Aian kingu

Iron King is one of those tokusatsu shows that are just underrated, but I really do like it. So, as many know, this show has Gentaro Shizuka, a cowboyish dude with a whip, and Goro Kirishima, the guy who is Iron King. Iron King, the hero of the show, is nothing really special. Just a giant Ultraman-esque guy who runs on water. I do have a favoring for him, though. He just is a very interesting hero and it is probably one of the coolest toku heroes out there. For the first 10 episodes, they fight the Shiranui Clan. The guys in the clan have these black helmets (some you could see their full face the others you just see their eyes) and these apron like thingies that are black for the normal ones, white for the commanders, and gold for the leader. The monsters that they bring out are very human-like robots. Goro and Gentaro fight the Phantom Militia from episodes 11-18. They look very Arabian and have different colored bodysuits. They bring out saurian monsters. Finally, from 19-26, they fight the Titanians. They are white faced aliens with fedoras and capes on and are just pure nightmare fuel. They send out insectoid monsters. Anyways, this show is very enjoyable, and it has a good amount of drama, comedy, and sci-fi all mixed into one! I'm not going to spoil this amazing show for you, so go and buy the DVD and watch this awesome show for yourself!

This was a Japanese TV show about two guys who fight over 26 episodes three separate and distinct factions that want to take over everything. This is really for teens, so I am not the target audience, so the review is based on that. The two guys are kind of immature, again something that would appeal more to teens. Women in this series do not fare well, most of them end up dying or ignored. The special effects are, at times, pretty bad in that buildings are obvious toy models. Okay, but here are some good things: In the good versus evil category, the series teaches trust, resolve and friendship. The Iron King of the title is a giant superhero, conjured up when Gentaro needs someone to help him in his attempts to thwart the enemy. Those sequences are fun. If you watched this as a child/teen then, you'd smile, especially realizing how advanced special effects have become. Adults can skip this, its pretty much a young person's show. My review of 6 is mixed. Kids up to 16 or so may rate this higher.

I used to see these Japanese shows when I was young. You know the type, evil doers send giant monsters on the attack and some guy has the power to turn into a giant robot or something and fights them. So when I saw a bunch of series like that at Wal-Mart I figured I would buy them seeing as how they were relatively cheap for complete collections of shows. I also got one called "Super Robot Red Baron" and one I have heard of quite often "Ultraman". Well I watched this one first and I did not get quite what I was expecting from reading about the show on the back of the box. Instead of the usual, it was quite different. The show follows Gentaro and Goro as they are always after these bad guys who through most of the series used giant robots and later turned into space insects. Gentaro was the lead guy often fighting the giant beings himself. Goro would later turn into Iron King and proceed to hold off the enemy until Gentaro defeated the dude with the remote. Other times, Iron King would simply get his butt kicked by the bad guys. I think he finally got to take out his first bad guy in episode 16 as he for some reason gained more power and was able to shoot lasers he never did in the first episodes. The show was interesting as it had these two guys walking the countryside trying to find the bad guys, first some strange guys in helmets called I believe the Shuruni clan. They used giant robots that looked like the bad guys off a Mega Man game. Then they took on the Phantom Militia who used giant robot dinosaurs that at some points sounded like air being let out of a balloon. Then finally they fought the Titanias an alien race that wore capes and hats and seemed to get short changed as the show must of been canceled as their part in the show seemed a bit rushed. There was a gal in the first six or so episodes that was sort of a main character, but then she departed, then it was nearly a new girl every show with no girl coming on more than two episodes. All the ones featuring the Titanians though had the same girl, her name being Tenko as she worked for the same security force as the main two characters. All in all it was rather fun and the story interesting. I just can not believe Gentaro could never figure out that Goro was Iron King. I mean at one point even the bad guys figured it out.

Now those familiar with the giant Japanese hero formula of the early 70's was that the hero had the ability to turn big, he joins a Science Group in charge of saving earth from the invaders/bad guys, he turns into the giant hero when all else fails and saves the day and his team members. Well IRON KING is completely different.

The basic premise as Shôji Ishibashi as Gentarô Shizuka, a loner type who in the first chapter (episode 1 thru 10) tries to stop the Unknown Clan from taking over Japan, as they are a clan thats been suppressed for 10,000 years and is now is their destiny to rule Japan, as they have 10 sub-bosses, each with a remote control to control a giant robot. Their leader is played by Shinzo Hotta, who was memorable as Tokageron (lizard man) in Kamen Ryder, and as General Monster in one of the new Kamen Riders and as Arigaban's controller in Aka Kage. When Gentaro is in trouble, his tag-along, Gorô Kirishima, unknown to Gentaro, transforms into IRON KING.

But here is the difference, IRON KING proves to be super weak as he has no special powers whatsoever, as he is easily defeated by the evil robot, so in the end Gentaro saves Iron King's butt by using his steel metal whip (??!!) usually destroying the robot, unfortunatly, the method he uses in destroying the robot actually contradicts with the NEXT episode! Like for example, in the first episode, Gentao destroys Vaccumila by fighting the sub-boss/controller of Vacuumila, who them jumps up to his robot, but drops the remote control, so Gentaro throws the remote control to the robot, making the robot blow up! In episode 2, he steals the remote away from the guy controlling Jairocket, so he somehow knew how to operate the remote, and controls Jairocket, who just beat up Iron King, as Jirocket picks up his master, and squeezes him, killing him causing the robot to blow up! Then in episode 3, he destroys the remote for Double Satan, so it and the boss runs, so when it appears again, beating up Iron King, Gentaro sees a opening in Double Satan, so he throws a gernade in it, blowing it up, BUT in the next episode, he whips the guy controlling Devil Tiger, so the guy drops the remote, which makes Devil Tiger blow up, falling on the controller!

Now if thats possible, why didnt Double Satan Blow up? Or why didn't Black Knight, whos master got killed by Gentaro, blow up as well? the reason Iron King was so weak, and Gentaro was the one finishing off the robots was at the time, Shôji Ishibashi was a popular Tv star with the girl viewers, so in order to make him look good, and to appeal to the girl viewers, he was the one who kill the baddies. This went on until in episode 11, when a new bad group, the Mirage Army, took over, with their remote controlled Dinosaur robots, which again, had Gentaro saving Iron King and destryoing them, usually by using his whip to catch a missile shot out by the dinosaur robot, and he threw it back at them! and from episode 9 to 18, they had the "it" girl of the moments, usually japanese Tv actresses to singers, making guest appearences, as the show to me seem to really wanted to distance itself away from the usual Japanese kid show audiences.Even the cool end credit theme was like a cool "kakoii" theme song, like a regular top 40 hit.

But I guess someone must have said enough is enough, as on episode 16, Iron King FINALLY gotten some weapons (unlike other super heros, he had no weapons whatsoever) and even gotten a "finisher" to kill the monsters. Also when episode 18 started, those 2 was finally revealed to be working for a science organization, as a new leading lady regular was added, as they faced Titanians, 10 aliens who had the power to turn into a giant bug monster (but only 6 turned into a monster, I guess they didn't plan on ending the show at episode 26?)

Still it is a very enjoyable and fun show, and still holds up today, thanks to it being so unique and different from the typical shows of that era (like the Tsuburuyara shows like FIREMAN and JUMBORG ACE).