"Dengeki!! Strada 5": 1974 Tokusatsu series, episode one 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, good examples 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 jfilmed his scenes in just 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 will be the second screenshot below which I will change for every episode, the title for the first show is.... 

Defeat the Hell Squadron!

**** 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! After viewing the second episode it is official that Tonomura has 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. She had no name or at least one was never said so if needed will refer to her as Maki, maybe will use that name for all of the female leaders.

 As far as weapons go the Heroes don't have powerful ones that you will see in other series. They all have Shotguns though 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 the most 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. 

 As usual will say.... WHEW(!)..... as that above section took so long to create but it is impressive and has all the info needed to follow the story so much better. Was hoping to add in another video that would have been a short trailer for the next episode, the shows end off with one of those but none are on YT. To date have just viewed the first two shows so the above character bios will probably need to be updated and while there hasn't been anything unique about the series yet both episodes have been very entertaining and zoomed right by. Won't get into what will take place yet in this show, that will be in the regular recap. Almost always have a pair of recaps but for today there will be three of them, that will leave ten remaining shows and in the future will just have a pair of posts so let's get to the action and of course there's always plenty in these kinds of series. All of the recaps will have three segments with two paragraphs so the posts won't be too long though often the first episode is the longest as much more needs to be explained so an extra medium sized paragraph was needed for this post. 

 In the bio section mentioned that the father of Kansuke Hotta had been killed in action, that's the father in the first four screenshots above. Along with the Strada 5 member Orion Hotta had been on an assignment to thwart another evil act of the Big Nova group, they will be the main enemy in each show. Almost every Sentai/Tokusatu series has aliens as the enemies but not this one as regular Humans do the fighting. Big Nova is a powerful and huge group who want to rule the World(!), they were ready for the elder Hotta and Orion(Tonomura) and you can see what took place. From a helicopter a Big Nova henchman was able to toss a noose around Hotta's throat, when the helicopter rose of course he was strangled to death! After that took place Hotta was dropped to the ground, there was nothing his partner Orion could have done and it was lucky he wasn't killed too. Though Hotta was a detective am wondering if he also didn't work for the elite Dengeki Strada 5 team? Orion aka Tonomura did so were the pair on a special assignment together? In the third screenshot is the calling card Big Nova uses when they kill someone which is shoved into the back of their victim and on it is the evil group's symbol.

 In the fifth screenshot on the right is Tonomura but will just be referring to him as Orion for now on, on the left is Hotta's son Kansuke. The pair had met up at the elder Hotta's funeral as Orion had one item from Hotta's belongings to give to the son. To say Kansuke was furious with Orion would be an understatement, he can't understand why Orion couldn't have prevented his father's death but there was zero that Orion could have done. Kansuke figured(hoped) this would be the only time he would see Orion but soon the two would be partners, even then the hatred Kansuke felt towards Orion would remain high but slowly dissipate. In the third to last screenshot a subleader of the Big Nova group is getting the troops ready for more action as Operation X-2 is about to begin and more on that shortly. The leader of Big Nova is Mr. Asmodeus who never fights in the battles and always wears a mask. He assigns his subleaders to be in charge of the operations, if they fail then Death will always await them! In the second to last screenshot is the only female member of the elite Dengeki Strada 5 team, her name is Kaori aka Andromeda. Her special ability is Telepathy, she can often see in the near future what tragedy may occur and it usually has to do with the wicked Big Nova organization. However what Kaori sees isn't always clear to her so she needs to explain the details to her team and they deduce what she has seen in the future. Kaori contacted her commander Jupiter who is in the bottom screenshot, a meeting has been set up for what Kaori has just seen which will be Operation X-2 and also to introduce a new member as Strada goes from 4 to 5 members.

 Besides being the saviors of the Earth the Dengeki Strada 5 members also moonlight at other jobs. In the top screenshot is Takagi aka Luna who is an auto mechanic but is also very skilled at defusing bombs and deciphering codes. Below him is Takenaka aka Apollo who is a Monk, he's the strongest on the team and can deduce Andromeda's visions better than anyone else. Andromeda works as a fashion model, Orion at a hospital lab and the newbie Kansuke Hotta is a race car driver. The commander of the Strada 5 group is the older man above whose code name is Jupiter. He represents the International Police and as of now have no idea what his background is but he is the one who selects the members for his group. ****Was just thinking that perhaps the IP has these teams in most countries and am fairly sure they do. Am also thinking that the elder Hotta was the fifth Strada 5 member, now that he's been murdered did Jupiter choose his son Kansuke to take his place and if so wonder why? Up until now Kansuke had no idea this group that protects Japan and the World existed but he fit in very quickly. There was one problem and that's of working with Orion aka Tonomura who Kansuke still blames for his father's death but Kansuke is also wise enough not to let that interfere with his duties. Kansuke now has the code name of Pegasus and will use that name for him from here on out.

 Don't think we'll be seeing too much of the Strada 5 commander Jupiter, he seems like a hands-off type of boss and chose this group for they could work well on their own. So in this meeting all worked on what Andromeda had seen with her Telepathic vision, what was discovered is that the ambassador to the fictional country Arumorico will be abducted by the Big Nova group, their Operation X-2. But now it's not a case of when as the ambassador has already been kidnapped, the question became where is he being held and that was also part of Andromeda's vision. Jupiter told the group it would be best if they left his truck and began the search where Andromeda's vision may be more powerful, that they did and we didn't see Jupiter again in the episode. What Andromeda could see in her vision was a junkyard or garbage dump but was unsure and Apollo working with her couldn't tell by her description either exactly where the ambassador was being held. So off to one possible location was Orion and his new partner Pegasus, Jupiter felt the pair should work together and when they do I noticed that Pegasus puts all of his personal feelings aside. The pair were successful as the ambassador was found near a junkyard however Pegasaus was a bit too rash and remained in his human form of Kansuke battling the evil Big Nova group. He had latched onto a helicopter which you can see above, Pegasus was brought to their secret HQ and it did appear this first case would also be his last! That's the Big Nova subleader Maki above, you can tell she and her group are humans for their true aim in adducting the ambassador was to get ransom money, enough to conquer Japan!

 Final segment and what took place is right above plus the first five screenshots below, the first recap of a series is always a bit longer as the characters and story needs to be discussed more thoroughly. There was nothing Orion could do to save his new partner Pegasus, would the father and son Hotta both die while being Orion's partner???? No for he quickly radioed Andromeda telling her of the location which was outside of a junkyard, her vision was correct on that so she rushed there with Apollo and Luna in tow. At the Big Nova hideout Pegasus wouldn't reveal his identity, for that Maki thought he should be killed but not until later as the group may also get some ransom money for him. However it appeared Pegasus did die as a henchman said above, just before that happened we saw some green slime ooze out of a ring Pegasus wore which he lapped up. With their hideout found the Big Nova thugs tried to flee with the ambassador and this was a fairly exciting encounter even though no lasers and such were used. Some of that scene is above and the Dengeki Strada 5 mainly uses regular weapons such as pistols but also have flamethrowers. One was used by the mechanic Luna and you can see above one get away car was burning up in flames! When the Strada 5 are in uniform they also can be quite agile as they can jump about twenty feet in the air and do somersaults at the time which throws off their attackers.

 In most of these kinds of shows the armies of the evil groups are inept but that wasn't the case for the Big Nova henchmen. They did put up a good fight but the Dengeki Strada 5 team were just a tad better plus having that flamethrower helped so after a long struggle the malevolent group was beaten and the ambassador to Arumorico was freed. Pegasus had also joined in on the action(!), it was thought he was dead but that green slime in his ring was just to knock him out and make it appear he had died which worked so his first case was a success! But not entirely as just a group of henchmen were taken out, what about the Big Nova leader Mr. Asmodeus? He doesn't put up with failure so after that defeat to the Strada 5 heroes he had his subleader Maki killed, shortly after that the Dengeki Strada 5 entered this secret location. Still on a screen from his talk with Maki was Mr. Asmodeus and that's how he communicates with his group as he seldom sees anyone in person and is the wicked person an alien or human? Mr. Asmodeus has this ability to appear via audio or video anywhere it seems, when he does it's often to warn the Strada 5 of their impending doom which never works out for him.

 In this short scene there was only a minute to go in the show, Mr. Asmodeus told the five heroes that the building is set to explode in thirty seconds and wished all a hearty farewell! There were some strong doors the group had to break through to escape but besides pistols and flamethrowers they also carry grenades which were strong enough to blow through the building walls and the five made it in the nick of time as the building exploded! Mr. Asmodeus is still in the loose and will be until the end of the series but his plan in this episode was thwarted and probably will be in each show. Slowly the hatred Pegasus feels towards Orion is fading as they did need to support each other and perhaps soon he will realize Orion had nothing to do with the death of his father. So that ends a fun first episode and the second was fairly darn good too, that's the next post and while this may not be as good as other Sentai shows have a feeling every episode will be an enjoyable one.