Silver Kamen

[Zone Fighter]

I've watched the first two episodes of this. They were painful to watch. If the remaining 24 episodes are similar its going to be hard going. Both episodes, especially the first, are too dark. Apparently they had no budget for lights and/or not the best film. The camera placement is weird. Makes me think the camera men and director were either drunk on saki or simply had no idea how to film a tv series or both. The camera is either on the floor, angled up at the actors or in their faces so the face of whoever is talking fills the screen. Even a scene of a truck driving down the road and being attacked is shown in close up. First of the back, then the front, then a side view. To watch the rest of this serious I'm going to need several bottles of plum wine (I don't do rice wine).

As far as I could tell there was no explination as to how the hero came about. He wears silver framed glasses which let him see who is really a monster in disguise. I guess its this that lets him transform. These glasses get him in trouble. With one exception, when he sees a monster he instantly tries to go after it, but people, even his friends stop him. I don't get it. They know he has the glasses. The one exception makes no sense to me. He sees the monster but all he does is hand the glasses to a woman so she can see the man is a monster too. Then has a chat with the monster.

The first couple of times the henshin sequence consists of moving hand over throat (maybe he's saying I should have cut my throat rather then do this turkey), jumping in the air, and flipping over. Then he runs around after villains who are faster than he is. When he actually transforms for the fight at the end he skips the hand gesture. There is no henshin phrase.

Most of the episodes consist of talking, little action. The monsters might be interesting if like everybody else they weren't show in mostly close ups.

At least in the first two episodes Silver Kamen has no special powers he just beats the monsters to death. I've been told that at some point Silver Kamen becomes a giant, but not in the first two episodes. I think the picture, borrowed from Japan Hero, is of the giant form. At least in the first two episodes Silver Kamen's chin is uncovered, not silver. So either they change the mask at some point, or like Toho's Zone Fighter his human sized form and giant sized form wear different masks (in ZF's case I believe the giant sized face is his meant to be his real face).

Silver Kamen is from Nippon Gendai Planning which also did Iron King (explaining why the pictures I've seen of IK look a lot like SK), Super Robot Red Baron and Super Robot Mach Baron. Silver Kamen makes me think I should avoid these other shows. I guess not evey 70s tokusatsu was good.

[Xenorama ™]

i've watched about 12 of them, right before he turns giant. but i had a hard time getting into the show as well. i like what i've seen of Mach Baron and i do enjoy Iron King as well, but this one was definately hard to get into. perhaps if i knew Japanese it would help.

[Zone Fighter]

Walter O. who has provided me with monster names from other series and likes Silver Kamen told me that the basic plot, at least until the giant episodes, is that a scientist has created blueprints of a rocket ship which would be powerful enough to travel to other planets and the inhabitants of other worlds afraid of humans invading their planets come to Earth to make sure the ship is not built. Apparently they are working independently of one another.

[August]

I love SILVER KAMEN. To someone who doesn't speak Japanese, the show might be "boring", like a non-English speaking Japanese might find an episode of TWILIGHT ZONE or OUTER LIMITS (original shows, of course). I got the entire series when I first lived in Japan in 1985 -- and fell in love with it and now I have the DVD box -- before that I had only seen photos and then I got a Japanese article on the show that extolled the virtues of the show. Everything about the show is calculated by talented people -- the same folks behind episodes 8, 12, 43 & 44 of ULTRA SEVEN, director Akio Jissoji and art director Noriaki Ikeya (who designed the bulk of ULTRA SEVEN's bizarre aliens after Tohl Narita left the show). There's nothing wrong with the photography of SILVER KAMEN -- it's purposely dark and artsy -- it creates tension and claustrophobia, also the compositions are calculated, close-ups and odd angles, alike. It's one of the reasons I love this show, and that it is universally respected by Japanese fans.

The concept was to make a "realistic" superhero series, trying to ground SILVER KAMEN in as much reality the concept would bare. The first 10 episodes are about the sons and daughters of Professor Kasuga, who are on the run from aliens because they carry a secret -- their father hid the plans for a lightspeed engine inside each of their bodies, to keep the discovery available for mankind (a plot deviced "borrowed" by KIKAIDA 01). He transforms his son, Koji, into a cyborg guardian for his children. The aliens, who believe that the humans are not evolved enough as a race and will only cause havoc and destruction if they journey out into the cosmos, are out to keep the technology out of humanity's hands. (This is similar to the plot of the recent ULTRA SEVEN: EVOLUTION).

Since the series was up against MIRRORMAN in the same timeslot on opposing networks, SILVER KAMEN lost in the ratings game, and so the show was jazzed up as an Ultraman clone, starting with Episode 11 -- this is when the title of the show changed to SILVER KAMEN GIANT, and the series went from introspective and speculative SF to Daikaiju Smash-o-Rama. It starts with the Kasugas having unlocked their father's secret, are now on their way to the Andromeda nebula. When the light speed engine is damaged, Koji transforms into Silver Kamen to shield his siblings from radioactive bombardment -- which mutates him to transform into Silver Kamen Giant.

After the relative failure to find an audience in 1971/72, Senkosha/Nippon Gendai Planning didn't make the same mistake again, and went back to making more action-oriented shows. IRON KING is action-packed with the main character Shizuka Gentaro fighting tons of henchmen, and his partner Kirishima Goro transforming into the hydrogen-powered giant cyborg Iron King. Damon Foster of Oriental Cinema magazine calls IRON KING, "One of my all-time favorite series".

SUPER ROBOT: RED BARON actually ups the ante, with a whole team of martial arts-trained robot smashers, the SSI, chopping and kicking their way through Dr. Deviler's hordes of automatons, while Kurenai Ken kicks giant robot ass in the powerful Red Baron, created by his father. Damon Foster said this of RED BARON: "With non-stop action and fighting in every episode, if you don't like RED BARON, there's something wrong with you, and you must be a jerk."

SILVER KAMEN is an excellent show for those who can understand more than elementary Japanese and are looking for something completely different than the same-old, same-old. IRON KING and RED BARON are more basic and perfect for viewers with ADD, or those who like lots of action and little in the way of dialogue.

Enjoy! BTW, RED BARON and IRON KING have EXCELLENT theme songs!

[Zone Fighter]

Everything is wrong with the photography of Silver Kamen. The camera work makes it nauseating and headache producing.

[August]

That's your opinion -- it doesn't make it right, though, and doesn't stop legions of Japanese fans from loving this show. If SILVER KAMEN were so bad, then there's no way it would have been released on VHS, Laserdisc (twice) and DVD. That's okay if you don't like the show, but don't try to bash it because you can't understand it.