My Pick for Top 5 Metal Heroes shows

I personally am not too big on Metal Heroes, but there are a handful of shows that I do think deserve credit (only in chronological order). =)




Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion (1985)

Coming right off from the very repetitive nature of the Space Sheriffs (no offense to them), I feel like Juspion for the first time gave us very engaging characters for the Metal Heroes franchise. It still continued to have the similar Space Sheriff-like feel to it but with some twists. It's pretty neat how Juspion is considered to be the "Tarzan of the Galaxy." Brings an interesting element of mysticism to the show. Also debatably the most popular Metal Hero ever in Brazil.




Jikuu Senshi Spielban (1986)

Succeeding Juspion, Spielban also makes use of the Space Sheriff elements with many new elements of it's own. Spielban is a very interesting installment to the Metal Heroes franchise. The show offers very deep and complex cast of characters. Characters like Spielban, Diana, Helen, and Ben all offered deep and emotional backstories which believe it or not, is very rare in Metal Heroes.

I personally think Metal Heroes often drops the ball when it comes to offering good villains (especially compared to Sentai), but Spielban actually offered a very interesting cast of villains, in the form of the villain group, Wahrer. We've got the main villainess, Pandora, played by the late Machiko Soga. Pandora imo is probably Soga's best role. She manages to go all out by being a playful yet very devious villain, while at the same time consistently keeping a smile on her face! Then we've got Doctor Bio (Ben), who was Spielban and Helen's father, converted into a cyborg. And even Helen gets converted into the mind-controlled Hellvira to add some drama (imo, this was handled better than the Shadow Moon plot in Kamen Rider Black). There's General Deathzero, who was played by Shouzo Iizuka, who is known for playing many main tokusatsu villains in the 80s.

During the late 70s and early 80s, Japan was swarmed with all sorts of sci-fi related material like Star Wars and stuff like that. Spielban went on to be like a culmination of the sci-fi hype. With plenty of action and a dramatic story, Spielban is possibly one of the franchise's most well made installments ever.




Choujinki Metalder (1987)

Debatably considered by many to be the best Metal Hero ever. Metalder is known for really shaking things up as far as tokusatsu formulas go. The villains, the Neros Empire, are divided up into four different factions, each specializing in their own method of operations. All four factions are very active and often carry out missions in groups. There's a lot of conflict amongst all of the characters, and the main character is there to witness it all. Metalder is also known for putting a TON of money into it's special effects. For me, sometimes I had to re-watch a scene just to see if I really did see that "big budget special effect" thrown in there. LOL. But because Metalder used so much money and tended to appeal more to older fans, Metalder went over budget and was cut down to 39 eps, compared to the originally planned 50 eps. Nevertheless, Metalder wrapped up it's story perfectly and avoided dragging along.




Blue SWAT (1994)

Possibly one of the most overlooked Metal Heroes ever. A lot of people tend to shove Blue SWAT aside due to it's opening theme song not sounding epic enough. I personally thought the theme song sounded pleasant and somewhat catchy and fitting for the show. Plus, it was nice to see a different take on an opening theme. People also tend to criticize the suits for looking bland and for not having enough armor. Well, I personally think that's a bit silly, since a show can still be awesome despite how the suits look.

I think Blue SWAT is one of the most well made Metal Heroes ever, due to it's very successful attempt at realism (something which imo the Rescue police Trilogy kinda failed at. No offense to them). The show's fight scenes and choreography are very well executed and show plenty of strategic elements to them not seen in other toku shows. Also, the sci-fi style music in Blue SWAT is pretty catchy.

The cast of Blue SWAT imo is one of Metal Heroes' best offerings. A very strong and deep cast of characters who are all very likable. There's Shou (Blue SWAT) who's the cheerful main character (kinda like a precursor to Ban from Dekaranger). There's Sara (Purple SWAT) who imo is one of the most badass female characters ever in Metal Heroes (also a precursor to Sakura from Boukenger). And then there's Sig (Grey SWAT), who is an alien disguised as a human, who follows a tragic story about losing his son. Also, the villains, the Space Mafia are really cool as well. The designs are pretty sweet and I really love the concept of them possessing people. Normally, they possess people of higher status like business people, which really fits in with the times since during the early 90s, Japan was trapped inside of an economic bubble. Plus, the main villain, Queen, is played by Miyuki Nagato (Ulk from Flashman)! =D




Juukou B-Fighter (1995)

B-Fighter went back to it's Space Sheriff roots and brought back Dimensional battles. B-Fighter also brought us some very imaginative concepts by offering a very balanced out mix of scientific technology, nature magic, and insects. B-Fighter also offered some very well made suits that truly did look like they were heavy. The show had a pretty decent cast of characters and villains, even offering a direct evil counterpart to the main character (Takuya/Blue Beet), in the form of Shadow (Black Beet). B-Fighter also offers some very interesting mecha at it's disposal as well. The show is an overall well-rounded and balanced out show with some pretty neat concepts. A bit of a shame that it had to be succeeded by the less awesome B-Fighter Kabuto. Ah well.