the mechanism left because THAT'S what causes the memory alteration/erasure? Maybe, but that's just a theory, because the show doesn't answer that...EVER.

And, Soda clearly changes the plans he had for this storyline throughout the show. In these episodes, it's strongly hinted that Dr. Tokimura remembers at least this much: that it was a boy child they had that was kidnapped. It's set up that one of the three Flashman guys is a Tokimura. But, as we know, it's not a boy that ends up being the Tokimura. This show is 32 years old, so let's just say it -- it ends up being Sara. And with Tokimura now having two other daughters, it makes sense. But that's still obviously a change of plans, and it causes a couple of hiccups in the Tokimuras storyline. (Because I think even by episode 29, it was still being indicated that the kidnapped Tokimura was a boy. So...that's a late change in plans.)

And it could have really only been Dai or Bun who was their son, anyway. Jin was three when he was kidnapped, and the show later shows us two different scenarios of him running while being chased by an Alien Hunter and in a dream of when he was kidnapped as his mom read to him. He wasn't a baby in a stroller, is what I'm saying. (I kinda think the show was going to go with Bun being the Tokimura -- the two Tokimura daughters take an instant liking to him, and the way episode 29 is presented leans pretty hard in that direction. There's also the fact that actor Yasuhiro Ishiwata gained popularity with female viewers, so I imagine they wanted to highlight him a little, before deciding to give the storyline to the already-popular singer Yoko Nakamura/Sara, and trying to play the scenario as more of a surprise twist. Also, you know that Sara's the smart one of the team, as in child-of-a-genius.)

The change of plans is not something that breaks the show, from my point of view. I know some people find the Tokimura storyline frustrating. My own brother, when I made him watch all of Flashman for the first time, his biggest gripe was "Man, they dragged out that Tokimura stuff too long." But, for me, what I found to be the strongest aspect of the Tokimuras' involvement, what I think the main intent here originally was is...it didn't matter who the REAL Tokimura was. The Tokimuras took in all of the Flashman, and the Flashman all accepted the Tokimuras as their family. And that's just a really nice, strong, meaningful, impactful sentiment. This series is filled with characters like that -- the Flashman will meet surrogate parents or siblings throughout the show (including the people of Flash, it should be noted) -- but none as strong as the Tokimuras. That one of the Flashman team is an actual Tokimura is just an added bonus.

This show doesn't make things easy for our heroes, but they try to get by. I feel like it's a little more realistic that they don't all find their family members over the course of the show. And the one family who they DO find is due to special circumstances -- if Dr. Tokimura weren't eccentric, weren't a scientist and inventor, if he weren't so intelligent, he might not have remembered the incident of the abduction and he definitely wouldn't have tried (and succeeded!) in inventing a freaking time machine as a way to solve the problem. He knows deep down what happened, and even his own family dismisses him as a kook, but he puts that alien technology he was left with to use, and that's what puts him on Mess's radar and brings him into the Flashman's lives. He's a unique person in an extraordinary circumstance. As sad as it is, maybe everyone else's parents were just ordinary folks who weren't ever able to shake the effects of the memory tampering. There's a good chance that, even if they were able to stay on Earth, that the Flashman still might not have found their families. And that's why it's so great and important that the show will involve these surrogate families. It's a worthy message to put out there, especially considering Flashman's being inspired by the news item of Japanese orphans returning from China after being abandoned during the war.

And I like that the Tokimuras accept the Flashman so easy, and that the Flashman basically helped bring the Tokimuras closer together. It's easy to imagine that Tokimura's probably neglected his family for the sake of his invention; wife Setsuko doesn't remember much about that night, but you can tell she's just worried about her husband. Daughters Kaori and Midori don't really believe him and think he's wacko. But meeting the Flashman, having them confirm Dr. Tokimura's wild tale, having them help make his invention a success, Setsuko and the kids see Tokimura in a new light, they're relieved, they respect him again. I like that last scene, filmed at night (or the very, very early morning), the Tokimura girls wishing they HAD found an answer who among the Flashman could be their sibling, with Dr. Tokimura basically right then adopting the five.

I kind of have a bit of a problem with Akira Ishihama as Dr. Tokimura, though. He's not a bad actor, he's been around for ages, and he was considered a get for the show. What I like most about his performance is that he just seems very ordinary. A lot of performers will lock onto "eccentric scientist" and turn it into a cartoon or skit character. (One example that comes immediately to mind is the inventor grandfather in Kamen Rider ZO.) Ishihama is thankfully more restrained and realistic than that, but my big problem with him is that he's just way too mellow. Like, nothing fazes the dude! He gets excited when he's flying through time, OK, but he's reallllllly chill in moments that call for tension or reaction, like when he's making hostage exchanges with Mess or getting kidnapped and beaten by Kaura later on. He'll make Tokimura seem just really at ease with or resigned to the predicament surrounding him. It's a bizarre choice. (Setsuko and the girls are good, sympathetic casting, at least. Setsuko's actress, Tamie Kubota, also played Gavan's Earthling mother -- so, she's been the mother of two toku heroes!)

Our heroes show again just how big their hearts are in these episodes, though. When Neferu kidnaps Tokimura's daughters (Kaori and Midori) and wants to make an exchange for the alien mechanism he uses for his time-machine, the Flashman urge him to make that deal, even after he points out it's the best chance to find out about their past. Later on, Sara and Ruu eventually push Tokimura to use the time-machine again, because they're happy at the idea that one of their teammates might be close to realizing that dream they all have. Nobody's petty or jealous or grumpy on this team, they're all just such nice people.

And, like I said, the Flashman never seem to me like they're phony or just TOO good and unbelievable. I'm a grumpy bastard myself, I can find those goody two-shoes heroes boring or irritating. I compared Flashman's scenario to a reverse Superman, so I'll bring him up again. I loved Superman growing up, and reached a point where I thought it was "cool" to trash him for his goodness, but realized that was silly and started liking him again, and all that he represented. A lot of what I like about Superman comes from Christopher Reeve. His Superman was the pure and decent guy from the comics, who represented justice and fairness, and it's something that could have come across as extremely artificial when you make that character living flesh, but he made him believable. (The tagline of the first Superman movie was "you'll believe a man can fly." But the more impressive special effect was Reeve making Superman feel real.) I feel like the five Flashman are similarly believable. They're not flat, they're not 1D, they're not dull. They're characters whose life was marked by tragedy, but they try to get through the best way they can, by being the best people they can.

I know some people scratch their chins over the way time-travel's handled in this show, the fact that it's even a thing in this show. It seems strange, but I think it kind of fits in well with how sci-fi Flashman is. Sci-fi was so popular in the '80s, time-travel stories were popular, the decade was really looking to the future, excited about technological possibilities. What I like about the way the time-travel is depicted in this show is that...although Tokimura says he hopes to go and get his son back, the time-traveling ends up being more like he's able to witness the past, but not interact or tamper with it, and I think that's an interesting way to play it. You're introducing this larger-than-life scenario, and it's going to provide you and the characters information, but it's not going to be a crutch used to fill plotholes. It will play deus ex time machina a couple of times, but it's not going to betray the narrative. Tokimura doesn't get the answers he's looking for here -- he makes it back to 1966, but the machine falters, returns him and needs repaired.

And I just have to add that, when I was a kid, I thought the dimensions the Beast Soldier pulled the characters into was cool and spooky. There was just something unsettling about the way Sara and Bun were RIGHT IN FRONT OF the others, but couldn't be seen or helped, just heard.

Neferu Disguise Watch: In episode 8, she's in one of her favorite disguises -- Sayoko Hagiwara rocking '80s fashion. Here, it's Sayoko Hagiwara looking like an '80s mall girl.