Zebraman says, "I know why I fight. It is for dreams. Not my dreams. It is for his dreams!"

Two days, two posts. Not bad. We'll have to see how long I keep this momentum.

Today's Takashi Miike selection: Zebraman

Trailer here:

Another Miike superhero movie!

Okay, I did Yatterman yesterday, so I figured I would jump back a couple of years and watch his previous superhero outings. Stay tuned, because I'm reviewing Zebraman II: Attack on Zebra City next.


Right away with this one I could tell it was a more straightforward superhero movie. It drives home even more that Yatterman must have been satirical. Basic setup here, we have a junior high homeroom teacher named Shinichi Ichikawa. Shinichi has almost no joy in life. Neither his son nor daughter pay any attention to him, and his wife is unhappy. He is also disliked by his students. At the same time we see on the news that violent crime is on the rise. Then one day his class gets a new transfer student: the wheelchair-bound Asano. Shinichi and Asano have something in common. They both love Zebraman.

Zebraman is a typical Japanese superhero show from Shinichi's youth, a-la Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Zebraman was a junior high teacher by day, fighter of crime by night. The foe that Zebraman squared off against were green aliens that can possess humans. Zebraman was an ill-fated show (I am presuming that the Zebraman show is fictional, not a real historical show). It only lasted 13 episodes before it was cancelled.

Shinichi sews himself a real life Zebraman costume, and he beats up pillows in his man-cave at night wishing he was cool. One night he gets up the guts to wear the costume out and goes to Asano's house so they can geek out together over it (kind of creepy if you stop to think about it). On the way there he comes across a man committing a crime. The man attacks him on sight, and Shinichi is astounded that upon being attacked he finds that he can actually fight with the prowess of the real (fictional) Zebraman. Not only that, but when he injures his attacker the man bleeds a strange green substance!

The rest I will leave up to you to find out for yourself. This is by far the most mundane film I have seen by Miike, showing none of his usual perversions. It was a good film, though. On a scale of 1 - 5 it gets a firm ***.

One interesting thing I'd like to point out. At one point the government calls in a jet fighter in order to blow something up. It gets a big entrance, and the camera lingers on the text "Made In The USA" printed on the jet's side. I'm not going to assume any particular reason for this, I just found it interesting.