Come one, come all, as I give you, dear reader, a peak behind the proverbial curtain. When I turned in my last Gavan piece to the Editor-in-Chief of Kaiju United, I called it my “madman ravings.” In truth, as work began on this series, the focus of it shifted dramatically. Originally, I intended for far more of an analysis of the episodes. I wanted to dive deep into the behind the scenes, the themes, the effects, yada yada yada. Kaiju United, through various sources, even hooked me up with some stellar research tomes for said information on Gavan (which I appreciated and will use as we progress). But, I felt that kind of defeated the purpose of this endeavor. I’m watching this show for the very first time; I want my reactions to be rawer and more natural. Think of this less as an analytic take on Gavan, and more of a running commentary of my experience. I think that makes it more fun for both you, the reader, and me, the viewer/writer. And if I can inspire just ONE more person to take this journey with me, then it is all worth it. So, without further ado, let’s dive back into Space Sheriff Gavan.
EPISODE V: MIMI CRIES! THE COBRA BULLET STRIKES RETSU!
‘Last time, it was about ancient demonic helmets. This time, we’re immediately thrown into an international incident. A peace activist named Dr. Joe Smith (Perhaps the most American name ever) is shot while visiting Japan. We’re shown right away the sniper was wielded by Hunter-Killer! We quickly shift back to the ranch where Retsu is conversing with the children. When he receives his paycheck, it’s shorter than he expected. His pay was docked for all the time he spent off the ranch, meaning his superheroing as Gavan is costing him. I can’t help but immediately think of Spider-Man with this sort of plot, and it adds another dimension to Gavan that we haven’t seen yet. Oyama arrives and asks Retsu to be the personal bodyguard for Joe Smith, who survived his ordeal but is still in need of protection. This is such a Peter Parker plot, with Retsu torn between his job on the ranch and being Gavan. He doesn’t want to disappoint the kids or the boss, but he can’t resist helping fight evil. The Juxtaposition of being a Superhero.
Joe Smith is once again attacked by the forces of Makuu. This time it’s a semi-truck full of Crushers and our kaiju of the week, the Dokuja Monster. This is probably the most straightforward of all the BEMs we’ve seen so far in terms of design. It is literally a big cobra man. He would fit right in amongst King Hiss’s Snake Men in the Masters of the Universe franchise, I mean he looks like Kobra Khan anyway. He straight up gnaws on a guys head and neck while the Crushers murder the guards protecting activist Smith. The bad guys commandeer the car but are soon intercepted by Gavan!
Cyberian has a laser turret that is pretty effective. Gavan and Dokuja briefly battle each other, with the snake man using his…tail? I can’t quite tell if it’s his tail or if he extended his arm like Mr. Fantastic. Anyway, he flings Gavan around by the neck before being overpowered. Hunter-Killer appears out of nowhere and withdraws the BEM. Gavan gets Mr. Smith to safety and we cut to Retsu watching over him in a hotel room.
Mimi follows the Makuu forces, surveying their base of operations in her bird form. Suddenly, she’s grabbed by a cobra! Luckily she escapes rather quickly. This show has a sense of urgency that few shows have. I know I’ve commented previously at how break-neck the pace of this show is, but only by watching it can you truly grasp it. WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, CAN’T YOU SEE THE WORLD IS IN DANGER!?
Retsu attempts to sneak into the Makuu base but he’s shot out of the sky. But what’s this? We actually get a pretty significant twist. Joe Smith is seen with Hunter-Killer! You know, they’ve gone to this quite a few times, with a Makuu soldier disguising themselves as a “good guy”. But this time, I genuinely did not see it coming. Is this a fake Joe Smith? Or has Joe Smith been a ruse the whole time? Hunter-Killer tells Smith he shot Gavan with a bullet laced with Dokuja’s venom.
Needless to say, our hero is hurting. Mimi cares for him, but his situation is dire. The makeup job here on Retsu is quite believable. The venom is said to be 200x more potent than that of a cobra. Yeesh! Hunter-Killer and Joe Smith stand before Don Horror and it is revealed that Joe Smith is actually a really cool bison looking dude. According to the Wiki, this is known as Doubleman Mercan. I really really dig this design and it’s one of my favorite villain designs in the show. I’m a sucker for horned, bestial designs and Mercan delivers, resembling a cross between Batman’s Man-Bat and a minotaur of sorts. I also love that every now and then they introduce a Doubleman that is completely unique. Last article, I was pretty critical of the Kaiju designs and I still stand by that wholeheartedly, but as for the other villains? I think their aesthetic rules! They’re all wonderful weirdos, costumes you can really only get with Toku. Are they a little silly? Yeah! That’s part of the appeal.
Mimi contacts her father, Commander Qom, and informs him the antidote isn’t working, Gavan is slipping fast. It’s utterly refreshing to see Gavan in actual peril. It not only shows the audience he’s not invincible, but also gives the supporting cast a little more time in the spotlight. Qom sends Marine with a special wonder drug called Bird-C-C. Will it be enough to save Gavan?
The answer is yes. Gavan is recovering. The two women, Mimi and Marine, both try to dab the sweat from Gavan’s brow. They actually get briefly frustrated with each other and quarrel over who gets to tend to him. I guess Gavan is quite the ladies man. I don’t talk enough about the music of this show. I’m a big fan of funk music, and this soundtrack is fuuuuuuunky. I bet if you played this soundtrack at some clubs it would be a hit, very easy to vibe and groove with.
The prescience of this episode is not lost on me. An evil organization is meeting with weapons manufacturers from across the globe to incite a world war. The commentary may be minute and relatively lax, but it’s still nice they injected something to say in a 42 year old Toku show. Unfortunately, it looks like some things never change.
Retsu confronts his would-be killers and battle ensues. Gavan in his Retsu form beats the tar out of some Crushers (as usual) and fends off attacks from the Dokuja Man. But then, we get one of the coolest Henshins this show has done so far. The Doubleman Mercan attempts to shoot Retsu, but as he fires, we cut back to Gavan catching the bullet. That would’ve been fine, but that narrator barges in to give us the normal spill about “It only takes a mere 50 milliseconds” for Gavan to transform. We rewind back to Mercan firing the bullet in slow-mo (or actually just the actor moving slower) and then bam, ELECTROPLATE!.
You know what happens next. Gavan and his foes are sucked into another realm. This one is interesting because there’s not elaborate matte paintings for the background, but rather it bears a resemblance to the inner workings of a kaleidoscope. Pretty trippy. It kinda gives it a 60s vibe. It’s a two on one handicap match as Gavan battles both the Dokuja Monster and Doubleman Mercan simultaneously.
The next scene made me laugh out loud. Gavan is transported further beyond and now appears in a desert with the galaxian portal superimposed over the footage. Gavan is attacked by a barrage of rubber snakes and flings them around very humorously. This unintentionally funny scene is capped off by the Dokuja Monster running at Gavan, but the footage is sped up considerably. Giving off big Benny Hill energy.
Dokuja meets the same fate as all of Gavan’s foes, falling to Lazer Z beam. But in a twist, Mercan then attacks Gavan from the stars! He and some minions fire upon Gavan from their space ships. It’s Dol time, baby! The cybernetic dragon awakens and quickly evens the playing field. Mercan ejects from his destroyed vessel and engages with Gavan hand to hand, once again. It doesn’t last though, as just like the several who have come before him, Mercan is split in half by Gavan’s Laser Sword.
The episode ends with a lighthearted trip shopping with Retsu, Mimi, and Marine. Marine wants a very expensive outfit that Retsu definitely can’t afford. He asks Mimi for money and she scoffs at it. Marine then sells a ring for a literal briefcase full of cash. This is truly a Peter Parker plot with Gavan now in an inadvertent love triangle. But it doesn’t last, as Marine returns home. And thats it!
I really enjoyed this one. Some genuine twists I did not see coming, the always satisfying action scenes, but what really puts this one high on the list is that we get some character development. Not to beat a dead horse, but adding some Spider-Man-esque drama (as small of a dose as it is) to Gavan really works and endears me to the characters even more. He’s not perfect, he has financial woes, he has relationship troubles, he was put into mortal peril, but he’s still a superhero. Who knows if this will continue as we progress, but I really enjoyed it here.
EPISODE VI: THE GENIUSES OF THE MAKUU LEARNING CENTER
The literal first line of dialogue in this episode just sets the tone of absurdity immediately. “We have learned that if we continually feed Octopus Food to Earth children, they will grow into fine Beast Planet Doublemen.” Uh. Thank you for that information, Don Horror. They use a drawing of a child to convey this message and I have to say, the pre-Octopus Food child shown is far more horrifying than the monstrous aftermath. There’s tons of new monster designs in this episode. We go into the depths of Makuu’s base and see a whole cavalcade of horrors. This scene plays out almost like Star Wars‘s cantina scene or probably more apt is Jabba’s Palace. A Doubleman playing a flute summons our BEM Kaiju of the episode, and you can probably guess what creature it was going to be by that opening line of dialogue. The Giant Octopus Monster (or Oomadako Monster)! The design is, well, rather phallic. I don’t know why the octopus is human flesh colored, but I’m going to ignore it.
The Makuu forces are set out to find children with strong psychic and physical attributes and mutate them into Doublemen. This leads them to a school where a boy (seemingly a delinquent) gets into a brawl with two other kids. Retsu arrives and breaks up the fight. The delinquent child, Akira, rebuffs Retsu’s mentorship and heads off on his own. The Makuu in human disguise entice Akira by promising him a better grade on his test. They bring him to the “Genius Learning Center”. This is eerie and once again, social commentary seeps into this show. This sort of recruitment process the Makuu are wielding, preying on the insecurities of a child, it’s creepy and all too real. They take Akira to the “Miracle Room” and apply some headphones to him.
He’s shown a series of images. This whole segment is extremely unsettling. This is right out of a Stanley Kubrick or Dario Argento film. I really like spike the punch bowl with some horror elements. With that being said, this would have scared me to death as a child. Before you know it, it’s time for lunch. Octopus Food is on the menu, which they tell Akira will make him smarter. It’s hard not to see the real-world equivalent to a fascist regime. Even a Japanese children’s television program can portray real world terror.
The food seems to do the trick as Akira returns to his real school and aces his test. But that’s grouped with some other terrifying effects. When his teacher asks if he cheated, Akira tells him to shut up and shatters a flower vase with his mind. He then telekinetically lifts a chalk board eraser and hits his teacher in the head with it. This “Psychokinesis” ability soon comes to the attention of Retsu and Mimi, who head for the Genius Learning Center.
Retsu finds the children at the center in a hypnotic state. He breaks in the center but enters a disturbing psychological horror scene. As the children eat (hauntingly), Retsu is ambushed by a squad of Crushers. Some pretty near choreography here as Retsu battles amongst the seated, and unbothered, children. He eventually is entangled with the Giant Octopus Monster, who traps him upside down. It’s finally Electroplate time! Gavan fends off the Makuu forces and is eventually transported out of the Genius Learning Center along with the children, who are now very confused.
Sometime later, Akira hears the sound of the Doubleman’s flute. He’s entranced and compelled to beckon its call. Back to the Learning Center for Retsu, more crushers get their asses kicked. Retsu attempts to stop the children from eating and finally breaks the spell with a small smack to the cheek. Retsu takes Akira home but he can’t stomach normal food, indoctrinated by Octopus Food. Akira throws a fit and once again hearing the flute, the Octopus Monster stalks outside his home where Retsu is watching over. Akira heads toward the flutes call and we’re shown they are training physically, not just psychically. Retsu, making great time, shows up again.
In a moment that foreshadows Weapons, the head Doubleman with the flute activates a killer instinct in the children. They swarm Gavan. The eeriness of the episode is on another level. Retsu transforms again. Spark a fire in the engine of your heart! Gavan destroys the flute, seemingly freeing the children from Makuu’s control. But we still have to deal with Octopus Monster. As if on queue, Don Horror does his thing and sends Gavan to another dimension. We get the return of the fantastic matte paintings for backgrounds, as Gavan battles the Octopus Monster on rocky terrain with a raging space storm in the sky. When Gavan is put on the ropes, he summons his trusty robot dragon, Dol! When I say this dragon works fast, I mean it, because he obliterates Octopus Monster in record time.
The lead Doubleman of this episode is still here though and challenges Gavan. He materializes another flute and this one causes Gavan pain. Gavan quickly disarms the Doubleman and gives him a dose of his Laser Blade. The Gavan Dynamic is unbeatable. Just like that, the children are restored, and everything is back to normal. The narrator reminds the viewers to enjoy things in moderation!
Another episode that really leans into the macabre. I definitely think the crew that made this were fans of Argento. Distorted realities, seemingly mundane imagery that pokes at your mind just enough to tell you, “this is wrong”. Really well done. The Octopus Food thing is silly, sure, but how it’s used is pretty horrific. Consider this episode if you marathon horror tinged Toku episodes around Halloween.
EPISODE VII: THE GIRL KISSED THE PETALS WHERE THE MONSTER LURKED
We’re not slowing down on the horror aspects of this show. Our BEM Kaiju of the episode is an ant-like beast that looks like the love child of Megalon and the Alien Baltan. It’s hiding out in greenhouse when we hear a small girl approach. The monster shrinks to legit Ant-size (does this guy know Hank Pym?) and hides in a rose petal. The girl picks up the flower and smells it, not realizing the danger lurking right under her nose. The girl delivers flowers for the Hanai Flower Center. Makuu forces are watching as she “works” (ain’t no way this girl is getting paid, she can’t be more than ten years old.) The flowers housing our antagonist bug are dropped off at a bank. Some armored guards prepare to transport cash when one of the clerks gives them a rose out of the vase. As you may have guessed, it’s the very flower with our bad guy in it.
Retsu brings food for a litter of abandoned puppies. The young girl from before finds him and they start chatting. Retsu gives her a puppy and she’s ecstatic. Back in the delivery car, the rose petal starts to shake. It sprays a gas in the driver’s face causing them to crash. Some Makuu forces quickly move in and steal the cargo. Retsu happens to see this (man, this guy is always in the right place) and a battle ensues. Awesome moment here where the Ant monster (the Gavan Wiki calls it Samurai Ari Monster) blasts Retsu. An explosion surrounds him, and when it dissipates, GAVAN is there. I love how creative this show gets with the quick transformations. Gavan follows that up with another all-timer move. His foes are perfectly lined up with a set of train tracks, so he channels his Gavan beam through the rails. A surge of power travels down the line and blasts the baddies. So cool.
Gavan summons Cyberian to chase the fleeing Doublemen (in human guise, as is now the norm). He stops them but when he arrives at their car, they’ve disappeared. In their place is a good old fashioned car bomb which Gavan easily dodges. The only thing left is a single rose. Gavan uses the small clue to investigate botanical gardens in the area. It leads him to the house of Kimi, the young girl Retsu befriended earlier. Another car chase ensues as the Makuu forces are seen skulking about. Retsu arrives at a warehouse where he’s accosted by goons on motorcycles. I didn’t mention it in my recap of Episode 6, but we have Doublegirls now! Their designs are similiar to the normal Doublemen but still fairly unique.
I need to stop for a second and just talk about how awesome Kenji Ohba is. The fight choreography he brings to the table is near perfection; all of his movements look like they serve a purpose. On top of that, he’s a good actor as well. He has some remarkable facial expressions and is able to deliver on seriousness as well as comedy. He’s truly one of the brightest beacons of the tokusatsu genre.
Makuu forces execute another robbery. Meanwhile, Gavan and Mimi are flying around on patrol. Mimi wants Gavan to take her dancing, he agrees but plans immediately fall through when our heroes are made aware of the robbery in progress. The Makuu take Kimi’s parents hostage and the young girl is seemingly entranced. She passes out holding the rose. When Gavan tends to her, it was a trap. He gets sprayed with the same gas we saw earlier. The Ant monster appears and starts taking it to Gavan. Gavan has been blinded and he’s forced to combat Makuu’s forces. The Ant monster can shoot a beam out of his butt. That’s unexpected. This ultra terrifying butt beam forces Gavan to properly transform.
After a quick battle, we’re transported off world yet again. The Ant guy’s voice is pretty annoying. It just shrieks frequently. The Ant grows to daikaiju size so Gavan once again calls on Dol. Dol takes out the Ant monster, leaving the Doubleman for Gavan. They tussle for a bit but Gavan activates his laser sword and make short work of the Doubleman. The day is saved once again, Kimi gives Gavan some flowers for the road.
This episode was kind of generic. The villain wasn’t too interesting, and the plot was even less interesting. We had a string of really unique, genre bending episodes prior to this. Feels like they ran out of steam for this one. I still liked it overall but it is contender for my least favorite so far.
Well, that’s all for this installment. While working on this piece, Toei has removed Gavan from both YouTube and Tubi. This information crushed me. I’ll be fine, as I have the Blu-ray, but it saddens me that less people will have access to the show. Toei, if you’re reading this, please reconsider. More people need to experience this wonderful toku gem. Until next time!
