Early Thoughts: Kaiketsu Zubat

If you have seen a post I did before on shows I really wanted to watch this was number five and I finally found some episodes. Thanks to Hi No Tori Fansubs I have watched the first five episodes of this series, so I want to see if my excitement for this show was worth it. First I have to say I am impressed with this show. There are very big things that make this show stand out with other Toku series. The biggest thing in this series is that the villains aren't like monsters. The villains are gangs that apart of a organization called Dakker. Even the hero himself isn't a complete super human being and doesn't transform like other heroes. He just puts on the suit and fights, but it is a powered up suit as the main hero can only wear it for five minutes. I really love the action in this series since there is a lot of out of suit action. The plot revolves around a man named Ken  as he visits and old friend, Asuka. Asuka is attacked by some gang members though and Ken helps him as he has excellent skills. Afterwards Asuka risks his life to get a bomb away and is severely hurt from the explosion. In the hospital it is attacked and Asuka pushes himself, but he is shot down by a unknown foe. Ken now swears vengeance on whoever killed his friend and will take down any other gang member who dare to hurt anyone else. He makes the suit and fights with it. Each episode shows the hero fighting different gangs and their leaders which is my favorite part.

This guy is so skilled he can probably beat Tendou in any competition.

With the villains as I said they are simply gang members and are not creatures. They are monsters in a metaphorical way as they treat others poorly. These guys kill and attack with no guilt which is great to watch villains be serious. Each gang also hires a bodyguard and they have a specific skill that is used in battle. There was a skilled gun slinger to a cue expert. Watching these guys were fun and each episode it shows Ken defeating them in a competition with their best skill. Ken always taunts them saying they are second best with him being the best. I mean this guy is impressive outside of battle and it makes a great image for him. The fights with them are damn good as they can be suspenseful as Ken first fights them out of suit. When things look bad he will get the chance to flee and come back in the Zubat suit. The hero fights the henchmen, the bodyguard, and the gang leader. Zubat actually kills some of his foes which will lead me to another thing about this show. He keeps the gang leaders alive though as he interrogates them to see if they were Asuka's murderer. Seeing a darker side of the hero is very nice as he can really get some impressive kills and attacks. (Also I really love that whip of his again I like whips being used as weapons)

Now with all the talk about gangs and murder this is a dark series. The first episode shows attempted murder, terrorism, and murder! The show also has a good amount of blood shown so that itself was really shocking to see in a toku show. The series continues with the dark tone as there is more bodies being dropped and so many innocent people being attacked. As I said before the villains attack people with ease they have tortured children! The show also has a great western theme and it works greatly with this show. The villains aren't creatures so seeing human fights helps the theme and the way of the battles are done continues to help the theme. One thing that is a little bad is how repetitive the show is. The Zubat action so far came in the end and there has been one or more bystanders killed in the five episodes. It's very little though as each toku show has some form of repetition.

Overall I am really loving this series. It's pretty simple, but thanks to a dark western tone it contains a lot of new things that toku didn't have back then. Heck this show still has many different things compared to today's toku shows. You can't go wrong with a series with Hiroshi being another great toku hero. The character Ken is just awesome and he does many things that continue to impress me. He is a serious hero who will kill his foes. I will easily give it my recommendation and so far I give it an A- the only thing that bugs me somewhat is it's repetition. Everything works well though as it all blends into an awesome toku show.