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. **** In episode ten the length of an episode was shortened to twenty minutes. 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 but didn't for this series. The average rating for all 51 episodes was 10.6% and did do something different beginning for the third recap. Which is having all of the ratings here instead of just the current show, for today have the first ten episodes. Will keep adding ten more in every tenth recap so it will be updated three more times as this series goes along. The first show had the highest rating and you will notice it quickly dipped but remained somewhat steady for a while. Until the fourteenth show as for the first time the rating fell below 10% and for now can't give a reason for that... hope it's not because of the show's quality!
Episode one: 16.9%.... Episode two: 14.4%.... Episode three..... 13.8%
Episode four: 14.6%.... Episode five: 13.9%.... Episode six:12.0%
Episode seven: 11.5%.... Episode eight: 12.1%.... Episode nine: 10.6%
Episode ten: 12.9%.... Episode eleven: 11.6%.... Episode twelve: 11.3%
Episode thirteen: 11.0%.... Episode fourteen: 9.0%.... Episode fifteen: 8.1%
Episode sixteen: 8.9%.... Episode seventeen: 9.3%.... Episode eighteen: 9.6%
Episode nineteen: 7.3%.... Episode twenty: 9.8%
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 Kosaku Nangou/Dyna Yellow.... From the city of Kagoshima which is on the island of Kyushu. Kosaku is twenty in age and loves farming, also American Westerns as he often wears cowboy hats and similar clothing. Like his four teammates Kosaku is an aspiring inventor and having such dreams is why their leader Yumeno selected them to be a Dynaman. Kosaku 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. In the fourth show we did learn that Kosaku loves Ramen and has been trying to invent a machine that will fully cook a bowl in a matter of seconds.... but his attempts have always failed!
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, most of 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! Added in a section below the character bios explaining much more about the Beasts.
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. edit: Learned in the fourth episode the soldiers are called Tail Soldiers. 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 om the Earth's surface.
Mari Kono as Princess Chimera.... She was introduced to the series in the eighth episode, added in this bio for the ninth show. The Princess is quite an alluring woman and has such special powers so hope to see quite a bit of her. Chimera is the cousin of the above Prince, Chimera's mother is the younger sister of Emperor Aton. Chimera has four tails, the more the better for one of the Jashinka species. That special power mentioned is because of her Red Wand which can do so many different things. Such as transport the Princess from one spot to another at the snap of a finger, it can also create a lethal whip and also shoot out a paralyzing beam!
**** A very important tidbit about the Evolution Beast which is why this is separate. When a beast has been defeated and is dying the monster enters a stage called Big Bang Process. It's remaining cells regenerate rapidly and the beast grows to a size larger than it had been, this newer version is called Super Evolution Beast. In most shows the beast does go through this process because of being beaten by the Science Squadron Dynaman team but those battles are getting tougher with each show. What I'm not sure of is how long the life span of this new creature is for it's always lost a second time after regenerating.
Previous recaps
Have said in many recent dramas that at times it could be a wise idea to wait until many episodes have been recapped and then come to this section. For the way Blogger is built you can't out the shows in order from one to fifty or whatever which I can understand and all Blogs or sites are that way. So for instance if this was the recap for the eighth episode you could just come here and start reading the recaps from the first episode and to me that makes it so much easier, know I would do that if other blogs were set up this way but doubt if many are.
Whew, that took a while but least from here on out just a bit of editing will need to be done and mainly just every other recap. But do know that one more character will be added into the Dynaman bio section and also one more for the Jashinkas, there was a major character added in for episode eight. In the fifth episode added in the below video which is such an ultra terrific one and will leave it here for a while as it's by far the best for this series! A fan collected all of the mini previews and put them together in one post plus has a few other scenes, the huge key is that it's subbed in English! After the video will have a screenshot that shows the title of the episode that's being recapped..... will start a countdown ala beer bottles(!).... only 39 more episodes to go!
That top pic/card I bet is worth some $$ as it's over forty years old! If I can find a few other cards, promo pics, perhaps a mag spread or whatever will add some of those into the bottom of this intro section which changes with each post. I think those older things are so interesting but it's probably so difficult finding things from a so-so popular Sentai series that aired in 1983/84. Right above is Mari Kono who plays Princess Chimera in this show and was introduced in the eighth episode, doesn't she look so darn alluring in that Red uniform?! To me she does and like Dyna Pink from this series released a nude photobook two years after the show ended! Those bottom two pics are from it and Mari also doffed her attire in a pair of movies back in the 1980's so know those may end up on my 'To Watch List'!!!!
Left Mari Kono's paragraph and pics above for one more post, I actually think she looks a bit more sultry in her red uniform than out of it! Two weeks back did say the odds were high I would take a mini hiatus after this recap so as not to get burnt out on this series. The plan was to review a view movies or maybe a mini drama of eight episodes and return to this series. But will continue on for a while with this show, it's far from being a classic Sentai series but I'm enjoying it and these recaps are easy enough to do but wish I could pick up the pace a bit in doing them. Have a feeling the 39 episodes after this could be about the same as the first dozen so am thinking of stopping this soon and moving on to another series in my massive cache. So getting to twenty episodes is what my new plan is and in a way that should be enough for a show such as this one which has no true continuing story. Often don't need to finish recapping a series and many times it's happened when I abort a show halfway through but usually do finish viewing it. So for now twenty episodes is the target which means about the second week in September is when I would begin on the next series and for now have no clue what that would be.
Then again may not stop there and take that hiatus at twenty recaps, no rush on that decision yet. The first screenshot above is the title of this twelfth episode which featured yet another odd Evolution Beast which is in the third screenshot above and in many more below. It may not look it but then again it's not a small parasite we're used to seeing close up which is a Flea! It was an original idea to have something like that as a creature to control the Earth but once again it was a far fetched scheme devised by General Karr and the Jashinka Empire. In the middle screenshot is what happens to a human bitten by the Flea or another human that had been bitten. They grow that fang like tooth and with that they attack other humans and suck out their blood, more on the Beast in the recap. Once again do want to add in why hasn't General Karr created about 25 of these Evolution Beasts at once as they could do much more damage and there's no way the Science Squadron Dynaman team could defeat such a large group of evil creatures. If that's not possible then could the Jashinka's have many different beasts fight together, we've had a dozen unique beasts to date so why not have them fight as a team? Maybe I'm overthinking things but it would help out this series if the Jashinka Empire could end an episode or two as the victors which has never happened which means things have become predictable. Let's finally get to what took place and did give away too many spoilers.
Emperor Aton was a bit disappointed with this first attack of Flea as he only infected about five humans, at this rate the plan for dominating the Earth would never be achieved! The massive problem for Flea is and perhaps real ones too is that it constantly needs to suck down blood and a lot of it! One way for Flea or humans bitten by it to get blood is to bite another victim with that fang which somehow can suck blood but the process is a slow one. So for now the plan will be for Flea to accumulate as much blood as possible to have a large supply of it and then begin on his mission to conquer Earth! At first this plan was semi-successful as Flea raided a slew of blood banks and hijacked many trucks carrying blood, it doesn't matter what type it is. Assisting Flea on his raids were the Tail Soldiers, they're no match against the Science Squadron Dynaman team but can usually beat an average human being. But these attacks are only taking place in the Tokyo area so it would take an eternity to obtain enough blood and turn humans into Fleas to conquer the world! Haven't mentioned the Dynaman team yet and by now over five minutes of the show had passed, the five were at their leader's Yumeno Invention Center with the neighborhood children. Above you will see a cuckoo clock, it's used to alert the five in the Dynaman team when they're desperately needed and that clock wouldn't alarm children. Quickly their leader and founder Yumeno filled the heroes in on the situation, there's now a blood shortage in the Tokyo area and their mission is to find Flea and the Jashinkas responsible for this shortage ASAP! At first there was no success for the Dynaman team, that is until they posed as workers transporting blood to a center and that's the top two screenshots below.
That dog Muku somehow escaped from the Dynaman HQ which is located at the back of a dam(!) below the Yumeno Invention Center. At the time Rei was out with her comrade Shima aka Dyna Blue looking for Flea so couldn't return to their HQ with her pet. But the pair weren't far from an animal shelter so for safe keeping dropped off Muku there for a few hours, it just so happened that next door was a blood bank! Rei and Shima had a brilliant scheme, they stopped at a nearby liquor store and tainted the blood at the bank with the alcohol they purchased and guess who arrived once they were complete? Of course it was Flea and his group of Tail Soldiers, this scene is right above. Also above it shows that Flea had attacked even more humans for their blood, by this point it had really reminded me of a Vampire movie! At the blood bank Rei and Shima stayed hidden while Flea consumed the vast amount of blood, but with it being tainted with alcohol the Beast soon became quite inebriated! Above you can also see Rei tempting Flea with another shot of the liquor laced blood, don't think I could say no to her! Soon after another battle commenced which in a way continued on for the rest of the episode, though not in their Dynaman uniforms Rei and Shima gave the Tail Soldiers all they could handle. During that mini skirmish Flea was trying to sober up and he was doing so very quickly, sensing they were about to become outmatched the two Dynaman fled from the blood bank to a nearby small forest.
This process can make a beast about ten times as large plus it's weapons are much more powerful. To date all of these regenerated beasts have died within two minutes and I've wondered how long could it live? If for a while it'd be smart to flee and live to fight another day. That's because no Evolution Beast has been able to defeat the Dynaman's most powerful weapon, Dyna Robo, and that eighty foot tall robot is below. It's created by four smaller vehicles from their powerful ship DyJupiter and can only operate when all five Dynaman are on the ship at the same time. Dyna Robo has too many weapons to list, my favorite is the Dyna Laser used in the fifth screenshot below, Flea had no chance against that so the Dynaman team now has a perfect 12-0 record against the Jashinka Empire! All of the humans that were bitten by Flea or half human/flea creatures were cured when given regular human blood and with that this recap comes to its conclusion. As mentioned this is no award winning series but it's quite fun and enjoyable though it's become a bit too predictable. Would like to step up the pace with these recaps but it probably won't happen so expect the next pair in about four days.
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