| Short, partial Itadakiman review |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|11:03 pm] |
I finally had the chance to start watching Itadakiman, the 20 episodes long Time Bokan series that aired in 1983.
As you may or may not know, I was a bit...skeptical about it before watching. The only reason, admittedly, being the awkward, VERY weak costume design of the villains (who are always my favorite characters in every Time Bokan series). BUT to my surprise, the series is actually VERY well designed, with a decent animation, original and enjoyable, even if I'm watching it with no subtitle and almost zero knowledge of Japanese or the plot itself >.>
I knew the story was about certain "Oshaka Puzzle" pieces that had to be found around the world, something both the good and bad guys were after. What I did NOT know, because pretty much every site does NOT mention it, is that yokai, shape-shifting animal monsters found in Japanese tradition, have a BIG role in it! Pretty much every puzzle piece so far (I'm up to episode 5 now) was in the possession of some kind of animal. These yokai take shape of normal people, only to later reveal their true appearance. They then turn into robots and are then controlled by the villains, but once the hero of the story (Itadakiman) defeats them, they go back to a normal animal shape and the Oshaka puzzle piece is picked up by the good guys.
This for example was the mole yokai of episode 4. See his gold claw? That's a piece of the Oshaka puzzle!
    
This was the fox of episode 5. You can see her yokai form, normal animal form, and mecha form (I forgot to take a picture of her human form - she was a beautiful woman in that form). Her story was SO sad ;_;
The trio you see in the second picture, by the way, are the good guys. None of them though is the real hero of the series. They just have to find the Oshaka puzzle pieces, and when they are interrupted by a danger, they call for Itadakiman's help (whose real identity they don't know).
  
The usual Time Bokan style trio of villains is now helped by a cute green haired girl that is some kind of yokai too... since she has a tail and can turn into their vehicle, the Denden mecha.
 
As for the monkey-looking kid, he's no other than Itadakiman himself in disguise! His weapons and powers are inspired by the legend of Son Goku. He has cool shape shifting animal vehicles that he rarely really uses...
Opinions so far? As I said, the design of the villains, the real protagonists of the show, seems very childish and they are not on par with people like the Dorombo trio or the Ojamaman, or even the Mirenjo Ichimi. Though the series is so full of new elements, that you easily forget that the bad guys are even uglier than what they should be, as the stories are never boring, and the character/mecha design is very good aside from some possibly "picked-by-color-blind-people" color choices. I also admit, there are a bit too many characters for my tastes, and none of them is really well developed. I think Itadakiman was not very popular even in Japan, since it was the last Time Bokan series shown for some years, and it only lasted 20 episodes instead of the usual 50-ish (while Yatterman, the most popular, lasted 108!).
The series is slightly more "ecchi" than the other ones I've watched so far (Yatterman, Otasukeman, spare episodes of the original Time Bokan, and Yattodetaman), so it has more gratuitous boobs here and there. Not really a problem from me, but I thought I'd mention it in case any of you wants to watch it ;)
I'll have a more complete review once I watch all the 20 episodes. |
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