Ohai! Here’s your follow up post about the batch release for JAKQ. There are some edits, but they are very minor. You can decide whether you want to re-download them when you open your torrent client by checking or unchecking each episode.
1-8: Song lyric edits. In the closing song, “atomic” has been changed to “nuclear”. Generally in the show, “kaku (核)” refers to “nuclear”, where “genshi (原子)” refers to “atomic”, even though they’re really the same thing.
1-12: Song lyric edits. In the opening song romaji, “Spade (スペード)” has been changed to “Supeedo” and not “Supeido”.
That’s pretty much it. Minor, I know. I really should proofread the song lyrics better before I start, ugh. Sorry.
Well, it’s been a minute. Summer is… rough for me in my line of work. I’ve somehow made it through June already though, so it’s not all bad.
Here it is, the final batch of JAKQ Dengekitai for your viewing pleasure! It’s a whole new show folks! Gone are those gritty crime drama plots of the past. Now it’s full-on tokusatsu “stop the evil alien from taking over the world” goodness! (Except for episode 27. It’s so dark it’s funny again. Keep reading.)
As mentioned, starting with episode 23, JAKQ went through a huge tone shift and added a couple of new characters, the biggest of whom is Soukichi Bamba, JAKQ’s new acting commander and a new warrior. Joker is gone, having been promoted to a position in New York. Bamba/Big One quickly takes over as leader, but also as star of the show. A few episodes focus on him completely and barely feature any of our JAKQ characters.
Ace is probably like “why is this guy giving the orders now?”
We also get the addition of Tamasaburou Hime, who is… unnecessary at best. I guess I don’t understand Japanese comedy? (if you can call it that)
Plus, there’s the introduction of Shine, the evil alien big bad who’s actually been running Crime the whole time. He’s bent on world domination… or something. Anyway, lots of changes happening, new finisher attack (as seen above) included.
Things continue until we get to episode 27, which is probably one of the darkest but also most completely ridiculous episodes of any tokusatsu ever. You all know this one; the Hitler episode. It’s been on Youtube for like 50 years now. Problematic doesn’t even scratch the surface of this episode. I felt weird subbing this episode. I felt weirder Googling some of the terms. The FBI is probably after me now.
Probably the least offensive screenshot from this entire episode.
Not for the faint of heart or easily offended.
There are some gems among these episodes. My favorite is the Priest Cobra one where Bamba disguises himself as a snake charmer. This leads Priest Cobra (played by legendary voice actor and future villain in pretty much every metal hero through Jiban, Shouzou Iizuka) to sing a little song under hypnosis and it’s probably the best scene of the entire series. At least to me anyway.
It’s really not the song itself that’s funny, it’s the voicing.
I can’t listen to any big bad in a Space Sheriff series the same way again.
Tamasaburou tells a bunch of jokes in episode 33. Of course, they’re punny and don’t make sense in English, so I tried to put my own spin on them while keeping close enough to the actual translations.
The end comes quick, as the show got cancelled after all this retooling, but the ending is actually very good! Not like Goranger. One episode, really, one? An 84 episode series and only the last episode is the final fight? It was super lame too! “Oh, you have a weakness? Let’s spam you with it until you die!” Ugh.
I digress. The last two episodes are full of drama and are really well written. The action is on point too. Even Iron Claw is super into it!
Didn’t the original tin man in The Wizard of Oz, like, die because of this kind of costume?
The final battle is kind of hokey, but I don’t care, the lead up is entertaining. Even though… it’s not really the ending. After the finale, there’s a JAKQ/Goranger crossover movie, which is part of this batch in GLORIOUS 720p high definition. The movie was released three months after the TV finale. My guess is JAKQ was supposed to be part of whatever Toei movie event, but they didn’t know it was going to get cancelled and didn’t know what else to fill it with so they made this movie. I’m fine with that though, it’s pretty good.
The End… for three months anyway.
It’s been a crazy ride. I love this show and I’m glad I finished this project, but it’s been tough. Some of these episodes had over 350 lines of text! Like whoa! Plus the audio quality leaves something to be desired.
Head over to the Releases page to get downloading! Enjoy!
Everyone’s favorite line from this show, jokingly asked by Heart Queen during fights, debuts in episode 16. Mou hitotsu ikaga?
I’m going on vacation next week, so I wanted to get this batch out before I left, and it’s like 4 days before I leave. Mission accomplished!
Here we are, another batch of JAKQ Dengekitai for your enjoyment. This batch of episodes definitely has the beginnings of a tone shift, starting with episode 14. You can tell the writers were scrambling to make new storylines, because they definitely recycled this one. The same guy from episode 7 even has another cameo.
Uhh, but it already happened. Seven episodes ago. And that was the one chosen for the movie. Huh?
Throw in a few “ghost story” episodes and things take a much lighter turn. There are still some dark WTF moments, like when a boy’s father disappears on a mountain and it turns out Crime has put him and his hiker friends in a LABOR CAMP??!! Ace and King get captured and forced to work too. Wow. Just… what?
Most of these episodes are much lighter than the first bunch of episodes though, with Bunta/King filling the role of comic relief, which, after watching episode 4, I would call character assassination, but that’s just me. Mr. Hamster, Joker’s little friend, also starts talking all of a sudden too. Because who doesn’t love a talking animal right?
King. That’s who doesn’t love a talking animal. Turns out Mr. Hamster is a little Mr. Dick.
The final episode (22) in this batch is really fun, because Joker gets to actually DO something, instead of just give orders in a yellow suit jacket. I think the writers put that plot point in because they knew they were going to write him out in the next episode. I think episode 22 and episode 21, the one with Devil Batter, are the strongest in the batch.
A rare photo of when Joker tried out to be part of Dynaman. You’re doing it wrong.
Also just a random note, I love old toku shows way more than newer ones, if you couldn’t tell already. I haven’t done a show more recent than 1989, so… One thing that always makes me laugh is the foot soldiers in lab coats. It happens all the time in the old Kamen Rider series, and I’ve seen it in Kikaider too I’m pretty sure.
Like, did they go to college? Or even med school? Can they even fight? What happened in their life to make them work for this evil organization? Doesn’t that mask make it hard to see what you’re doing in a dimly lit lab?
I wonder what subject these guys wrote their doctorate thesis on.
Anyway, since I’m going on vacation, expect the final batch of JAKQ with… you know who, to drop sometime in late June. Point your cursor to the Releases link and get downloading already!
No, for real, that’s a lyric from the opening song. Get ready for another dark show, everybody! Goranger was fun and kid friendly and JAKQ is… well… not.
JAKQ Dengekitai, or JAKQ Shock Troop, was the 2nd and last Shoutarou Ishimori created sentai series, premiering in 1977, and was retroactively awarded the status of 2nd Super Sentai series when Ohranger came out, even though there are no giant robots to speak of (the whole reason “super” sentai are super).
For this new show, the writers drew from hard-boiled detective and crime dramas for plot lines. The enemy “Crime” syndicate (no really, that’s their name) is self-explanatory; they operate around the world spreading the joys of criminality, including drug smuggling, bank robbery, murder, you name it. It makes Law & Order look like Sesame Street. No wonder it wasn’t popular with kids!
The new show was a huge shock to audiences of Goranger and it turned off a lot of people. Ratings never really got to the level of Goranger, even after a BIZARRE tone shift in the last 1/3 of the series to make it more palatable to kids. JAKQ to this day is the shortest Super Sentai ever to air, cancelled after 35 episodes. At least there was a finale movie.
Anyways, let’s talk story! Our heroes are turned into cyborg soldiers one way or another (one was even non-consensually changed!) to fight against Crime. Many episodes highlight their crazy cyborg abilities, which in 1977, was a fresh and trendy idea.
Ace can see through walls, Jack can fire lasers out of his fingers, and Queen’s… necklace jingles? I dunno, I didn’t write it.
One-off episodes begin right away at episode 2, as was standard back then (seriously, Goranger had about 5 or 6 actual plot episodes out of 84). Being a dark show, at least half of the guest stars in the first bunch of episodes die. Seriously. I can think of 4 who don’t die in this 11 episode batch. Things start to lighten up starting around episode 7 or so, but not by much.
Try to make it through episode 4 without feeling anything, I dare you.
There are quite a few differences to Goranger right off the bat as well. First of all, there’s only 4 members, with their commander, Joker, kind of being the fifth man behind the scenes (he’s even got a yellow outfit, like the correlating member of Goranger). Also, each member gets their own sweet vehicle and helmet.
Plus, the transformation sequence has changed from Goranger spinning around in place like Wonder Woman to a LAUGHABLY long sequence where the team gets in these things
I wonder how much it cost to make this prop. Also, it showed up in Battle Fever J, but I forget why, which proves Toei keeps all this shit laying around for who knows how long.
and then narration, narration, narration, 70’s special effects, and FINALLY the team emerges in their hero outfits. I’m trying to think of a Super Sentai transformation that takes as long. Bioman? Ohranger? Timeranger had a long one, but honestly, this is the longest.
I really enjoy JAKQ because it actually focuses on the martial arts action, unlike most series nowadays. A few of the guest stars are action stars in their own right. Mitchi Love playing Karen Mizuki kicks her fair share of ass as well. She even gets to spar with her “Return of Sister Street Fighter” co-star Etsuko Shihomi in a totally badass episode (Kenji Ohba also has a minor role).
Also, can we talk about Mitchi Love’s GORGEOUS long hair in the first few episodes? Then she cuts it all off before episode 8. A tragedy.
I’m throwing everyone for a loop with my release plan, so here it is, straight from the subber’s keyboard: I’m going to do the first two batches of 11 episodes each, so 1-11, 12-22, and then 23-35 plus the JAKQ/Goranger movie will be released with the whole series batch. I thought that worked nicely because episode 23 is when… (cough) HE appears and the whole show changes.
I’m trying some new things with colors and styling in the subs, so let me know what you think. Get over to the Releases page and get downloading!
Metallic Fansubs 