The World of Tokusatsu Outside of Japan

An early ’90s MMPR parody that was released a year after the show debuted. It was made with all original material, which affected their budget. It’s about four snobby teenagers from Beverly Hills- Laurie Foster, Gordon Henley, Drew Vincent, and Swinton Sawyer. They open a portal and meet a convulsing blob. A blob named Nimbar.

Nimbar explains that Earth is a portal station that is under threat from Gorganus and his wisecracking bird, who want control of the portals. Nimbar calls the teenagers his galactic sentinels and gives the teenagers tattoo pagers for when Gorganus sends his minions. The blob named each teenager after a constellation, kind of, Scorpio, Taurus, Centaur, and Apollo…a couple aren’t really constellations. When they get on the transo disc and say their sentinel name, they turn into giant bodybuilders in brightly colored spandex and ugly metal mouth masks.

The fighting isn’t well choreographed and clunky, plus they don’t have a lot of moves. The weapons and power graphics are fun and the teens can combine into Knightron. A giant knight with a shield and sword. Knightron is the big finisher of the battles.

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The writing on the show is better than some of the American Tokusatsu shows- looking at you, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. The characters have a bit more personality than the characters in MMPR, and they don’t really like each other, so there are a lot of pranks and an exchange of witty one-liners. The music works in favor of the cheese and makes the fights feel like a boss battle in an RPG.

Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills was produced by DIC Entertainment and aired on the USA Network and NBC during the 1994–1995 season. There are 40 episodes, and you can buy the entire series from Mill Creek Entertainment.

Miniforce

Miniforce is a Korean animated CG Tokusatsu about four tiny animals- a fox named Lucy, a bird named Sammy, a squirrel named Volt, and a beaver named Max. They live with a human, Suzy, who acts like a mother figure, making them wash before eating and other domestic things. These moments are pretty cartoony.

The Miniforce is called to duty by force gems, which seems to be a bit of a common theme. They meet with the hologram of Commander Chen, who gives the Miniforce their assignments. They then get into balls and are transported to the battlefield. These tiny animals can transform into rangers with a device, which is their sentai mode. They also have cars that transform into Zords that look a lot like Transformers. The Zords can combine energies to form force flash, which is their superweapon.

This is a pretty standard monster-of-the-week Tokusatsu with a moral lesson in each episode. They also fight tiny robots sent by a human named Nien. At the end of the battle, they fight a bigger robot with their Zords and finish with their force flash. There is no explanation given to questions such as why are they mini? What are the bad guys’ motives? Why do they live with Lucy? You’re just thrown into this world that tries to sum itself up in the opening of the first episode.

Miniforce reminds me of Disney’s PJ Masks, but not as well written. It lasted for two seasons and has twenty-six episodes a season. There is an upcoming movie, Miniforce X, which is supposed to be released in 2018. The only way I have found to view the show is by streaming,  including YouTube and Netflix.

Biokids is a Filipino MMPR parody movie that features some rowdy kids who go to a haunted house owned by the mad science teacher from school. When they find him unconscious, they save him, and as a reward, the mad scientist gives the kids bio powers and mopeds. Their powers seem to be strength and the ability to materialize anything they need. You, unfortunately, don’t get to see the kids materialize too many things.

The kids start to foil the plans of a gangster clown, who uses a kids’ show as his cover as he creates a monster that lives in game cartridges. He starts sending them to stores for kids to buy, which lets monsters jump out of the TV and cause havoc in the town.

This movie has some low production value, such as the monster, Exxor, being a man painted silver and black wearing a jumper. There is also a catchy theme song and the fighting is fun and cartoonish. Seeing little kids in brightly colored costumes giving a beat down on some grown men with guns is satisfying.

Directed by Bebong Osorio, Biokids was released in the United States in 1991 by Shine Home Entertainment. As of now, it is only available on VHS and is hard to come by.