Coming February 27th 2024! Space Sheriff Sharivan on Blu-ray!

Crunchyroll pre-order link: https://store.crunchyroll.com/produc...707038492.html

Japanese language, English subtitles, all 51 episodes in high definition, Region A discs.

Coming May 28th 2024! Hurricane Polymar the live action movie on Blu-ray!

Crunchyroll pre-order link: https://store.crunchyroll.com/produc...707039826.html

Japanese language, English subtitles, 1080p high definition, region A disc.

Hurricane Polymar - Blu-ray Trailer

An action-packed modern toku based on the classic Tatsunoko character gets a really nice release that it deserves.

Great action, fun characters & humor, from Koichi Sakamoto, one of the toku directing & stunt greats.

Also packed with extras!

Space Sheriff Sharivan just showed up in the mail, so I figured I might as well take a few photos and snap some screenshots.




(two more photos behind the spoiler)






(5 more screenshots behind the spoiler)

The extras are all on the fourth and final disc:

• Series Promo (0:31; HD)
• Reunion with Hiroshi Watari (Den Iga) and Yumiko Furuya (Lily) (70:20; HD)
• The Son of the Sun: The Rise of Space Sheriff Sharivan - Essay
• Gallery (29 slides)

The first disc in the set was surprisingly dusty and had some nasty scratches on it, which prevented me from getting more screenshots. But after a quick cleaning and skimming through it on a set-top player, it seemed to play fine, so...fingers crossed!

Mobile Cop Jiban! SD Blu-ray

Up for preorder on Crunchyroll now!

Tweeted (or whatever it's called now) by Discotek:

Space Sheriff Shaider Blu-ray

Kamen Rider V3 Blu-ray

Geez, very happy with this showing. V3 was at the absolute top of my Kamen Rider wishlist, and it's very cool to be able to have the complete Space Sheriff trilogy in high-def too.

Discotek Media was announcing a bunch of live-action titles (including Nihon Nights). These should be Tokusatsu titles, so they should be under Toku Time?


Dororo Blu-ray

RoboGeisha Blu-ray | FUNimation BD review https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/45444

Kekko Kamen: The Live Action Trilogy SD Blu-ray

Electric Dragon 80,000V Blu-ray | DVD review https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/22550

Android Kikaider Blu-ray

Special Rescue Police Winspector SD Blu-ray

Nice to see the live-action movies showing up . . . again, but I’m assuming they’ll carry Discotek’s premium pricing now. I was wondering if that company was moving more into this TV show stuff and away from movies but apparently not. Most of the titles in those tweets (ROBOGEISHA, DORORO, ELECTRIC DRAGON) were available on DVD over here back in the day, and eventually quite cheap (they still are frankly), which is probably the way to get them to be honest, assuming Discotek ever gets there. Plus, most have been pretty easy to see online (albeit unofficially) ever since, even on YouTube, so I have to wonder what kind of mileage is left in them on physical media.

As they note, those first three KEKKO KAMEN movies haven’t been on disc in North America, let alone subbed, except for possibly bootlegs from the notorious Video Search of Miami, but if you want a (ahem) taste before buying – and it’s recommended because they’re pretty low-rent – they’ve been online for years now, on certain adult sites and on YouTube in the case of the first one, with nudity intact (see below, but NSFW!)

I’m curious if the decision to rerelease ELECTRIC DRAGON had anything to do with star Tadanobu’s Emmy nomination for the TV series SHOGUN. Probably not, but the timing is interesting. The guy’s been popping up in big western productions for a few years now (SILENCE, THOR, MIDWAY, KATE), so maybe they’re hoping fans will dig deeper into his filmography. Some of his more gonzo stuff – and he’s done a lot of it – might shock a few folks who only know him from his prestige work.

I could've sworn they said in the stream that Media Blasters had put them out, but maybe I'm misremembering.

A few (all four?) of the later ones from 2003-4 were put out by Tokyo Shock (I think that was Media Blasters, maybe?) back in the day, but the three they’re promoting now were the first live-action adaptations of the character and I don’t recall them getting released over here (and nothing turns up in searches). Happy to be corrected on that. At least one of them is online in a cruddy VHS rip with subtitles attributed to the notorious Video Search of Miami, which was notorious for bootlegging (and basically still is, rebranded as Asian Cult Cinema, which all but solidifies the participation of hack ACC book and magazine “author” Thomas Weisser).

Based on the one that I posted above, the production quality is pretty low, as was a lot of V-cinema, then as now. I’ve only watched some of the other, later KEKKO films and stuff like ROBOGEISHA because I was usually able to find them used for $5.00 or so. Japan cranks out so much of this gonzo pseudo-pinky stuff that it gets tiresome to watch too much of it. And because the “actresses” in most of these movies (and all of the KEKKO films, I believe) are hardcore porn stars, sometimes it’s preferable to look up clips from their day jobs and see what they’re really capable of, and better known for, with production values and scriptwriting (such as it is) that are virtually the same because it’s the frequently same people making them behind the camera!

Space Sheriff Shaider Blu-ray | September 24 https://store.crunchyroll.com/produc...707004084.html

X - Formerly Twitter

Shaider just showed up!





The extras are on disc 4:

• Series preview (0:31)
• Liner notes by Mike Dent (24 pages)
• Photo gallery (44 slides)
• 35 Year Reunion - Shaider of My Youth (1:05:19)
• Theme song karaoke (3:24; SD with Japanese text)

Screenshots:

Dororo live-action movie Blu-ray is also getting released on November 26, but it's not listed as a Toku Time title (it's likely a Nihon Nights title) https://store.crunchyroll.com/produc...707004824.html.


Electric Dragon 80,000V Blu-ray | November 26 https://store.crunchyroll.com/produc...707004626.html


Kamen Rider V3 Blu-ray | November 26 https://store.crunchyroll.com/produc...707004220.html

Special Rescue Police Winspector SD BD https://store.crunchyroll.com/produc...707006194.html

Kamen Rider X Blu-ray

Kikaider: The Ultimate Human Machine Blu-ray

Special Investigation Robo Janperson SD Blu-ray

And they touched on the Android Kikaider series, noting that it’s not ready to be dated yet but is still in the pipeline.

Janperson is a go for May! Pre-orders are live on Crunchyroll now.



Oh, and so is Android Kikaider!

...and Janperson and Android Kikaider are live on mediaOCD's store too.

Kekko Kamen: The Original Live Action Movies (SD Blu-ray) is also getting released on May 27. It won't be sold on Crunchyroll.
- https://diabolikdvd.com/product/kekk...-ray-preorder/
- https://www.mediaocd.com/product-pag...-sd-bd-blu-ray

Confirmed for July!



Preorders are up on Crunchyroll for Kamen Rider X, Solbrain, and RoboGeisha.

mediaOCD preorder links: Kamen Rider X | Super Rescue Solbrain | RoboGeisha