2011 was a major milestone year for Toei in terms of its toku productions, Sentai was celebrating its 35th team with Gokaiger, and Kamen Rider celebrated 40 years alongisde its 1000th episode airing the exact same day as its first episode in OOO and celebrating the concepts of rider in Fourze. It was a momentous year but the following year would bring another toei anniversary from the past. 2012 would mark the 30th anniversary Uchuu Keiji Gavan or Space Sheriff Gavan, the first in Toei's meta series metal heroes. Metal Heroes was created from a want from Toei for a solo superhero show that wasn't Kamen rider, with the intent for kids to be able to jump into without having knowledge of the concept. Susumu Yoshikawa, who had previously produced for toei on Sentai and Kikaider, served as main producer and would go on to be known as the father of Metal heroes, and Lead design work was done by Katsushi Murakami who has been designing for Toei and Bandai since Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, and after going through a couple of names, notably Space Detctive Z, Ginjiro and Ginbird, before settling on the Name Space sheriff Gavan, a reference to french actor Jean Gabin due to his popularity in Japan, and easy to trademark due to its non-japanese background. Gavin would prove to be very successful for Toei and would spawn a new meta series that would last through the late 1990's. Speaking of the 90's kids who grew up in them and were an avid watcher of Fox kids or syndicated television, then you would have seen footage from these shows as Saban was trying to do more toku adaptations after power rangers runaway success, these two shows were Vr troopers which combined three metal hero shows to create one and Big bad beetleborgs.
Okay, backing up to Gavan, the man chosen to be the leading star in this new show was already a proven popular actor, Kenji Ohba. Ohba had initally started as a suit actor for Toei before he became a lead member in the ensamble with Sentai's revival as super sentai with Battle Fever J where he played Battle Kenya, Shiro Akebono and in the following series Denshi Sentai Denziman as Daigoro Oume. Ohba proved very popular to many as he moved up to lead starring role, which actually is sort of funny because Yoshikawa told him that if Gavan ever dipped into single digit ratings, the show would be cut. Which... isn't the worst motivation to give it your all. So seeing how Metal heroes was celebrating 30 years, and Super sentai was celebrating its 35th team, this kind of made sense.
The Gokai galleon finds itself being attacked by Space Sherriff Gavan's personal ship the Dolgrian, after downing it and subduing the gokaigers (sans gai who was out shopping for food) arresting them for piracy which they know is garbage since in an earlier episode, the Dekarangers cleared their names. But this turned out to be a rouse in order to oust the fake prison warden who is actually an action commander who is also boasting his own bootleg Gavan made from Zangyack technology and stolen space police technology. Gavan tells the others to escape but Marvelous feels like he has seen the gesture before hand as they escape and gavan is defeated by the bootleg Gavan. As it turns out, Marvelous was saved as a child by Gavan when the Zangyack attacked a passenger ship. Wanting to pay the man back for his help, Marvelous sets out for Makuu space in order save him and prevent the space from expanding beyond its current place.
What follows is a really fun romp of a prison infiltration and break movie. Also this movie had some suprisingly funny moments through it too, like when the gokaigers stumble up Battle Kenya and then Denzi Blue they think he is Gavan until Gai states that you can tell them apart by smelling them, which one, yes is stupid, it is a nice touch to acknowledge the fact that the actor has played multiple roles across his career in the same show. One of the other highlights would be when they get to the prison and get to the cameo appearence hall which sees a bunch of older villains from Sentai's history showing up and the chaos that just evolves from their and at the end when a gormin just shows up, looks around and just goes to signal the alarm are some highlights.
Action wise it is pretty good, especially from Kenji ohba, for a man who was pushing late 50's it is impressive what he is still capable of out of suit is pretty impressive for how late in his life he was. It also isn't slacking throughout the rest of the movie, it is really well done with some highlights being Ahim fighting Goseigers first arc main villain Mons Drake (Comparitively everyone else was grouping up into two to let the others go ahead, while Ahim decides to fight alone to allow Marvelous to move along, and the initial fight of the gokaigers vs Gavan also is pretty good. We also get our first look at the next super sentai team, the Go-busters which does everything right, the tone, the style, the action, it is something that gets you excited for what is coming after.
Really the biggest issue is that it kind of outstays its welcome near the end. Yeah, I know these big final fights are a thing in versus movies but I feel like this could've been in the prison rather than a seaside factory, it still is good action, it is also where we get a full pink and white gokai change (the other primary colors of red, blue, yellow, green, and silver happened in series.) but it was about here where I found myself zoning out a bit and doing other things. That also extends to the big mecha fight at the end, it feels just kind of there even if the finisher is neat. Okay, if there is one cool thing about the stuff post-prison is the end where Kenji ohba as his three characters in the film transform in a homage to space sheriff Sharivan, its awesome in its own right but if you grew up watching these, this must have blown your mind.
Oh right there is the main villain Ashurada and his bootleg Gavan...Ummm, I like how they both look... yeah, I remember nothing about them, it doesn't help that bootleg Gavan really has no character and Ashurada just wants to expand his family's evil space sin he has Gavan's main villains blood flowing through him.
CONCLUSION
Despite some issues in making a good landing, Gokaiger vs Gavan is a fun romp, it might not offer much in terms of character outside of a little more backstory for Marvelous. It delivers some good action, great comedy, and Kenji Ohba just, doing what he does best. Even if you didn't grow up in the Showa era of toku, it still is worth a watch.
FINAL GRADE: A
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