"Dengeki!! Strada 5": 1974 Tokusatsu series, episode six 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 were high between the two but began to cool off in the fourth episode. 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 posing as a detective at the time but had never been an official one. There was zero Tonomura could have done to prevent the death by the Big Nova group and the younger Hotta shouldn't be blaming him but both will defend each other in their battles to save the Earth! Tonomura's undercover job is working at a hospital lab, he's also 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: Did say that 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 and often uses a special Rosary as a weapon.

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. He developed the Image Vision device which allows Andromeda to see her telepathic visions more clearly and accurately. 

 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. But by the fifth episode Luna had developed a device which allows Andromeda and others to see those visions more clearly.... by video!!!!

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. If the subleader is a woman will refer to her as Maki, if a man it will be Abe. For this sixth episode the woman had a name which was Fuyuko, like all others was eliminated at the end by her Big Nova leader!

                               

 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. It also seems in each episode we see another new gadget but one that's only used once.

 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. 

 

Previous recaps

 It wouldn't affect the view counts and it's something that has been mentioned before which would help you viewers follow a series better. Which is that after reading the first 2-3 recaps and you find out it's a series you would want to read all of the recaps it could be better to wait until I have finished recapping the entire drama. If you wait until the end you can click on the bottom links to read the posts in order which would make following the series so much easier and you would also understand that took place much better.

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Episode five

 Was going to talk a bit about Yuri above who plays Kaori aka Andromeda in the show and have some screenshots from her many 1970's Pinku films. But will hold off on that for another post or two as she did have quite a bit of screen time in this episode. The most she had in any show and in this episode we really only saw the two characters of Andromeda and Pegasus except for the beginning and end. Those two above screenshots are from the show and and will try to hunt down another video to add in for the above section but there doesn't appear to be many good ones but will keep looking. Also updated the bios for many of the characters, may not have to do it again unless some things are learned about Jupiter's background or about the evil leader of the Big Nova criminal group Mr. Asmodeus.

 Was going to take a longer break from doing these recaps and have another movie review or two. However have two more older series from the 1970's to view, will recap one of those but unsure about the other. So after today just have six more episodes to go in this series which was shorter than most others though as explained above it was originally supposed to have 26 episodes. Am glad the break wasn't longer as this may have been the best show to date even though Andromeda and Pegasus were the only two Dengeki Strada 5 members who had a lot of screen time. Let's get to the action and the next post has the recap for the seventh episode which I haven't viewed yet.

 There have been so many of these kinds of Super Hero series over the last fifty or so years, too many to count plus they're much longer than regular dramas. However the stories in the episodes are usually very original and different, there's rarely a dull moment. This sixth episode began off with a small group of scientists conducting an experiment at the Science and Technology Biology Laboratories that a division of the Japanese Defense Corps operates. The testing was for a new gas called SSG, the initials were never spelled out and it was a very powerful gas. It had been tried out on some rats, the gas is a bluish vapor and when it was sprayed onto the rodents the only thing left were their bones! The chief of the unit Kimura was telling an Army official this new gas better not fall into the hands of an evil organization or else! So that made me wonder what was the purpose of the SSG gas then, didn't see any benefits of making a body disintegrate. In Kimura's group was a traitor, it's the man in the second screenshot whose name was Muraki. He pulled out a revolver shooting two men to death and locked the others in the test chamber, the SSG gas was turned on and it also worked on humans as everyone soon became a pile of bones!

 Muraki was able to slip away with three canisters of the gas in a briefcase, he wasn't stopped by security as he was known at the lab and more about him shortly. Quickly notified about the theft of the SSG gas and of the killings was of course Dengeki Strada 5 and their commander Jupiter. Who had a very original plan to nab Muraki, personally don't think the plan was why Strada 5 came out on top but it helped liven the story up. Jupiter had been informed Muraki was hiding out at a resort in Hakone which is west of Tokyo. Jupiter's plan was for Andromeda and Pegasus to vacation at the resort posing as newlyweds, Jupiter even had a mini ceremony for them. That took place at about the five minute mark and we didn't see anyone save for the lovers until the end! Andromeda's special gift is having Telepathic powers, she can see a day or two in the future what will happen and it's almost always of the evil organization Big Nova doing some diabolical act. Pegasus was a bit skeptical about her saying Muraki was at this Hakone resort but there was a device created by the Strada 5 member Luna called the Image Vision machine, it transfers Andromeda's visions into photos(!) which are grainy but accurate, one is in the second to last screenshot above. So the pair made it to the resort and had to keep the newlywed act up, for some reason the pair didn't seem to like each other and had never noticed that until now. That woman in the first screenshot below will be so key to the story, as it says her name is Fuyuko. While it appears she's blind and can't walk neither was the case which our heroes will soon discover, so won't Muraki the hard way!

 That second screenshot was of Andromeda and Pegasus eating dinner at the resort's restaurant, a few tables away was Fuyuko and the name of the man/personal aide with her was never mentioned. There was a small boy throwing paper airplanes in the restaurant, one almost hit Fuyuko but she ducked away so that proved to the two heroes she wasn't blind. Because of that Fuyuko was high on their list of suspects for they had no idea who Muraki was going to try selling the SSG gas to. Of course that ended up being Fuyuko, that short encounter to buy the gas is in the third to fifth screenshots above. Muraki opened his briefcase containing the three large canisters of the lethal SSG gas, he expected Fuyuko's briefcase to then be jam packed with money! But it wasn't and that wheelchair had some dangerous weapons, one being it fired poison arrows and as you can see Muraki was quickly eliminated. 

 Watching the transaction in secret had been Andromeda and Pegasus, when they witnessed what went down they leapt into action. But did say Fuyuko's wheelchair had weapons, besides shooting arrows it also had a mini machine gun as she began to fire at the Strada 5 members. Who were able to dodge the deluge of bullets and an all out melee began. Fuyuko revealed she wasn't disabled as she jumped out of her chair, right after that coming to her aid were many Big Nova henchmen so that's who Fuyuko was working for. This was the first time I recall Andromeda in a fist fight and she did darn well, she subdued Fuyuko while grabbing the briefcase containing the SSG gas containers. She handed that off to Pegasus who also had been in a fierce fight with some Big Nova thugs, with them successfully getting the briefcase the Dengeki Strada 5 members returned to the resort and checked out, things seemed to be going too smoothly and that was about to change. For on their trek back to Tokyo the now un-newlyweds(!) were of course trailed by Fuyuko and her Big Nova henchmen, if Pegasus had his regular Strada 5 vehicle he could have left them in the dust but that wasn't to be. When not saving the Earth Pegasus is a race car driver and did show his skills on the road but couldn't elude his pursuers forever, especially when they were firing with their rifles! One shot did nail Pegasus in the upper right arm, it affected his driving as he ran off the road. At first it didn't appear the injury was all that serious as it was only in his arm but soon the blood began to spurt out. Andromeda and Pegasus had fled into a clearing, had be been uninjured the pair could have escaped easily but Pegasus was really slowing them down, it was just a matter of time until the Big Nova thugs caught up to them.

 At this point there was probably about seven minutes to go in the show, what took place is right above and the first five screenshots below. In the first one above you can see the other three Dengeki Strada 5 members, first we saw of them since the opening minutes. They were supposed to meet  with Andromeda and Pegasus to escort them back to Tokyo but of course at the time were too busy trying to save their own lives! The bullet wound on the right arm of Pegasus continued to get worse, there was no way he could continue on for much longer so ordered Andromeda to take the case of SSG gas back to their commander and leave him! Of course Andromeda wouldn't hear of that but Pegasus reminded her of Article 4 in the Dengeki Strada 5 handbook which said completing a mission is their #1 priority, not the safety of a fellow teammate so Andromeda did dash away. Soon arriving on the scene was Fuyuko with her Big Nova team but also arriving back was Andromeda, the hell with the rules she said as there was no way she could allow Pegasus to be killed! He did have a tiny bomb which Pegasus threw at the thugs but that only bought the pair a little bit of time as death once again began to approach. But at this time a third arrival took place which was of the three remaining Strada 5 members Apollo, Luna and Orion, don't ask me how they found their teammates!

 It was a short yet exciting duel between Big Nova and Strada 5, seemed once Pegasus donned his uniform his condition improved rapidly and he helped his mates defeat the sinister group of thugs. A few seconds later appearing over the scene was a helicopter and Fuyuko jumped for joy as it was her boss Mr. Asmodeus and of course she thought he came to save her. A ladder was dropped down and Fuyuko began to scale it with the helicopter rising in the air but once it got a bit higher the ladder was untied which led to Fuyuko falling to her death. It was the only scene featuring the Big Nova commander Mr. Asmodeus, as he says below when a subleader of his fails at their mission a penalty of Death will always await them! In the final minute the team met up with their commander Jupiter, though she saved the life of Pegasus he still gave Andromeda a week's suspension but said in most cases her actions would have meant a termination! The Strada 5 leader also said the Science Ministry would be destroying all of the SSG gas and it's plans, I did say before why was it even created? So that concludes this post and this was a top notch episode, the recap for the seventh show is the next post.