Live for Tomorrow: Liveman 45-49

Episodes 45 & 46

And so Ashura gets written off. In the first part, he connects his brain with his Brain Beast, Hacker Brain, and causes electronic mayhem all over Japan. After Falcon kicks his ass -- and kills the Shura Three -- Ashura accidentally hacks into some secret computer on the Brain Base, finding out a bit about Bias' secret. The one that Gou knows about. The one that Bias just let Gou run off knowing. Gou had more details, Ashura picks up a few vague words, but Bias flat out attempts to kill Ashura, blowing up the truck he and his computers are in. Why let Gou off, but kill Ashura?

Anyway, Ashura survives, and reverts back to dumb-dumb criminal Arashi. Arashi's a guy who seems to just go with the flow. Bias tried to kill him? Well, fuck him, he's his enemy now. The Liveman are trying to help him? Well, shit, I guess they're his pals now. In the second episode, Kemp's causing A LOT of mass destruction with his Brain Beast, but I really like how they bring Gou back in the episode. He rescues Jou and Arashi and takes them back to a church; Gou, in the aftermath of all that's happened, has found religion. Sakai's good as this new and improved Gou, genuinely worried once Jou goes back out into battle, and when Arashi chooses to do the same.

I like Arashi's last line to Gou. "It's a strange life we led, huh?" Arashi does things big, and he knows there's only one way to take down Kemp's seemingly indestructible monster, which absorbs whatever weapons attack it. Arashi knows it will be a fight to the death, so he takes the Brain Beast down in a suicide attack. Kemp's furious, but Arashi is victorious. His death is in keeping with the big, rebellious, independent man he was.

Episode 47

Mazenda's send-off. While I like most of this episode, her plan in this one's a bit strange. It's an excuse to bring back old monster suits, but since Liveman already resurrected monsters back in episode 25, Mazenda's plan here is to create a dream realm where just the IMAGES of past monsters can wreak havoc. Eh, it's a weird plan, and it's almost funny that Bias is so desperate to award anyone the 1,000 points that he's handing out points over nothing. "Mazenda went with the fish filet at McDonald's instead of the Big Mac! 100 points!" "Mazenda saved Toei a couple hundred bucks by bringing back old suits. 500 points!" "The show is almost over. 1,000 points!"

What really matters in this episode is Mazenda obtaining the score and Bias sending Gash after her to remove her brain. Throughout the episode, Gou has warned her, but she wouldn't listen...until it was too late. Gash, as always, is an unstoppable mutha, who easily takes down the Liveman, Koron, Gou -- anyone in his way -- to get to Mazenda. When she's finally cornered -- her option is decapitation by Gash's blade or plummet to her death from a cliff -- she ensures that Bias won't get her brain by completing her cybernetic transformation, completely turning her body machine and becoming Robo Mazenda. It's a bold move, a last desperate act but an awesome middle finger to Bias. Gash just walks right away once she does it. She says a few regrets to Gou before she jumps to her death, exploding.

Mazenda always seemed to me like she was cold, but had a strong sense of pride. She wasn't quite as soulless as Kemp, but I think she was close to him in cruelty and villainy. I like characters with shades of gray, but her last minute death speech didn't seem honest to the character. It's one of the many things in keeping with my whole "Liveman was softened by execs" theory. Could have been worse, though -- she could have survived and started hanging out at the Grand Tortoise, dancing with the Liveman in the ending credits.

The final scene of this episode is a highlight, another great Kemp moment. Once he witnesses Mazenda's death from aboard the Brain Base, he seems teary-eyed. He's hunched over, seeming to be crying. Does Kemp feel for anyone other than himself? Is there more to Kenji than meets the eye? Who knows, because the sobs slowly become laughs and he stands and just laughs his ass off, realizing he's going to win it all, after all. It's such a scary display that it freaks out even Bias, and Gash jumps before Bias, gun drawn towards Kemp.

It's this moment where I realized that Kemp should have become the main villain of the series. He's so much more evil than Bias, so much more confident and gleeful in his evildoings. I can easily picture a scenario where he reached a point where he saw himself superior to Bias and killed him and took over. Kemp is the one that set the series in motion, he's the ex-friend and big foe of our Red, so he should have been treated as a HUGE deal, and how huger can you make it than him ending up as the final villain? Yeah, well, Liveman goes the small, cheap, lousy route.

Episode 48

The title of this one should be "How to Chicken Out and Ruin One of Your Villains and Write Them Off in a Stupidly Unremarkable Way." Hey, that title isn't too long. Ever see some of the episode titles for Japanese cop shows?

This is the one where Kemp bites it. And it starts out promisingly enough, with that vicious bastard staging his own defection from Volt, complete with a phony attack, to lure in the Liveman, who are so inexplicably gullible lately. Kemp succeeds and gets the best of them, and it's at that moment that Bias decides he won this week's Hey! Spring of Trivia and grants him the 1,000 point Melon Brain Bread.

Bias learned from the Mazenda mess, though. No sending Gash with a rusty blade to collect the brain, now. Gash appears with a giant orb that he places over Kemp's noggin, cleanly sucking his brain out. It's not clear, but I assume that Kemp's own brain is replaced by Gash with one of the artificial brains that are regularly used to create Brain Beasts, as Kemp soon after becomes a Brain Beast, the Fear Brain Beast. An incredible letdown to have such an important character, a character who I think should have been the show's final villain, to become just a plain, old ordinary monster of the week. Such a mistake, such a frustrating letdown.

Worst of all? Is Yuusuke involved? Is Yuusuke there for a final fight with his former friend, the one he vowed to kill in episode 35? Is Yuusuke there so we at least get the chance for a classic Kazuo Niibori VS Red's big rival duel? NO! Yuusuke decides to follow Gash and board the spaceship he arrived in, so he can be taken to the Brainbase, while leaving the other four to handle Fear Beast Brain. What...the...fuuuuuuuuuu...WHAT, NO, ARGH!?!? God, what a blunder. I literally just got a headache in frustration just thinking about it. (It's especially sucky to deny us a classic Niibori battle after episodes 32 and 35 teased us with Falcon VS Kemp showdowns that abruptly ended.)

Once Bias obtains Kemp's brain from Gash, he hooks up to his big Edward Nygma devices and unveils his big plan -- to brainwash Earth to worship him. Literally. I don't know if he had any plans beyond that, but his biggest kick is to make everyone drop what they're doing, bow and pray in his name. Thankfully Yuusuke made the decision to deny us a cool showdown with Kemp, otherwise Earth would be screwed, because the four Liveman even fall under Bias' spell. (Koron does her best to snap them out of it, but is on the verge of being tossed over a cliff by the four Liveman before Yuusuke interferes with Bias' attack aboard the Brainbase. So, really, everyone on Earth owes Yuusuke a thanks for being saved.)

Once the Liveman team have snapped out of it, they join Koron in Super Live Robo and kill Fear Beast Brain. Koron is in Falcon's seat. So, not only are we denied a final confrontation between Red and Kemp, but it's almost like the show's giving us the finger by having Koron in Red's position, while Red's off pissing around the Brainbase.

Once Falcon's made his way to Bias' secret Nygmatech room, he pretty much immediately stabs Bias with the Falcon Saber. While it would be out of character for Bias to throw down with any action moves, it's hard not to think of the great fight Jouji Nakata had with Niibori in Flashman, so for Falcon to literally walk into a room, introduce himself and deal Bias a fatal blow, all quick and casually, seems underwhelming.  

However, luckily for Bias, all of the brains he's collected from past followers serves one crucial purpose -- he somehow, through his evil science, uses these brains to heal himself and remain youthful. Here he goes full out and uses the brain to revert himself to the age of a child. This is Bias' big secret -- he's really a man of advanced years, who manipulates his followers/students until he can make use of them. Namely, until they reach a point -- the 1,000 points, actually -- where their brains are cooked enough so that he can drink 'em up and stay young. Bias, Volt -- it's all pretty much a sham. He uses his students for his own end. This all picks up in...

Episode 49

The final episode. Bias is now a kid, Yuusuke is now a prisoner at the Brainbase. Let me go off on a tangent here. Bias is a kid, standing in his secret room, surrounded by a bunch of brains he's collected and stored in plastic hamster balls. Let's dumb this down like this: Bias steals brains to stay young. This is all out of some bad B-Movie from the 1950s. And it definitely doesn't help that Liveman's just out of money at this point. Toei's not putting anything into the finale, it's set at the Brainbase and the rocky terrain. The brains are rubber little pieces of chicken. And throughout these final two episodes, Bias shrinks Kemp's brain, carrying it around in a small ball and uses it as a catch-all weapon. Yeah!

Now, when Liveman started, it obviously kept the vibe Maskman had, of evoking more of a drama. Liveman started out wanting to be similarly grounded, serious. (The Maskman through Turboranger run has been listed as the "youth drama" Sentai series in some of the modern Sentai books.) And certainly the casting of Daisuke Shima and Megumi Mori was meant to draw in average viewers, the non-toku fans. Look at those first few Liveman episodes and see just how different they are; in terms of content and drama and just how high it was aiming.

It was the first Sentai show -- one of the rare toku shows, period -- where the villains were actually HUMAN. Not only humans, but former friends and classmates of the heroes. Things felt so real, intimate, personal in those episodes. Our three heroes lost their friends, colleagues, mentors -- the odds were against them, but they used their knowledge to fight against Volt's knowledge. As I said, Bias and Volt were played more like a cult. Bias was mysterious, quiet, but intimidating. He was charismatic, but dark. You didn't know his story, what his agenda was, but...you know damn well it wasn't stealing brains to stay young.

I can see where writer Hirohisa Soda was going with this decision, though. He wants to tie the show's life theme into the main villain's ultimate goal. If our heroes of life are teaching you how wonderful it is to be alive, it's something Bias already knows -- he's afraid to die, he wants immortality, even if it's at the cost of other people's lives. I think that's a good motive for our villain, and I even like the idea.

But if you're meant to sympathize with Bias, because all he wants to do is live, then his B-Movie brain-stealing plot wasn't the way to convey that storyline. Because you can understand that motive, but the show goes about it in such an over-the-top, intangible way. And we needed more background on Bias, who he was prior to the mad scientist/cult leader, to try and truly understand where he was coming from. In this case, the show was just too mysterious with Bias.

But I like that it's Megumi, the brains of our team, who's given the episode's important speech, in which she tries to convince child Bias to make a clean start, and live out one last regular life and atone for his actions. But that's cutting Bias A LOT of slack. Everything we've seen him -- and his officers, under his orders -- do throughout the series, he's obviously done a dozen times over. He has A LOT of blood on his hands, and the Liveman are too damn easygoing to offer him this shot at freedom. There's a fine line between our heroes being compassionate and understanding and them just being chumps.

You can see that Bias actually considers it, but he fights it. But it's too late, because Megumi's words have been heard by...Kemp's brain, the one Bias has been carrying around. Now, double-bullshit on this development, since we know Kemp's a bastard, I'd argue a bigger bastard than Bias. But, no, Kemp's all like "Yeah! I regret how I lived! I want to live again!" And not only does Kemp's brain have this reaction, but all of the other brains in Bias' collection -- made up of presumably people as vile as Kemp -- rebel, too, wanting to live again. This ends up robbing Bias of the power he obtained from his brain collection, and he rapidly ages -- to his true age. And the show's so low on money at this point that the make-up just looks like someone pushed Nakata's face in a bowl of oatmeal.

The episode *tries* to give us an EPIC FINALE SHOWDOWN between Falcon and Gash. I emphasized tries, because it's just kind of generic, some quick swordplay. Besides, Falcon just chops an arm off and lets Gash escape with Bias back to the Brainbase, because Falcon decides to go and help the others fight the latest Brain Beast, who doesn't even have a theme or anything to set him apart. It's such an afterthought, and makes for an underwhelming finale for the Liveman to be dealing with this non-descript, forgettable Brain Beast while the last two regular villains are limping to their escape. Since the Brainbase was damaged in an earlier battle, Bias and Gash die aboard the ship once they try to take off in it, completely separate and unrelated from what the heroes are up to!

When the Brainbase explodes, it sends Gash's severed head to where our heroes are standing, and it begins playing clips from the series. (I'm sure Tetsuya and Jun'ichi liked watching their siblings get killed.) It's the norm in Sentai finales to play lighthearted or fun clips in the credits of the finale, but Liveman plays clips entirely of the villains. It's so damn strange. We then see Gash's head sink into the earth, while the heroes rejoice that the world has been saved from Volt. Sidebar: when Boukenger was airing, I had a dream scenario of them finding Gash's head, and it being a Precious. (Hey, if Gash recorded everything Volt did, his head holds a lot of dangerous material that the Negatives would like!)

It's a very weird, very cheap, very unfulfilling finale, to a show that had such an amazing, unique, grand start to it. Liveman went from having one of the best premieres in toku history to one of the weakest finales. It started with a roar and went out with a whimper.
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Despite how frustrating it becomes, there's still a lot of good in Liveman, and you can see where it wanted to go, what it wanted to be. A big, big problem is the show not getting the money it needed, it really limits things -- locations, talent, plotlines. And I don't know if it's in relation to the possibility that execs wanted to soften the show, but Hirohisa Soda really seemed to start pulling punches with the storyline. The strongest episodes in the second half of the series are the ones written by Kunio Fujii -- he had a stronger grasp on the heroes' relationships with the villains. Did Soda sugarcoat his initial intentions? How did Fujii slips these strong, no-holds-barred episodes past Toei, if they indeed wanted to lighten the show? The production mysteries of a 30-year-old show.

Even if it stumbled, Liveman is an important show to the franchise, one that set the bar higher, one that works on different levels and one that I think has been misunderstood and mistreated by modern fans. It's still one of my favorites, and I actually enjoyed it a lot on this latest rewatch. I was so glad to feel some of my old love for Liveman again. (Would you believe that I once considered Liveman my top favorite Sentai? And this was after Flashman was my top favorite as a kid. Shhhhhh.)

Choose Life: Liveman 41-44

Episode 41

The return of Gou! I always wondered how Soda chose to bring him back in this fashion. Jou bumps into Gou outside of a hospital. Gou still has amnesia, and in this episode, he's hit by a beam of the Brain Beast's and turns invisible. Whether it's accidental or if Gou was targeted to become invisible, it's not really clear, so it's weird to me.

But the attack ends up causing Gou's memory to return, which pisses Bias off and leads him to order all of his subordinates to kill Gou at any cost. So it becomes a chase to kill Gou, and once the Liveman have him in a safe spot, Gou reveals that, in his early days in Volt, he once saw Bias up to some strange experiment in a secluded room. He doesn't quite know what Bias was up to, but Bias was pissed to see him spying, so it's obviously the reason he wants him dead now.

I suppose Bias was fine with Gou seeing this, since Gou needed him and he was a devoted member of Volt and Bias. And I suppose Bias let him off the hook once he lost his memories. I think that's interesting and unpredictable for a villain to do, but...I'm not sure if I buy it from Bias. Bias, in the earlier episodes, is a character of such mystery, creepiness and viciousness, that I think he would have totally killed Gou to keep his secret. This latter day Bias is different, and he ends up becoming a B-Movie villain, but more on that as it develops.

Episode 42

This is actually a pretty cool idea for an episode -- Bias uses mind control to manipulate Tetsuya in order to have him and a Brain Beast plant bombs at the Grand Tortoise. The problem, of course, is Seirou Yamaguchi's weak performance. He makes some seriously goofy faces as Tetsuya's supposed to struggle, pulling himself away from Bias' mind control. But that's such a great moment, IMO, when he's cornered Yuusuke with a gun, ready to shoot him. The others get through to him by bringing up Takuji -- asking if he's ready to take a life like Takuji's was taken, by the same method Takuji's was taken. That was a great touch.

And I think it's funny that the Brain Beast of the week WASN'T killed by BiMotion Buster in this episode, but by being ejected at mach speeds from the Grand Tortoise.

Episode 43

While Gildos is the less offensive of the two ass-clowns who don't fit with Volt -- I'd say Gildos and Butchy are the Black Bison and Green Sai of Volt, but I think they might be even worse and more detrimental to the show than Tetsuya and Jun'ichi -- he's not interesting enough to get his own send-off episode. Just have him and Butchy die unceremoniously off-screen like Okerampa or something.

Speaking of Jun'ichi, this is a great one-two punch of stink -- a Gildos episode AND a Jun'ichi episode. When Gildos creates a monster that can't be defeated and constantly revives, Jun'ichi looks like a chump in the eyes of the injured kid he's trying to help back to health. The kid is a real asshole -- seriously, where do the Liveman find these assholes? You almost feel bad for Jun'ichi for trying so hard to prove himself to this kid, taking a lot of beatings, but then you remember it's Jun'ichi.

Episode 44

HATE this episode. I hate it SO much. It's definitely my least favorite Liveman episode -- yes, lower than Pig School -- and it's stupid and it unfortunately makes Megumi look stupid. After learning his buddy Gildos was just a robot created by Bias, Butchy gets depressed and goes on a rampage with his latest forgettable monster. Megumi feels bad for him and makes friends with him, getting nostalgic for her -- and our -- first encounter with Butchy, the lousy episode 22. WHY!?!? Butchy was a jerk, Butchy continued to be a jerk. Why does she feel bad for him? Why does she bond with him over her own song? Why does she miss him when he dies and fantasize about how she could have played and danced with him on the beach?

This episode's obviously meant to be the cool-down/lighthearted romp before all the shit goes down in the final stretch, but this episode is just moronic, doesn't work, and doesn't remember its characters. It's a waste.

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.

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.

Wishful Casting: Liveman, The Other Two Edition

I've written before about how I find Tetsuya/Black Bison and Jun'ichi/Green Sai to be a weak spot of Liveman. What should have been really cool characters that tied themes of the show together and added new layers of drama ended up being two pointless idjits played by bad actors. (Seirou Yamaguchi bellows and garbles his lines so badly he should have been in Kamen Rider Blade.)

I've kicked around the idea for a while of a "Wishful Casting" post for these two, but it's kind of turned into "Shougo's Fan Fic'ing Retcon of Liveman's Other Two."

I'll start by saying this: Tetsuya and Jun'ichi are obviously supposed to be younger than the Liveman. Not, like, KIDS, but younger than Takuji and Mari, who were Liveman's age. Despite what ages the actors claim to have been, Tetsuya's actor looks older than the rest of the cast. (We were introduced to Takuji's brother, Takeshi, in an early episode, and he was about 10! Where's Tetsuya fit in?) Jun'ichi looks about the same age as Mari's actress. (OK, here's the facts: Tetsuya's actor was 21, which made him as old as Jou's actor and OLDER than Megumi.)

Now, the ages of my casting choices might be a little too young for most, but I think, under the right circumstances, they could have worked.

For Tetsuya/Black Bison, I would cast Hidenori Iura (Goggle V's Tatsuya; Bioman's Shuuichi & Prince; Solbrain's Jun). Iura would have been about 19 at the time of Liveman. I think he's a good performer, and pretty likable, and he showed in his performance in Bioman a frustration and temper that would have worked for Tetsuya, and he showed a swift, tough heroism in Solbrain. You'd buy a hotheaded, fists-first-questions-later Tetsuya not only from a better performer, but from someone a little younger and impulsive. (Iura kind of reminds me of a cross between Hiroshi Watari and Kenta Satou.)

I always thought Green Sai should have been Mari's little sister. So, I'll call her Junko Aikawa, and for that role, I would cast Tokie Shibata. I know people will think I'm uncreative in just picking someone from my Changeman, and she's made other casting lists of mine before, but I went through a lot of age-appropriate actresses and really think she's the best choice. She could hold the same rage and want of revenge as Tetsuya, but I think Shibata's proven that she could also nail the tragedy of the situation and convey a lot of sadness for her fallen sister. As she proved with her character Nana in Changeman, Shibata can generate a great amount of sympathy. And as important as Nana was to Changeman, Shibata was only in, I think, eight episodes. It's a shockingly low number of appearances, but Shibata made an impressive impact, and I always thought she needed a regular tokusatsu appearance to cement her status in tokusatsu history. (Even though Iura appeared in just as little of Bioman, he at least was a regular character in Goggle V and Solbrain.) Green Sai suit actor Shoji Hachisuka played a lot of heroines, so Sai already has a pretty feminine look.

What I also liked about picking Iura and Shibata is that it's a Bioman reunion. Shibata guest-starred on two fan favorite episodes of Bioman as the android Miki, who Iura's character befriended, and who met a tragic end. I think these two would have added a nice little anniversary bonus to the hero side of Liveman that the villain side does. (Volt being a little Flashman reunion, with Kaura, his sidekick Gardan and Wanda.) It's obvious that Daisuke Shima and Megumi Mori ate up a lot of the show's money, which is why we got two awful nobodies as Tetsuya and Jun'ichi, but I don't think Iura and Shibata would have exactly bankrupted them.

And, yes, the first order of business once Green Sai is made female is to eliminate the pregnancy episode, which would go from silly-with-a-male-character to creepy-with-a-female. (It's absurd and hilarious how over-the-top people react to that episode. It's a stupid episode! Such a stupid episode, but it's the one thing people who hate Liveman cling to. It was a silly plot without the anti-abortion message people warp it into being -- the point was newbie team member Jun'ichi feeling for the life of a monster, and sort of reteaching the old-timers that lesson. It wasn't some "message," and while it was a dumb episode, it wasn't franchise-destroying like G3 Princesses or something like that.)

*sigh* Just another case of having to imagine this kind of casting to improve a sadly detrimental hole in an otherwise great series.

Life Stinks: Liveman 28-31

Ugh. These two.

Episodes 28, 29, 30

*sighs*

Each time I rewatch Liveman, I promise myself to keep an open mind about Black Dumb and Green Dumber. But they still just suck and are such a waste of a great idea. We know they weren't planned from the beginning, but they're a great idea for what's essentially an afterthought. The siblings of Liveman's dead friends becoming new heroes -- that's an amazing idea! There are so many, many potential stories to go there, and Liveman was at a point when it needed its idea-engine goosed.

There are many factors for why the Two Newbs don't work. The biggest problem is the terrible casting, but that's not all. The writing's not there for them. The cheap make-under the show's been enduring really doesn't help, and it makes no sense to bring on two more regulars when your budget's falling. (No wonder they ended up with two shitty newb actors -- they had to be cheap!)

And Liveman aired at a time when certain risks just weren't taken -- you can imagine Takuji and Mari's siblings becoming heroes and being their own two-man team separate from Liveman, out for revenge, before the Liveman change their mind. That could have been an arc lasting several episodes. But a toku in 1988 just wasn't going to take such a severe route. They just really wanted to get to the status quo, which is bring in the new guys and their toys, make 'em five and act like that's always been the case. So many missed opportunities. (And I still blame lackluster writing on the casting. If they had good performers, maybe that would have inspired better storylines.)

When I picture in my head what Takuji and Mari's siblings as new heroes could have meant for the show, I get so mad, man. It certainly should have caused a bigger splash than it did. It's just no big deal to the characters, to the show, to the fandom. The big scene when the five transform and fight for the first time -- besides creating a meme out of Kemp's "There's five Liveman members!" line -- is handled in such an underwhelming fashion. It's like...Toei demanded the addition of two more heroes, to get to the status quo and to be able to have more merchandising. Someone -- most likely Soda -- had the brilliant idea to make the two new heroes the siblings, but they didn't think beyond that. Other than Tetsuya having a shit-fit for a minute, neither seems all that angry at Kemp here, and Kemp has zero reaction to facing the family members of people he killed. So, there's no real drama or tension there.

And to top it all off, this three-parter about the Giga Plan, which is...just Volt getting an ugly mecha. Bias watched some Bioman reruns and decided Volt needed a mecha, so he builds the Giga Volt, which was doomed from the start because it couldn't move because he gave it platform boots like some glam rock star, which ensured that Giga Volt couldn't move beyond the shitty dirt mountain where the entire three-parter was inexplicably filmed.

And what really pisses me off about this three-parter? We take an instant hatred to Tetsuya and Jun'ichi, their bad acting, their bad attitudes. When the two dumb-dumbs continue to ignore the Liveman's advice, they blow out the Live Boxer, and they need to endanger Koron in order to get it to function again. We've spent most of the show with Koron. She's a weird Moonwalking robot, but she's proven herself. She's awesome. We like her. Yuusuke just learned to like her. And she's awesome again, offering to harm herself to help these two new assholes we hate. And they're completely ungrateful, like they deserve Koron's sacrifice. There's a moment where she's exploding and crying out and Jun'ichi whines for her to keep going and it's just like...shut up, Jun'ichi. I think the wrong Aikawa died.

Look. I know I've bitched about these two a lot. And it would be one thing if they were just bland or not used to their full potential. But between the casting and the way they're written in their introductory episodes, you just immediately hate them. They're aggressively unlikable. And to top it all off, they throw off the chemistry of the main three, which was one of the show's strongest elements. (Daisuke Shima's even hinted at the main three not liking that two new cast members were brought on and screwed with their dynamic.)

Episode 31

The infamous one with pregnant Green. The one that people react to with mock outrage: "How dare a kids toy commercial preach anti-abortion!" Look, it was just a stupid episode with a gimmick that was meant to be weird. I don't think it had a "message," and I think Hirohisa Soda's smarter than to try to pass off a heavy message in such a goofy episode. Jun'ichi's the new kid and he gets his experience of learning the value of life, in this case, a kid monster's life.

I think the episode is more about a male learning how to feel maternal love, something presented as initially awkward and uncomfortable, but he gives in to his emotions and ends up feeling for Bega Baby and crying when it dies. As goofy as this episode is, I like Jun'ichi in this episode, and even think actor Jin Kawamoto gives a good performance. It's just sad that it's all done in such a goofy way and that its intentions have been misconstrued by non-Japanese viewers who are looking at it with foreign eyes, decades after the fact. I think a better approach to this episode would have been something like Flashman's 11th episode, when the monster of the week hatches and imprints on Ruu. If a monster had just hatched and thought Jun'ichi was its mother upon laying eyes on him -- taking out the absurd pregnancy stuff -- I don't think this episode would have the reputation it does.

I also just have to say quickly that I like the final fight in this episode, with Sai flying all around. It's crazy and weird.

Live at Budokan: Liveman 22-27

Episode 22

The debut of the unfunny, supposedly cute pig guy who joins the villains and just sucks. His sidekick, the green guy who just sucks joined a couple of episodes ago, but had the good fortune of debuting in good episodes where his appearance was brief. Here, the stupid pig guy -- Butchy -- hogs an entire episode with a lousy premise that's just an excuse to debut Megumi Mori's freshly recorded song "Spark! Umi e." (It's a great song, but a weak episode, man.)

Butchy's using bad, slow singing to put people to sleep. Falcon and Lion fall victim to this, but Megumi fights it by...hearing a girl playing what ends up being Dolphin's song in a school, miles away! For some reason -- the power of Columbia records -- "Spark! Umi e" is the ONLY thing that can combat Butchy's attack! The worst part is Megumi approaching Butchy and the monster, playing the song on a keytar, and when she can't continue (she's injured), the day is fucked! And then...the girl from the school plays a toy piano, miles away, that cuts through and saves the world!

It's a dumb episode. We got this flimsy plot that ended up being used on Go-onger, we got the debut of a terrible new villain who doesn't belong at all, and we got the shoehorned debut of some new toys -- Falcon Saber and Lion Bazooka, introduced without fanfare. It's always been obvious to me that some higher-up at TV-Asahi or Toei sent down some orders to lighten Liveman up and throw some new toys at it. There's never been any confirmation of that -- BTS details about Liveman are surprisingly scarce, people are tight-lipped about it -- but it's just obvious. The proof's right there in the show's decline, and the way it chicken-shits out of its own premise. More on that as it develops, though.

Episode 23

A nice apology for 22. A great episode, the classic episode referenced in Gaoranger VS Super Sentai. Any older Sentai episode with a Red in a sword-fight -- giving Kazuo Niibori a chance to shine -- is a good one. But there's more good to this episode than that...

I see this episode as Yuusuke's turning point, when he takes a turn from sarcastic punk to a real leader. And while Koron has always been there for the team and has bailed them out of a few hairy situations and the show has made a case that Kolon is an equal comrade, we learn in this episode that Yuusuke still sees her as a machine. When she wants to have some fun while he patrols, she pisses him off. When Sword Brain and Kemp kick his ass, her advice pisses him off. He gets fed up with her -- dismissing Koron and her advice because she knows nothin' 'cause she's a machine. So Yuusuke shuns her and trains himself...

And when Yuusuke gets distracted by trying to take Sword Brain on again and freeing a kidnapped Megumi, he's oblivious to Kemp's sneak attack. Who saves him from certain death? Koron. And in that moment, he realizes her importance, what she means to him, and that she's more than just a machine. (I kinda always wished they'd point out how the late Doctor Hoshi made her, and in a way he lives on through her, but I guess that's just implied.) And then Falcon kicks ass and finally shows Koron the attention and respect she deserves.

This would have been the ideal episode to debut the Falcon Saber in. It's a sword battle episode, not to mention Sword Brain breaks the Falcon Sword. Why Falcon Saber debuted out of nowhere, pointlessly in the previous episode is a mystery.

Episode 24

A stinky, stinky stinkfest written by the usually dependable Kunio Fujii. C'mon, Fujii! You're better than this!

This episode is usually my go-to example for when a once-excellent show just hits a low of such unimaginative depths. I'll be like "Oh, this episode is this show's pig-school episode." Liveman's the show that made me realize that all of a toku's worst or weakest episodes can be found in the 20s.

Continuing the trend of executives seemingly wanting to soften Liveman, this episode is the show's way of weaseling out of the "fuck studying, enjoy life" message of episodes 19 - 21 by having Yuusuke preach to a kid to stay in school and eat his greens! Initially, the episode is instead trying to convey the message that, hey, while the Kid Guest Star of the Week isn't good in his school subjects, he IS good and passionate about his hobbies, and that's just as valid. That's kind of a surprising message, but the episode soon backpedals by having Yuusuke tell him to "get good at school stuff, too!"

The story surrounding this is Mazenda's plan of offering kids studying shortcuts, which ends up turning them into pig people in the end. Whatever jollies she got out of this plan is lost on me, because...it's just goofy. Not as dumb as karaoke'ing people to sleep like Butchy, but...dumb for an organization that considers themselves super geniuses.

Episodes 25 & 26

You want to know how low Liveman's budget is being cut? These two episodes set in the boonies are considered their big vacation episodes. The first episode is a ho-hum episode where Yellow Lion ends up teaching a kid to find his courage, as the Brain Beast revives dead monsters. The second sees the kid returning with another kid pal and at least gets back to Liveman's life theme. We all know how the Japanese kids love their beetle collecting in the summer, so this is a summer episode that I see as playing into that. Some beetles are enlarged as a side-effect of Volt's nearby experiments, and the beetles go on to help the kids, which really grosses them out, but they -- and the Liveman -- come to appreciate their help and sacrifice. I think the drab locations hurt these episodes.

Episode 27

The Volt have been talking about the "Giga Plan" for a few episodes now, and this one's going to be kicking that off. Bad news, man.

Liveman's budget cuts continue, as this episode takes place entirely at a rocky terrain and the big guest star is Yumeno from Dynaman, here playing Megumi's dad. OK. Early Liveman would film at real locations -- and varying locations. But the show reaches a point where they're nearly ALWAYS outside and always at an eyesore of a forest or rocky terrain. And if they ARE indoors, it's obviously a set. And the show barely has guest stars! And look, when it does, it's gotdamn Yumeno! You know that guy works for five yen and some sake.

The show also just gets this grimy look to it, like they're filming on a lesser film stock. Everything just ends up making the show seem cheaper, dirtier, smaller -- everything's so insular, just being reduced to the Liveman. And when the show's neutered as its been, when the CORE premise is gutted and it's no longer about the friends and the betrayal but just often Generic Villain Plan 101, it just makes the show seem small-scale. And not in a good way, like it's small-scale and character driven. In a way that's just sparse.

It's an interesting idea to bring in one of the hero's parents. It's a good idea to bring in Megumi's, because she's been having bad luck with her own episodes, and she's the brains of the team, so it would be nice to get a peek into her private life and where she comes from. But, no...the cheapness of the show makes Megumi's dad look like some insane mountain-dweller who they just stumble upon, and he takes it upon himself to get in on some action. Oh, and while he's just happened to run into Megumi, he's got some potential husband candidates for her, too! It's just done in such a bogus, inorganic way. The only noteworthy part is this: Megumi seems kind of distant from her father, yet cherished his teaching her archery, so that's a nice part of the episode. Also, the episode mentions the Liveman severing ties with their families while they're Liveman, which is interesting.