Original Toei Manga Matsuri 1989 Poster
On July 15th 1989, Toei opened their second film festival of the year, called the "Toei Manga Matsuri", in theaters nationwide. This quadruple-feature event included over two hours of content and had a summer theme. This Manga Matsuri was most notable for including the first theatrical adaptation of the hit anime series Dragon Ball Z, which we know in the States as Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone but was called Dragon Ball Z: Give Me Back My Gohan! in Japan (although the original theatrical version did not have a subtitle). The other attractions included the first film based on the horror comedy series Akuma-kun and the second film based on the magical girl series Himitsu no Akko-chan: The Ocean! The Monsters! The Summer Festival! The only live-action production that ran during this film festival was the theatrical adventure of that year's Metal Hero series: Kidou Keiji Jiban. I saw all four movies just recently because I wanted to "recreate" that festival for my own personal pleasure after I recently bought the first 5 Dragon Ball Z movies recently on DVD. However, since this is a toku blog, I will only be reviewing the Jiban movie on here. So hit the jump to find out what I thought about it, and feel free to look at the pretty pictures!
Mmm, dat title card
This film didn't originally have a subtitle either, but it does also go by the name Kidou Keiji Jiban The Movie: Great Explosion at the Monster Factory of Fear! and, like most Toei features of its time, runs for a scant 25 minutes so it's more of a big-budgeted episode than a feature film. For those who don't know, Jiban is the 1989 Metal Hero series with a concept personally created by Keita Amemiya himself, who also designed several of the monsters Jiban fights in the show (and in this movie). The plot of the series revolves around detective Naoto Tamura, a rookie of the Central City police department who is killed by a monster sent by the evil Doctor Giba. He is revived by Doctor Igarashi, who feels responsible for the outbreak of the monsters, called Bionoids, and gives Tamura the ability to become the mobile detective Jiban! When Naoto befriends a young girl named Mayumi, she is targeted by Giba and gives her a bomb ring that will go off if Jiban should ever touch her again. Mayumi loses her memory and goes missing, and it is up to Jiban to find and save her while also doing battle with the Bionoid Monsters sent by Doctor Giba.
This movie's so cool, it blew these poor cops away
This movie wastes no time getting to the good parts
Jiban's assistant Harry Boy. Yes, it's supposed to look like a panda
Luckily, all of that information is only background that you don't even really need to know for this film as it is almost completely stand-alone. The movie is clearly designed to appeal to audiences who are at this Manga Matsuri for the Akuma-kun and/or Dragon Ball Z movies, so the narrator occasionally pops in to explain things they might not know if they aren't watching this series but doesn't explain everything so that actual fans of Jiban won't be bored being told things they already know. The movie makes a very strong case to get people to watch the series thanks to explosive visuals, a simple storyline, and truly awesome creature designs.
Several kids are at a boating exhibit at a local museum with their parents when they are suddenly attacked by ravenous tentacles. The children are kidnapped and the police are helpless to stop the kidnappers except for Tamura's partner, Yoko, who jumps onto the getaway van. Jiban arrives and chases the kidnappers, but they escape with Yoko now in custody. Tamura returns to his base, injured, and recalls to Harry Boy that this is the newest strange incident that have been occurring for the past several days. As it turns out, Doctor Giba has been behind them all, stealing caches of uranium, jewelry, and animals in hopes of creating new experiments to unleash on Central City. These children are the final key to his plan, as he wishes to harvest their young genes to create the ultimate Bionoids.
Yoko nearly escapes with the children; however, their attempt is thwarted is Doctor Giba's commanders. One girl, Yuu, manages to sneak away and calls for Jiban to help. He finds the hideout and rescues Yuu from several of Giba's goons. He infiltrates the monster factory with Yuu at his side as he does battle with the army of monsters that Giba has already created in an attempt to kill Jiban once and for all!
Doctor Giba being all menacing and all
See? Giba's so evil he made this girl cry :(
Doctor Giba's real form. A face only a blind mother could love
That's kinda it for the plot. The rest of the movie is virtually nothing but Jiban taking on the army of monsters for the last 15 minutes. That's okay though, because the action in this movie is pretty freaking sweet. There is a wide variety of effects on display here, including extensive wirework, optical effects, puppetry, and classic suitmation. There is one scene later on that has Amemiya's fingerprints all over it, and that's the transformation sequence of the final boss: an amalgamation of the monsters Jiban fought throughout the film. The transformation is almost entirely filmed in stop-motion, one of Amemiya's specialties, and it looks great considering this was probably filmed in less than a month.
RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN!!
Jiban and Yuu
Doctor Giba's commander Mad Garbo
Mayumi?
The girl actress who plays Yuu is surprisingly decent, she shows some good range and plays off of Jiban and the effects scenes pretty well. Naoto Tamura himself hardly shows up in this movie, in fact he only shows up twice (briefly) in the entire film. As for Yoko, she seems pretty badass and I'd like to follow her if I ever get around to watching the series. Which I really want to do. The only other character of note is Doctor Giba, played by an Italian actor who is very obviously being badly dubbed into Japanese. The actor seems to be having fun hamming it up, but I just can't get over how badly he's dubbed (seriously, the lips almost never match).
Jiban gets ready to justice
The final monster: DaiGibanoid
The soundtrack, as expected is simply sublime. Akira Kushida's opening theme stands as one of my favorite Metal Hero openings and hearing the opening piano segment play when Jiban stands up near the end of the film sent shivers down my spine. The film is also full of exciting pieces you can expect from late '80s tokusatsu, and this reiterates why this era of tokusatsu has some of my favorite music of the entire genre.
So, I would definitely say you should give this film a shot. It's not hard to find on the internet, it's only the length of an average episode, and it completely stands alone from the series. I've never seen an episode of Jiban, but I followed the film just fine. Besides, I can safely say this film did its job. I really want to see more.
Jiban's finisher: Jiban Hook Crush!
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