Publisher: Geneon (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 12 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2003
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes (Sentai Filmworks re-release)
Suzuo Sakurazaki can’t catch a break. Everywhere he goes he finds that employment is hard to find. Businesses are going broke and every time he secures a job the company ends up in bankruptcy. However out of the blue a young girl named Tanpopo asks Suzuo to work part time and asks him only to wear a belt and transform into a superhero. Naturally this raises some suspicions in Suzuo’s mind, especially with the fact a job is being offered by some prepubescent girl. While he initially declines the offer, sheer desperation forces him back. Much to his surprise however, he discovers that the belt actually makes him transform into an actual superhero, Dokkoida, and that he ends up fighting alien villains. Tanpopo is actually an alien who works for a toy company which has decided to go into the powered suit business.
The Galaxy Federation Police (GFP) has decided to buy up some powered suits to offset the fact they don’t have the personnel to do the job (they keep losing staff due to the dangerous work). Two companies have been chosen and the one that wins the testing will win the contract. The GFP have also decided to set three Class A criminals loose in order to test the products. Of course the testing ground is earth and unbeknownst to both companies and all three villains, they all live together in the Cosmos House apartment unit block, in their human disguises of course. The apparent block is run by GFP and while the occupants become close friends, they never seem to figure out they are living beside criminals and corporate rivals.
There are probably a few too many sentai/tokusatsu parodies. I think for the most part this one doesn’t really differentiate itself for all the others. The business/hero thing has been done many times before and much better. The Dokkoida suit itself is much like a cross between Ultraman and Kamen Rider with a name similar to Kikaida. Not exactly original either. The characters are for the most part the usual tropes. You have two busy women, one a beer drinking tomboy who is Tanpopo’s rival, the other a literal dominatrix who is a master criminal, complete with male slave who she continually whips and drips hot wax onto. You also have a second master criminal, who in alien form is a magical girl type and the final master criminal, an evil male scientist, with sexy robot girl. The artwork and set up reminded me a lot of the stuff AIC was churning out on the mid to late 1990’s, stuff which I really didn’t like.
But somehow this show really grew on me. In particular the focus on the relationships between the Cosmos House inhabitants was quite well done. The clincher was probably a number of episodes towards the end, in particular the one about the doctor’s robot girl was rather touching, if rather clichéd. There are also a number of quite well done anime parodies in the show, including a quite well hidden “Grave of the Fireflies” one. While it was a rather mediocre to bad show at the start of the series, it improved vastly mid-way onwards, with a pretty good end to the show. 6 out of 10.
Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
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