I remember when I was a kid having Flashman books that had pictures of this movie's monster, The Garagos, and being like..."Who the hell is this? I've seen every Flashman episode, I have them all on tape, I've seen every episode dozens of times and I've never seen this son of a bitch before. Who is he?!"
Little Shougo didn't know that there were theatrical Sentai movies, and if he did, he probably would have loved it. I can't imagine what Kid Shougo would have thought of seeing his heroes on the big screen. But I don't imagine Kid Shougo would want to sit through Captain Tsubasa and Kinnikuman movies in order to get to Flashman's.
When Grow'd Up Shougo finally got around to seeing the Sentai movies, he was mostly disappointed by them. But Flashman's is especially disappointing. It in no way represents the quality of the show in terms of content or storytelling. Like most of the toku movies at the time, its top concern is putting on a spectacle, and even then it's not in dynamic action scenes or against-the-clock races -- it's just in showing off how slick it is, with all of its funky attacks and finishers. But, it's, like...the thin plot or the fact that it's not a good representation of the series isn't the movie's problem. No...it's that the movie has a really out of sync rhythm. Everything's just off about it -- the actors don't seem to be on the same page, the music cues are mostly off, it has a weird flow to it, the voiceovers are really mellow -- go and listen to just how casual the heroes are when taking hits! (Magu's voice is completely different than it is in the show, a bit more Peebo-like with electronic distortion.) It comes across as kind of unprepared, even amateurish seeming. It doesn't seem like a theatrical work, but more the first look via stage show or the premiere. It has a kind of sluggishness and roughness around the edges to it, like everything -- especially cast members -- just aren't quite there yet. They don't even show the henshin sequence!
I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first thing they filmed of Flashman. Flashman got a late start in production, and it's obvious that this movie was filmed early into Flashman's production. The series premiered on March 1st and this movie debuted March 15...! That's nuts! So, I can imagine that production's running late, so they just knock out this unessential Flashman adventure just to fill the slot in the Toei Manga Matsuri. And the fact that the movie is just 20 minutes long, when the movies -- even for the 20 minute shows -- tend to be at least 25, says to me that it was just a rush job. It might have been a little more polished if Flashman had premiered in February as it ordinarily would have, and they could have gotten to that first movie in due time.
So I often remember this movie as being weak or bad, but it's really just the shakiness of it. It doesn't have the Flashman charm, but it DOES have a couple of things going for it.
The plot is that Keflen's abducting numerous Earth animal lifeforms to play around with, splicing several types into one all-powerful Beast Soldier. A group of kids, who aren't allowed to have pets in their apartment building, have a makeshift zoo off in their neighborhood park. Mess targets this zoo for subjects, leaving behind only one puppy. Eventually, when the Flashman are fighting the monster, Garagos, they notice that it freaks out whenever those kids' puppy comes near it. The monster's been a pain and have bested the Flashman in all types of battle, so the Flashman see this puppy as the holy water to use against this vampire, and set out to protect the puppy. They eventually learn of the puppy belonging to those kids' "zoo," and learn from the kids that all of their other animals -- including the puppy's mother -- were taken by Mess. The Flashman realize that the mother is now a part of Garagos, and its response to the puppy is a reluctance to hurt it. Whenever the puppy is around, the monster either flees or refuses to fight, and the Flashman initially want to use the puppy for strategy. So...that's all pretty screwed up. "Come enjoy the new Flashman movie, kids. After you laugh at Kinnikuman's garlic farts, enjoy a bunch of animals being killed, with our heroes hiding behind a puppy!"
The best part of the movie, for me, is when Jin -- on his motorcycle, puppy tucked into his shirt -- is blasted by Mess' ships and both are presumed dead. After he realizes the puppy is safe, and sees how scared it is, he realizes how dumb they were to be using it, so he sends the puppy off to be taken to safety with Magu. Jin then shows up at the right moment in the battle to save the day, cool shot standing on a mountaintop, that great BGM playing. (M-6 of the FOLLOW YOU, FOLLOW ME track. What I just call "the preview music," since it's what typically plays in the background of the next episode's preview.) When Jin tells the others he handed the puppy off to Magu for safe-keeping, they're kinda like "Hey! That thing was our get-outta-ass-kicking-free card," and Jin just lays it out: "If something happened to that dog, those kids would be heartbroken. We came back to Earth to fight against things like that." So, even though this movie is really unessential and small scale, this hero moment of Jin's makes it worthwhile. Kid Shougo would have liked it, because he thought Jin was awesome.
And, at the end of the movie, the Flashman leave new animals for the kids' "zoo," telling them that these animals are orphans like the puppy now is, and to be good parents to them. That's just a sad thought, and in a way it does touch upon the Flashman theme of surrogate families. If you're an animal lover like me, this movie and message are probably easier to take. And if you're an animal lover, you'll realize that the puppy should have been credited above the titles because it's the real star of the movie, as it's taken on a wild adventure through nutty chase scenes and JAC fireballs. He probably left some presents for his handlers after this one. Toei was rough on their dog thespians in the '80s.
So, it's really not the greatest Sentai movie, not the greatest sample of Flashman and it certainly doesn't show our heroes in a good light. (Using a puppy to avoid fighting!) No wonder they decide to just splice together some episodes for the second movie. But because it's Flashman and it's a breezy run time, I still don't think it's as bad as a lot of other toku movies I can name. There's A LOT of bad toku movies out there. Flashman VS the Puppy of Power is better than Shushutto the Movie, for one. Better than Abaranger's movie. Better than Goseiger's. Basically better than any of the Sentai movies that involve saving a princess played by the gravure idol who's most popular that week. Or the Zyuohger movie -- Jesus, that was an unwatchable piece of shit.
I saw this movie for the first time in the beginning of 2001. I had started to access the internet a few months before, and I met other fans who had episodes and movies of tokusatsu in Japanese.
ReplyDeleteThrough trades I finally saw some episodes of series that I only knew through magazines, and I could see unreleased episodes of well-known series (the brazilian TV never showed the final episode of Kamen Rider Black neither the last four episodes of Spielban, for example).
The VHS tape I got had the Flashman and Maskman movies. I was very happy to see "new" material of the two series, but I was a bit disappointed at the time with the Flashman´s movie.
Surely anyone who has only this film as a Flashman´s reference will have a wrong idea about the series.
I had a similar reaction when I found out about the movies. Like "Cool! It's like finding treasure, more adventures from that show I like!" But I also didn't know what to expect from hearing "movie." I'm thinking something with more budget, something big and cool. I didn't know when I first saw these movies they were just shorts filling out a marathon.
DeleteMaskman's movie is even worse, IMO. It's really a terrible representation of Maskman, and I feel like a lot of Maskman's reputation comes from the movie for years being the only officially available Maskman work.
That's a bad deal about the final Spielban episodes! What did you make of them when you finally saw them -- were you disappointed like everyone else?
Overall the second half of Spielvan has great episodes like 24 to 26, 29, 30, 36, 37 and 39 (I really like Youki's coup d'etat attempt) mixed with a lot of generic episodes.
DeleteWhen Helen finally escapes Waller's domain, the logical thing to expect is that we will have episodes where she gets used to the new life, and Naomi Morinaga's abilities are used. But she's only has some highlight in episode 31, when she became Lady Helen for the first time, and then only in episode 43. In the others she makes almost no difference in the plot.
I always thought that instead of turning Rikki into a throne (!) it would be much more interesting to transform her into a new Hellvira. Imagine what it would be like if Lady Helen could fight against the same figure in which she was transformed?
Diana herself lost importance. After nearly being killed in episode 29 she was demoted to a simple helper. It was so vital for the series at the beggining, but it turned out to be an armored version of Sharivan´s Lili.
つづく
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DeleteDiana only came back to stand out in the infamous episode 41. I like episodes like this, in which the hero is tested in a sequence of combats. But this episode should have been in the middle of the series, and never in the final sequence.
And as much as Deathzero had become a comic relief, he deserved a farewell better than episode 42. The final fight between him and Spielban was good, but the plot was so banal...
I always thought Guillotine was more of a strategist than a warrior, so it was coherent that he tried find an alternative way to destroy Spielban. But I found this plan to turn into a spirit was somewhat bizarre.
And speaking in bizarre ... the final fight against Pandora was good, Machiko Soga shone as always. But the last scene in which Spielban, Helen and Diana return to Clin Planet doesn´t make any sense.
My theory is that some Toei executive told Yoshikawa and Uehara something like "This year's sentai, Flashman, will have an extremely sad ending. We don´t want children to be depressed watching our shows, so try to do a happy ending for Spielban. " And so it was done (but the following year Yoshikawa took revenge and tried to make Metalder the most depressing series possible...)
I feel like Spielban made some last minute changes or had budget problems and that contributed to some of what you described. I always wondered why the quick, big change with the Doctor Bio story -- did Toshimichi Takahashi have to do another show or play, so he left? Or was Morinaga doing something else? It's weird that the first half of the show is so devoted to that, but Bio is basically written out and spends the remainder of the series as a brain, while Helen is quickly handed over to the good guys. (I've wondered how planned out Helen becoming Helen Lady was; since she's given the same design as Diana Lady, that says to me it wasn't planned or the show really ran out of money.)
DeleteI bring up in a later post about how Flashman and Spielban, despite their similarities, take a different approach to their finales. But my point is more that Flashman -- with Sentai being considered "kiddier" -- has the darker finale, while Spielban has a much happier end. I don't know if Flashman would have influenced Spielban in that way, I always just assumed that Uehara knew Spielban was going to be his last Metal Hero, and so he wanted to end on a brighter note. He helped create this new franchise, he did five shows in a row -- maybe he didn't feel right giving it an unhappy end? I do wonder how much Flashman's finale might have influenced future toku finales, though. Since Fujii worked on Flashman and he was the one behind Metalder's finale...
I remember reading this post when you first wrote it for some reason, so while I was anticipating something a little off, this was interesting.
ReplyDeleteI felt like they took an unused Dynaman script, changed all the names of things to be Flashman relevant, and just shot it that way. I say Dynaman because it has that early 80s feel to it, where every episode is kind of the same vibe. Meet the kid, help them with the thing, run from the villains, do the pose, have the fight, etc. It had a very similar pacing as the shows that preceded the more sci-fi era of Sentai. I feel like the end of Dynaman was where they started going more sci-fi, then Bioman went further, etc etc.
Wasn't bad, because that was a great era too, but it did feel much different. Effects seemed less done, action was just fine, effects were passable. Those 20 minute episodes really helped Dynaman.
So what was the reason for Flashman starting March 1st? Was there a production problem of some kind? I know Sentai started in March a few times before this past year, so I just assumed Flashman was another case. You make it sound like there was a problem that forced it into March. Any insight?
Any details I've read about the delay is just vague. "A delay in Flashman's production led to Changeman's extension..." My guess was always that they maybe were a little too ambitious with Flashman and it caught up with them. Flashman starts big. If you look at the shows immediately preceding it, which most of the same staff worked for, they started small and grew bigger. Flashman really wanted to be a big production and I think they probably ran into some setbacks. There were a lot more cast members and alien worlds and mechanisms to contend with.
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