Also goes by the name of Science Squadron Dynaman
Air Dates: February 5, 1983 to January 28, 1984... there was a total of 51 episodes plus one movie
Aired on TV-Asahi at 7:30 pm Saturday nights until episode ten when it began airing at 8:00 pm... Subs done by Metallic Subs.... Episodes lasted a little over 24 minutes and of those two were for the opening/closing credits. This was the seventh show in the Super Sentai series, the first aired from 1975-77 and was titled "Himitsu Sentai Gorenger". Shows such as Ultraman and Kamen Rider aren't considered to be Sentai though all are from the same family.
The ultra cool rockin' opening song was "Science Squadron Dynaman", the closing tune was also an upbeat rocker titled "Dynaman, Make Your Dreams Come True" and both were by the groups Mojo and Koorogi '73, they did so many songs together for Animes and Sentai series.
Was able to find the ratings and of all places it was at an American site, Ja.wiki pages usually have them. The rating for this first episode that aired on February 5, 1983 was 16.9% which was the highest of the series.... average for all the episodes was 10.6%
This is the first Sentai/Tokusatsu series I've reviewed in quite a long time but have been viewing many other older ones as I do have quite a DVD collection of these older shows. Though it's fun viewing these on my laptop much prefer kicking back and just watching shows on my TV. Think the longest series I have ever finished recapping had a total of 28 episodes though I'm thinking there may have been one with 32. As you can see in the heading this series has 51 episodes plus a movie so will I somehow complete the recaps for this ultra long series? Excellent question and won't answer that yet, have watched many of these shows that had 50 or so episodes but it's much different kicking back to watch a long series on your TV.... much more enjoyable as I don't have to take screenshots or notes!
Am beginning this intro section after viewing the first episode, will finish it off after watching the second. So much took place in the first episode and not sure where to begin, it's no exaggeration saying I have never viewed a show with so much info and action thrown at you. More took place in 22 1/2 minutes than does in a two hour movie which means the pace was frantic and also fun but it was hard keeping track of everything. Sure the action will slow down a bit as we go along in the series and also the amount of new things we learn.
Don't think I'll have to edit the bios for the main characters but will be adding new ones in, also as we go along will be adding in more weapons, gadgets and vehicles/ships our five heroes use. Most of these Sentai/Tokusatsu shows have five main characters to protect the Earth(!), this series is no different as there's four male and one female to protect us! Will add in that the female Sayoko Hagiwara who plays Rei Tachibana is one ultra cutie and close to being the most attractive gal I've seen in one of these shows. Maybe by the end she will move up to #1 and that position is currently held by Rei Maki from "Super Robot Red Baron". In an odd twist am watching currently it again for at least the fifth time as it is my top series in this genre.... well, that was considered to be a Tokusatsu series.
The main storyline and brief overview of this series revolves around the five members, sometimes six, of the superhero team Dynaman and why wasn't It Dynamen? The sixth person is an esteemed professor named Yumeno Kyutaro and operates the Yumeno Invention Center. In the first episode he formed the team and none of the five had known each other but had briefly met while heading to the professor's lab. Kyutaro's real name is Toyama, fifteen years ago at the age of 21 his girlfriend was killed by an unknown race of people called Jashinka, it's a combination of the words for Evil and Evolution in Japanese. More about this race of people a bit further down and that section will include their three main villains. After they had killed Toyama's girlfriend which was because of an potion he was working on, the man went underground, changed his name and had secretly been working solo to avenge the death of his unnamed girlfriend.
Yumeno can't battle this fierce group of people by himself and the Jashinka Empire has grown much more powerful over the last fifteen years and their main plan is to conquer Japan.... then the rest of Earth! So because of this impending war Yumeno assembled this team, all are superb fighters and masters at so many forms of Martial Arts. Those talents plus all of the inventions and weapons Yumeno has created should be enough to take down this evil empire but as in most series you ask yourself.... five superheroes against thousands or even millions of soldiers? The Jashinka race resemble humans but are green skinned and have tails, some more than one. Thousands of years ago a meteor had fallen to Earth and it had contained the seeds of that species who have evolved since then and mainly live underground. Plus over thousands of years the numbers of the Jashinka race have increased where there could be millions and they now want to live above ground, that the professor Yumeno will let happen! Will edit a bit of this above part as the series goes along and as mentioned will have more info about the Jashinka race a bit further down. Their leader Emperor Aton is in the second screenshot below.
Main Characters
Did say not much editing may be needed but sure some will be done plus I know there will be new characters added in. **** This is such an important section, it's perhaps even more key to the series than the recap themselves! Do try to give as much info as possible about the characters along with some other tidbits about the story so this is a good section to get info from. Also very important are reading the prior recaps if you missed an episode and that section will be added in for the third episode. The top five characters will be the Dynaman Team, their proper name is Science Squadron Dynaman, and the sixth person down will be their leader Yumeno. Then will have a section for the team's weapons, gadgets and vehicles, following that will be the section for the Yashiken Empire. That's Yumeno in the below screenshot, he somehow had been keeping tabs on the five and felt they were the best in the world to.... save the World! It being a Super Hero series of course stunt doubles are used in most of the action scenes but the voices are still of the actors.
Satoshi Okita as Hokuto Dan/Dynaman Red.... The leader of the team of five who is 22 in age and maybe their best fighter though all are close to unbeatable! Hokuto hails from Hokkaido, besides being so superb at fighting he also has some brains as his dream is to become a scientist. Hokuto is also an ace motorcyclist, he grew up without a mother and his main fighting skills are in Kendo and Karate as he holds a black belt.
Junichi Haruta as Ryu Hoshikawa/Dyna Black.... Like the above man is 22 in age and could give the team's leader Hokuto a run for his money as far as who the best Dynaman fighter is. Ryu is a descendant of the Igaryu Ninja clan and has their mysterious skills such as being able to leap twenty feet high. Ryu is a firm believer in aliens and has kept trying to communicate with them though with zero luck but is working on inventions to do so! When he transforms into Dyna Black his Ninja skills are even greater, especially with acrobatics.
Koji Unoki as Yosuke Shima/Dyna Blue.... At 18 in age is the youngest of the team and hails from the island of Ishigaki. Yosuke loves the ocean and is trying to develop gills which will allow humans to breath better underwater, that dream came about from supposedly seeing a Mermaid! Yosuke is skilled at Kung Fu and is the best swimmer of the Dynaman team, he's also quite agile but then again so aren't all five and especially in their suits.
Yuu Tokita as Kousaku Nangou/Dyna Yellow.... From the city of Kagoshima which is on the island of Kyushu. Kousaku is twenty in age and loves farming, also American Westerns as he often wears cowboy hats and similar clothing. Like his four teammates Kousaku is an aspiring inventor and having such dreams is why their leader Yumeno selected them to be a Dynaman. Kousaku has been working on ways to crossbreed plants and to improve how fruits and vegetables grow, he's the best horse rider and gun shooter on the team and while not the best fighter is the strongest of the five.
Sayoko Hagiwara as Rei Tachibana/Dyna Pink.... She has quite an interesting bio and also had used the last name of Nonomiya.... have you noticed how so many females in these shows use the color of Pink?! She too is eighteen in age like her mate Yousuke though in real life Sayoko was two years older and turned 21 while the series was airing. Rei is the best communicator on the Dynaman team, such as using sign language and is also a skilled ham radio operator She thinks that she can talk to an extent with animals(!) and is trying to invent a device to allow her to talk with them better. Rei is a master at Fencing and is also a superb swimmer plus Rei is an excellent fighter and is close to being as good as her males counterparts.
Junshi Shamada as Yumeno Kyutaro.... Leader and founder of the Dynaman team aka Science Squadron Dynaman. Yumeno previously had the last name of Toyama but changed it at the age of 21 after his girlfriend was murdered. Which was by the enemy in this show, Jashiken, as Yumeno was working on a formula named Retrogenes to destroy the race who at the time wanted to conquer the world. They still do and have grown much stronger over the years, Yumeno is now 35 in age. Besides being a brilliant inventor and scientist Yumeno is also skilled at Kendo. He does act a bit goofy at times but it's mainly to fool his opponents into taking him lightly, Yumeno is an extremely serious man who wants to avenge his girlfriend's death and of course prevent the Jashiken Empire from conquering Earth.
The Science Squadron Dynaman Team.... their weapons, vehicles and gadgets.
Have never done a section like this before but then again have never seen so many of those items listed above in a show! Most of the inventions were created by the above man Yumeno before the Dynaman team was founded. Then some of the five members gave the professor ideas for new weapons and the five also created some of their own. Besides their unbeatable fighting skills the five were chosen for they too wanted to invent new things though not for War but to improve the quality of life for the human race. Will keep adding to this section but they'll just be screenshots as there's not enough room or time to give details of everything below. But most things should be self explanatory such as what the weapons do and in the recaps will be talking about some of them.
More will be introduced in each show and bet there's close to 200 weapons and gadgets. Not as many vehicles and the main one is the inside of their ship which is the third screenshot below. The two above that are from a vehicle called Macha and we'll be seeing that often as it's smaller and faster than the team's main base ship which fires many weapons. The Macha can combine with three other smaller ships to form a Grand Slam ship which is the huge one in two below screenshots. The weapons are too numerous to name but there's plenty of them below and this section could end up having 200 screenshots(!) but may will stop adding to it before then. The suits also have gadgets to them such as mini engines in their boots which allow the Dynaman to fly or leap about forty feet in the air. Those suits also enhance that person's main powers, for instance if they're skilled at acrobatics that ability will be doubled from the suit's powers. Like every other section will keep adding to/editing this part, this was all thrown at us viewers in the first two episodes!
The enemy of the Science Squadron Dynaman Team.... the Jashinka Empire
According to the leader and founder of the Science Squadron Dynaman Professor Yumeno the Jashinka Empire has evolved from a meteorite that crashed into the Earth tens of thousands of years ago. Jashinka is combination of the words for Evil and Evolution in Japanese, think it may have been coined by Yumeno. For all these thousands of years the race of Jashinka have lived underground and it's hard to believe they haven't been noticed, least I think they haven't but have only viewed two episodes. Like most of these Sentai shows the evil leaders have an endless army of fighters but ones who are often inept such as those in the first screenshot right above. However other monsters can be created and think we'll be seeing a new one in each show, right above is from the first episode where the creature was a gigantic Crab! These monsters are called Evolution Beasts and are quite powerful, even the Dynaman will have their hands full with them! Not positive but think the elites of the species are leading the battle against the human race from a space ship while most Jashinkas are living underground, sure things will become much clearer soon.
The race of the Jashinkas are a mixed breed, they look slightly human but their skin is green and and don't know how yet but seems they breeded with a species of Salamanders. All Jashinkas can grow TAILS, they look down on races or creatures who can't grow them which is one reason for attempting to take over the Earth! The amount of tails a Jashinka has determines the class they're in or power they have. Those soldiers above are the lowest ranked of the race as they have only one tail. But the powerful leaders all have more than five tails, the ultimate leader of the Jashinka Empire Emperor Aton has nine(!) and as of now have no idea why some are born with only one while others may have five. Tails can also withdraw into the body of a Jashinka if they need to disguise themselves. For most of this series there will only be three main Jashinka characters which is enough as there's six on the Dynaman team and an episode is 22 1/2 minutes long once you take away the opening/closing credits. The only key bit of info I don't know yet are how old the Jashinka people(?) are, could they all be a thousand or more years old? Guess that's possible and there's plenty of time for that and other details about this species to be revealed, not positive but they seem to be about the same height as humans. While they are an advanced race they do fight many of their battles the old fashioned way, with horses and their fists! So in a way those soldiers are good fighters but not against the Dynaman team has so many hi-tech weapons at their disposal but those Evolution Beasts are kind of an ace in the hole for the Jashinkas. Those beasts are some sort of lifeform that was created over time which does prove the Jashinkas are an advanced race, like the above there will be much editing to this section.
Takeshi Watanabe as Emporer Aton.... That's him right above and also below, he's the leader of the Jashinka Empire which has been around for thousands of years and is growing more powerful by the day! The Emperor usually stays at his underground(spaceship?) HQ but will leave at times to check out battle conditions. He has Nine Tails, the more the better for this species so having that many is what made him the leader. Emperor Alton is skilled with a sword and can shoot a beam from his left eye, to date he hasn't used it yet. What's unknown at this point is if and how a Jashinka can grow another tail?! For the Emperor's dream is to reach ten tails which would grant him immortality.
Masashi Ishibashi as General (C)Karr.... Don't know why but this is my current favorite character though that could change. General Karr seems to be second in command to the Emperor or at least he thinks so, he's such a ruthless soldier yet is very smart as he's also a scientist. The General has had a hand in developing the Evolution Beasts and has also been tutoring the Emperor's son Meggido. In combat General Karr can shoot beams from his sword and also his helmet which he only wears in battles. The General has Seven Tails is why he has such a high ranking in the Jashinka Empire but I'm thinking there has to be more than tails which determines where one ends up working, living, etc.
Takeki Hayashi as Prince of Megiddo.... Son of Emperor Aton and for now don't what Meggido is or if he has a regular name, don't think he does so may refer to him as Prince and/or Meggido. The Prince is a very capable fighter and especially with a sword, he's also a master at riding horses. Which is odd seeing for the Dynaman have ships and high tech weapons while the Prince rides a horse(?)! He's been tutored in fighting by General Karr though still has much to learn but the Prince is so avid and loyal to his species. When the series began Prince Meggido had five tails, he's now down to four as in the first episode he got into a scrap with Dyna Red who cut one off!!!! But being the son of Emperor Aton means the Prince is still a high ranking officer but he desperately wants to grow another tail and to avenge that incident by eliminating Dyna Red!!!! That sword is powerful, usually in a fight the Prince will come out on top and he's often the officer who leads the Jashinka troops in their battles which always happen on the Earth's surface.
Oki-doki, that above took so long but it could be my best intro section to date for a series. Of course so many other kinds of posts are terrific and having stunning women be the feature of them is what makes them so special but to me those intro sections to these shows are what I consider to be the best things I've done for posts. It wasn't always that way for if you check out drama recaps from a decade ago they look so different, much smaller and also much less info. However the above doesn't give details on what happens in each episode but reading the above does make what takes place in the recaps easier to understand, I often check above for certain tidbits. That section is so detailed it may mean the recaps themselves will be shorter and would love to see that happen... EDIT: Didn't happen for this recap! Other Bloggers can recap an entire series such as this one in two posts and that's something I will never be able to do though on the other hand many(most?) are worse than me when it comes to making a drama recap too long. But thinking about the length bet the actual recaps itself only takes up a third of the post and perhaps not even that much. EDIT #2: It has worked out as far as the length of the recaps go as they are shorter yet never leave out any key details. Am adding this in after viewing the fourth show, have done some editing to the above sections as the things I wasn't too clear about in these first two recaps are getting cleared up.
Was going to begin publishing these recaps on August 1st but moved that date up, it's a long series so needed to get going with it and didn't make any sense having these finished posts collect dust!
Let's get to things and what an exciting first episode this was, after the first few minutes it seemed to be non-stop action which was both good and bad. The Good being the time flew right by in this show and the fighting scenes were fun though so many kinds of weapons were introduced to us it was impossible to remember most of them. That's part of the Bad from this first show though hate to use that word. When there's a lot of hand to hand combat it does make it hard to take screenshots for the action moves so quick and because of that the screenshots can look blurry. Plus there's not much to recap when there's a long battle, scenes like those are much better to view than to read about. Enough blabbering so let's finally get to this first recap, hope I can remember what happened as it was four days ago when I viewed this show as it takes so long to write the above up plus did watch episode two before beginning this.
Which were a group of five young people, 18-22 in age, who were traveling separately along the same route as the tourist bus. One by one these individuals stopped to see what was going on, they witnessed humans being thrown into large eggs and what was that huge Crab? You can see some of that action above and none of the five knew each other at the time, by the end of the day they had already become close mates! Of the five four were men and there was one ultra kawaii woman! All five who I will introduce soon jumped into action to save these people who were trapped in these massive eggs that were being placed on a truck to be brought back to the Jashinka HQ. All of these kinds of shows have a vast Army of soldiers who fight and lose to the Heroes in almost every battle, that trend continues here and for now don't know if these soldiers have a name. EDIT: In episode four learned they are called Tail Soldiers. There had to be fifty of them who were armed yet the five soon-to-be-mates were able to repel all of them and save the humans trapped in the eggs, this scene is right above. All five were extremely skilled fighters even though none had any kinds of weapons like their opponents did, it appeared all five were skilled in many different kinds of Martial Arts and that assumption was quite true. It wasn't a long battle and it wasn't as one sided as it sounded for the Jashinka soldiers did have a weapon which could briefly paralyze their opponents, that's in the third to last screenshot. But eventually all of these soldiers retreated and so didn't the Crab but something odd did occur. For when the Jashinka Army retreated Tails began to spurt out of their hinds and immediately after they disappeared straight into the ground. There is a good reason for that as the very ancient Jashinka species has lived underground for thousands of years and can grow tails(!), most of the race have more than one tail!
It is hard to believe so few humans ever heard of this species which as mentioned must number in the millions and no government had ordered them to be slain or captured?! Fifteen years ago Yumeno had developed a potion named Retrogenes that would control and possibly exterminate the Jashinkas but they stole the potion and also killed Yumeno's girlfriend. Back then his last name had been Toyama, after her death he changed it to Kyutaro and don't know why. For the past fifteen years the professor/scientist/inventor has worked on ways to stop the Jashinka Empire from gaining control of the Earth, he's developed enough weapons and other gadgets for that purpose but of course needed a team. Which is where the group of five come in and on their first day were thrown into battle against an army of Jashinka soldiers, most of these above ground battles are led by the Jashinka in the bottom screenshot above. His name is Prince of Meggido and he's the son of the main ruler Emperor Aton, a takeoff of Atom? The bio section gives more details about the five who will work with Yumeno to protect the Earth, he's been secretly keeping tabs on them for years and will briefly introduce them. A rare thing is adding in a third paragraph to a section but it is needed this one time to discuss the team of five who did bond so quickly. They also adapted so fast to the weapons, gadgets and vehicles Yumeno invented as none of them needed any training!
The main leader of the five is Hokuto Dan(Dyna Red) who hails from Hokkaido and is a master at all Marital Arts, he's also an ace at motorcycle racing. Second of the five is Ryu Hashikawa(Dyna Black) who is so skilled at the Ninja style of fighting and is a descendant of the Iga-ryu Ninja clan, he believes in Space Aliens and is trying to design a transmitter to communicate with them. Next up is Yosuke Shima(Dyna Blue) who is 18 in age and is from the island of Ishigaki, he too is an excellent fighter plus is the best of the five at swimming and riding horses. The fourth is Kosaku Nango(Dyana Yellow) and his hometown is Kagoshima, he grew up on a farm and loves American Westerns, often he wears a cowboy hat. Kosaku doesn't have one major skill but is a well rounded fighter and the strongest of the five, he's been trying to create new ways to enable vegetables to grow quicker and larger to help humanity. A major reason the five were selected is that besides being so skilled at fighting all are extremely intelligent and have been working on or inventing ways to help the human race. The final of the Dynaman team is the lone female and what a cutie she is, Rei Tachibana(Dyna Pink) who is eighteen in age. She's from Tokyo and very skilled at fencing, Rei is also a superb fighter in hand to hand battles and the men on the team can barely beat her(!), she's very good at swimming and also in the field of Communications such as she knows the Sign Language. So those are the five who will be defending the Earth and who I will be talking about in each recap, actually six for their leader is Yumeno who we may see in battle. Right after they all had introduced themselves the Jashinka Empire struck, their attack was at the launching pad of a spaceship which is right above and within an hour of meeting each other the Science Squadron Dyna team were thrown into combat!!!!
But not just the battle as the Prince had one of his tails cut off by the Earthling and now he's down to four! The Prince of Meggido did say in the next episode that he desperately needs to grow another(!) and if that is possible we'll be learning how soon enough. To make a long post just a tad shorter all five of the Dynaman proved how skilled they are at fighting and with the help of professor's Yumemo's machines were able to repel this attack at the spaceship's launching pad and had forgotten that's why the five had been thrown into action! Not even the Evolution Beast below, the huge Crab, could help out the Jashinka army all that much in the battle, while the beast was huge it didn't have any weapons. Who did was the Crab's opponent which is in the fifth and sixth screenshots down, the Dynaman team has many smallish vehicles/gadgets and when they say "Combine! Grand Slam" in unison those vehicles form into that one huge Robot which is close to eighty feet tall. Plus it can fire lasers and such so while the Crab beast was stronger it was quickly killed because of the lethal beams of rays, with that the Prince and his army retreated back into the depths of the Earth! Whew, did cut the ending down a bit but there's plenty of screenshots from this battle and it's hard to give a blow by blow account of what took place. While writing this up had to remind myself there's 51 episodes so of course there's many things we viewers don't know about this show yet but will be revealed as we go along. So thanks if you read this first recap and most of the time it's the longest one for a series, the next post has the recap for episode two and that also had so much action though luckily not quite as much.
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