"Dengeki!! Strada 5": 1974 Tokusatsu series, episode three of thirteen recap

 

 Air Dates: April 5th until June 28, 1974 on NET-TV(now Asahi-TV), Fridays at 7:30 pm

Series subbed by Big Nova Subs, Dengeki can mean Lightning in Japanese but there is no word in the language for Strada though in Italian means Road.

One thing you can always count on in a Sentai/Tokusatsu series is an opening theme song which is such an upbeat one. Will leave this video up at the top for all of the recaps which features the opening song plus a bit of dialogue from the narrator who was Eiji Maruyama, the song was sung by Charlie Choi and Young Fresh.

 

 

 This was just a thirteen episode series but does have quite a bit of history behind it. At first the show was scheduled to be 26 episodes as most were back then but the original filming had to be put on hold in August 1973 because of various problems. So when the cast assembled again none had the time to film an entire 26 show series so it was cut in half and though not as well known as most other older Sentai or Tokusatsu shows it does seem to have a cult following. I have noticed many toys, comic books, models and such for this show so it may have been popular while it aired. These days Super Hero shows usually air on Sunday mornings but back from the 1960's to 80's they often aired in prime time, this one did at 7:30 pm on Friday nights. This was also scheduled to be a semi-sequel to the "Wild 7" series but in the end run never was, that's a show which looks interesting and while I have found the entire series it was never subbed.

 An episode lasts for 24 minutes yet this may be one of the larger intro sections, longer than for dramas where the episodes are twice the length! After the character bios will also have more info plus such things as the cars the Heroes drive, those are right above. Did call this a Tokusatsu series in the title and will continue to do so though it's not officially one of them nor a Sentai show either. Tokusatsu means a show or movie that has a lot of special effects such as a monster shooting lasers from his eyes, a Human transforming into a creature five times his size, etc. This series will have very little of that but is very similar to those kinds of shows. It's also similar to a Sentai show, in those the main characters use special guns, have unique powers and the like, a good example of that would be a Kamen Rider or Dekaranger series. In this show there's a little bit of both as humans are the Heroes and do use weapons to protect the Earth from being taken over, sure most who are reading this know what I'm talking about. After the character bios will have a mini section with the weapons and vehicles they use.

 Have only viewed the first two episodes so of course there will be some changes to the stories and it was nice going into a show not knowing too much of what will be taking place. A nice bonus was having Jo Shishido as the leader for the Strada 5 group, he's one of my all time favorite actors. He was very popular but after the 1960's TV became more of the 'in thing' to do instead of going to the Cinema so Shishido and others had to take roles such as this though nothing wrong with being in these kinds of shows. He still appeared in many movies but just not as many, bet he just filmed his scenes in 2-3 days and then they were inserted into the thirteen episodes. Let's get to the characters, there's five on the Strada 5 team along with their commander and the one enemy who is Mr. Asmodeus. He's the leader of the evil group Big Nova and think he will have a different person in each show carry out his orders to destroy the world so those seven should be it for characters. Each show will have it's own title, that is the first screenshot below which I will change for every episode and it also has the air date....

**** The members of Dengeki Strata 5 all have numbers, will go in order from one to five. They also have civilian names so will list them and also the names which they use when fighting as a team. Each member also has a unique ability which is why there were chosen to be on the Dengeki Strada 5 team, will say what those strengths are in their bios. You have to chuckle now and again at things such as that, these five have such powers that only they can defend the Earth and none of the world's super powers can assemble a larger or more powerful force? The five work for an organization named the International Police, nothing else is known about them.

Toru Okazaki as Kansuke Hotta aks Pegasus.... The son of a detective who of course was also named Hotta. He was murdered by the Big Nova group at the beginning of the first show, naturally Kansuke wants revenge and will usually use Hotta when referring to him. Hotta is often paired up with the next character who had been his father's partner and did witness the man dying. So Hotta felt his father's murder could have been prevented which wasn't the case, the tensions are often high between the two but will slowly cool off. Hotta is a bit of a hothead but also a very skilled fighter plus is an ace marksman, when he's not saving the planet Hotta is a race car driver!

 Takeo Chii as Genjiro Tonomura aka Orion.... Is only a few years older than the younger Hotta above so don't why Tonomura had been working with his father. Tonomura had been a detective and as of now don't think he still is after watching the elder Hotta get killed by the Big Nova group. There was zero Tonomura could have done to prevent the death and the younger Hotta shouldn't be blaming him but both will defend each other in their battles to save the Earth! It appears that Tonomura quit being a detective and now works at a hospital lab, he's an expert at disguises. **** Takeo became even more popular as the years went on, have seen him in a few other movies. In future posts will talk about him more along with a few of the other main characters. EDIT: Not sure yet but have the feeling Tonomura wasn't a FT detective and actually may have been on a Strata 5 assignment with the elder Hotta. If so that may mean he too was with the team and hope that gets explained later on.

 Tatsuto Go as Kazunen Takenaka aka Apollo.... Is a Monk who oversees a small temple and does have quite a sense of humor. Takenaka was chosen to be on the team for his powerful strength as he is one very strong man but also has the best deductive abilities.

Shinya Ono as Tadashi Takagi aka Luna.... Works as a car mechanic when not on the team but is even more skilled than that. For Takagi was chosen for being a master at defusing bombs and deciphering codes, because of those he could be the most key member of Dengeki Strada 5.

 Yuri Yamashina as Kaori Hoshi aka Andromeda.... The only female on the team and that's often the case in shows such as this one. When not helping the team Kaori works as a fashion model and why not as she is ultra attractive! Kaori's biggest strength is her Telepathic powers, she can see tragic events in the future and almost all are evil acts done by Big Nova. However Kaori cannot often decipher what she has seen, that's where the deductive skills of the Monk Apollo come in handy.

Jo Shishido as Terujiro Takamura aka Jupiter.... Will always refer to him as Jupiter and as mentioned what a famous actor he was. Many of the team call him Chief, Jupiter is the commander of the five that he chose personally to defend the Earth and know zero to date about his background. Jupiter drives around in a truck named Headstrong, in the back is the HQ of Dengeki Strada 5 where he meets the members and is also the place where Jupiter makes contacts with his superiors who are the International Police.

Goro Hayakawa as the physical Mr.Asmodeus, the voice was done by Shozo Izuka.... Don't know why the man donning the suit couldn't have also been the voice. Mr. Asmodeus is the leader of he evil organization Big Nova, in every show he creates a foolproof plan to destroy the world or at least Tokyo but none of those plans are ever foolproof! Mr. Asmodeus always wears a mask to make him appear to be an alien but is he one? We only ever see Mr. Asmodeus in his secret lair and he never does any of the fighting. That he assigns to a different subleader for each show, failure is not acceptable and if that leader fails Death is what awaits them, that may happen in each episode! It appears the HQ for Mr. Asmodeus is very advanced, he can send videos of himself to any spot and often does to Strada 5 warning them of their demise! Mr. Asmodeus is in the top screenshot, the leader for this episode is in the second. To date these subleaders have never had a name so if it's a woman will call them Maki, if a man will use Abe.

 As far as weapons go the Heroes don't have powerful ones that you will see in other series. They all have Shotguns but no laser guns but do use Flamethrowers, Grenades and a Baton that has a built in Knife. Unlike Sentai shows where the heroes will say a special command and change instantly into their costume the Strada 5 carry their weapons and uniforms in a case so have to change into them, always right after the action begins. The five also wear a special red pendant around their necks which doubles as a radio transmitter, the female Andromeda uses it often to tell her mates of what doom is impending.

 Though there's five members of the team there's only four vehicles, the fifth is the Headstrong HQ truck driven by their commander Jupiter. Below are the four vehicles the team uses along with Jupiter's truck, to date it doesn't appear any of the four used in combat are anything special though all are very speedy. The four are Flying Pesagus used by Hotta aka Pesagus, Tri-Shark used by Tonomura aka Orion, Red used by Takagi aka Luna and Ladybird which is shared by the Monk Apollo and the only female Andromeda. **** This is a long intro section but also helps you out immensely as you can refer back to this for so much info about everything, I use it often too. 

 Toru Okazaki as Hotta/Pegasus was the main star of this series though it seems so far all have about an equal amount of screen time. At the time this was filmed Toru was 23 in age and had begun his acting career two years earlier though preferred singing but his singles weren't big sellers. But he did become popular after this show ended as a few months after had the lead role in the "Kamen Rider Amazon" show and it appeared Toru would soon be a huge star. However in the 1976 drama "License to Kill" he fell off a motorcycle and was laid up for a while. He never did give a reason why he made the decision but right after that Toru retired from show biz and no one has ever learned what he did after. Toru has appeared at a few Kamen Rider and Super Hero conventions but that's been it for almost fifty years and it's not to easy to disappear when you're well known.

 Will have more info about other characters in future posts, perhaps a few mini features of Yuri Yamashina who did star in many Pinku film and I have found some of them! This is the third recap for today and rarely have three of them in a row but now it leaves an even number of episodes left so can go back to having pairs of them in the future. If you read either or both of the above posts you know what to expect as the evil Big Nova criminal organization is still determined to rule the world, out of the four billion people on the Earth back then only the five from Dengeki Strada 5 appear to be capable of protecting the world! A character we don't see too often is the Big Nova leader Mr. Asmodeus, usually at the beginning and end of a show so am becoming curious about who this person is and he always wears a mask.

 We've only heard of the criminal acts done by the Big Nova organization in Japan but they're a threat to the whole world as their terror has seemingly crept into every country. A countermeasure conference has been scheduled in Japan to plan what strategy the countries need to take in order to permanently take down Big Nova who of course can't and won't be defeated too easily. The heroes of this series the Dengeki Strata 5 are secretly going to make sure the conference goes off without a hitch though we all know there will be many! Such as representatives from many countries being abducted, that happened early in as the men from the fictional nations of Spaniol and Isperia were kidnapped by Big Nova. Actually by a subgroup of them who are known as Black Coconuts and no idea why, this time the subleader was a man and will refer to him as Abe. In the third screenshot above are two Strada 5 members, the woman is Kaori aka Andromeda and the man is Takagi aka Luna. Andromeda's special ability is to see future visions of what devilish acts Big Nova will be doing, she has helped out so much with that ability. However Andromeda's visions aren't often too clear and she needs help deciphering what kind of future events she has seen. So that could be a negative if it takes her team a while to figure out what acts of terror Big Nova will be committing.  

 When not a super hero Luna works as an auto mechanic, he's the best on the team at defusing bombs and deciphering codes. He's been working on a Vision Image machine that will put Andromeda's visions into photos and videos but it's not perfected yet, in that above screenshot they couldn't figure out what the Black Coconut group are currently doing and have planned. So a emergency meeting was set up for the entire Dengeki Strada 5 team, their commander is Jupiter who is the older man above, He represents the International Police and still know zero about his background. He alerted his team about the abductions of two conference attendees and that there was a new Big Nova subgroup behind the crime. With the help of all at the meeting the new visions of Andromeda were figured out, the newbie Hotta aka Pegasus didn't have much faith in her Telepathic powers. It was determined that that there will be a third abduction, Pegasus, Apollo and Orion will work on that while Luna and Andromeda will continue trying to perfect this new Image Vision machine. Her vision of Black Coconut kidnapping another person is right as that's what's discussed in the bottom two screenshot above. That man is Abe who notified Mr. Asmodeus the first two abductions went off without a hitch, the Big Nova leader said to grab one more conference attendee but that decision will lead to their downfall!!!! **** The reason for the abductions is that there has been a master tape created of all of the countries info on Big Nova. On the tape are the plans the countries are developing to crush Big Nova along with the identities of their agents, what new weapons they have, etc. so if that tape should ever fall into the hands of Big Nova it would make them unbeatable!!!!

 Big Nova and especially their leader Mr. Asmodeus are thinking that because of the hostages they've taken these countries will trade the tape plus any other info to get them back but I couldn't see that happening. The Strada 5 team, thanks to Andromeda, has deduced that the third hostage to be taken will be the Japanese representative Gen and a very ingenious plan was developed. When Gen arrived at the conference he would be abducted, both Pegasus and Apollo were prepared to protect the rep but their plan was for Gen to truly be taken as a hostage! But not the real Gen as when the two will be battling the Black Coconut thugs their mate Orion will slip into the melee, make sure Gen escapes and impersonate him as Orion is a master of disguise. That plan worked perfectly and the Black Coconut group brought Orion as Gen to their secret hideout. Orion had a transmitter planted on him so after being abducted the Dengeki Strada 5 team could find out that hideout and crush the whole group! At first everything went smoothly and Orion was thrown into a cell with the reps from Spaniol and Isperia. The team doesn't have many hi-tech gadgets but in Orion's watch was a long and thin wire cutter, he was able to free himself plus the other two representatives and until now everything had gone according to plan. The first bump on the road took place with Pegasus and Apollo, what happened with them is in two above screenshots. Because of the transmitter Orion was wearing the pair were able to follow him to this secret Black Coconut location but the pair were spotted and they too were taken as prisoners.

 But not long term prisoners as the leader Abe said to kill both by a firing squad!!!! This happened immediately as Pegasus and Apollo were thrown against a wall, within seconds rifles were aimed at them ready to fire! When not working with Strada 5 Apollo is a Monk, he told the riflemen that and asked to say a final prayer with his rosary beads. Which Apollo took out of his pocket to the fury of the shooters, these were no ordinary beads as they gave off a powerful shock! So when they were grabbed from Apollo it dazed that Big Coconut thugs and in the commotion the two Strada 5 heroes escaped but there was also one other huge snag in the plan that developed. After Orion, impersonating as Gen, tried escape with the two other reps he met up with the Black Coconut leader Abe who was a tough fighter. Him and Orion were duking it out with neither getting the upper hand but soon Abe's henchmen arrived and once again the trio were taken as hostages. In two separate vehicles the men were being taken to a  new location but on the way Abe discovered Orion's transmitter and smashed it to smithereens! Back at the Headstrong truck the Dengeki Strada 5 commander Jupiter uses as his HQ all contact with Orion had now been obviously lost. Time was ticking down to find him and the other two conference reps as Big Nova has given a deadline to Jupiter of two hours, either turn over that very valuable computer tape or the three will perish! Things were looking a bit grim for Strada 5 and the world but at the last minute there were a pair of saviors who were Andromeda and once again Luna. In the previous episode it was him defusing a bomb which saved Tokyo from destruction!

 Third and final segment, what took place is right above and the first five screenshots below. Back to work went Luna on that Image Vision device, while it's not perfected yet the machine did its job and Andromeda was able to see in a vision where Orion was being held captive. That's him in the first and third screenshots above, because he wouldn't reveal his true identity the Black Coconut leader Abe was literally roasting Orion to death! But that's just the first course of the meal(!) for as Abe says above he's also going to test a new gas out on Orion who was able to snap the binds holding him down but the gas quickly sent him back into unconsciousness. Shortly after arriving to save the day were Orion's four Strada 5 mates and the Big Nova/Black Coconut thugs aren't inept as the ones you see in other Sentai series. They do put up a fierce battle and it appeared Abe had the upper hand against Pegasus when he pulled a pistol on him, this fight scene is above. But thanks to Andromeda joining in Pegasus got the upper hand, Abe escaped but that was okay at the time for it allowed the two to free Orion. That was in the nick of time as the gas and 'barbecue rays' were about to end the life of Orion, he quickly recovered but like Andromeda and Pegasus was bummed out that the leader Abe got away. But that thought was premature as everyone on the Dengeki Strada 5 team is an ace at whatever they do and was the reason they were chosen to protect Japan from Big Nova and the like!!!!

 Apollo helplessly watched Abe jump into his vehicle and zoom away but at his side was soon Luna, the second to last screenshot. He told Apollo that he had rigged Abe's car and right on cue a few seconds later Abe's vehicle conked out and he was nabbed by the Strada 5 team. Of course Orion wanted to give Abe a taste of his own medicine and did pummel this man quite a few times, it appeared to me then that Orion may be the best boxer of the five. Abe and his few surviving henchmen were thrown into a cell and have noticed the security for both the good and bad guys in this show is extremely lax. Security would have made no difference in saving Abe's life as when a subleader fails to carry out the assignment of Mr. Asmodeus the penalty is always Death, even in a cell Mr. Asmodeus was able to use his powers to eliminate Abe. Have mentioned how Mr. Asmodeus has this ability or special device that allows him to communicate with anyone regardless of where they are. For the third episode in a row Mr. Asmodeus warned the Dengeki Strada 5 that he will be seeing them again and the next time they won't thwart his dreams of ruling the world! That conference about ending the worldwide terror of Mr. Asmodeus and Big Nova did proceed as planned but sure nothing came out of the meetings and it will be the Strada 5 as usual in the future protecting the Earth! Whew, so ends this trio of recaps and will be glad going back to just doing a pair of them, the next two will be within five days. So far so good as I am really enjoying this series and you have to go in with an open mind with these kinds of shows for what takes place is often head scratching!