Winspector Up To Janperson Are Making Me Like The Rescue Ops Super Sentai A Little Less?

I remembered writing on how Winspector, Solbrain, Exceedraft and Janperson felt like "prime time shows for older audiences rather than kiddie shows". I still can't get over how I thought Janperson is a better show than the Robocop TV series (which came after Janperson) or how it's Toei's tribute to the Robocop movie trilogy. Before that, there was also the Rescue Police teams namely Winspector, Solbrain and Exceedraft. So how are these shows making me think less of certain Super Sentai seasons that I also like as my personal favorites?

So what favorite seasons of these are getting affected in some way? I would say these are GoGoFive, Timeranger and Dekaranger. I saw Dekaranger from start to end first then GoGoFive and Timeranger. Sure, I do like those seasons but watching Winspector, Solbrain, Timeranger and I'm currently watching Exceedraft's releases from Sailor Otaku. Also, I'm waiting for more of Janperson's subs since I can't wait to see more of the show in Japanese than the Tagalog dub which I watched when I was a teenager. Sure, I do still like those Super Sentai seasons but I feel like the old school Metal Hero series appealed to me more based on my personal taste.

I saw Dekaranger and GoGoFive before I saw Winspector, Solbrain and Exceedraft -- all the while I saw Janperson dubbed before that. As I watched Winspector -- I thought about the different approach that the Rescue Police series had. They deal with everyday situations mixed with bizarre sci-fi thrills as well as the occasional supernatural. Many of these situations could have been easily solved by the heroes in spandex with giant mecha. Give these guys a giant monster to deal with and they'd be done for. Exceedraft would later put a midseason supernatural villain in Iwao Daimon -- he would be the greatest villain of the series. I even heard Exceedraft's finale is full of nightmare fuel. IMO, I saw just peaks of it and the heroes of Exceedraft are lucky that they aren't facing GoGoFive's finale or they're good as dust!

Robotack ended up as the final Metal Hero season while didn't look like Toei was giving up on the Rescue Theme anytime soon. What did they do? It felt like producer Jun Hikasa combined Winspector and Fiveman (both took place in 1990) and GoGoFive was born out of it. I do like GoGoFive but I still can't stand Matoi's Drill Sergeant Nasty attitude -- he's badass but he needs to tone down. GoGoFive have the rescue theme and the Saima Clan to deal with. They are given extremely dangerous situations that would have destroyed the Rescue Police heroes in mere seconds. It was a challenge. While I do still love the idea but that took away a portion of why I enjoyed Winspector in the first place -- it's all about the "realism" and "human factor" IMHO.

Timeranger was all about capturing criminals in the 20th century to prevent them from altering time. The Timerangers themselves are time cops (except Tatsuya) who are tasked to prevent time from altering. They must capture the Londarz's criminal money-making schemes. The villains in Timeranger feel less typical to Super Sentai villains and more like powered-up Rescue Police villains. Don Dolnero seems to be more interested in petty crimes to make fast bucks than world domination. They had the police set up, arrest the criminals, and send them back to the 30th Century. If there's any Super Sentai that's darker than its predecessors -- that title should go to Timeranger!

Dekaranger itself tried to do the Rescue Police and Super Sentai combination and succeeded. In fact, it's a whole season chock full of Metal Hero Nostalgia. There's no real central organization and the "monsters of the week" are alien criminals who they have permission to delete for committing such dangerous crimes. Talk about running an intergalactic police and I wish the show had some human criminals as well. Abrella doesn't serve as a main villain but as a recurring villain -- he appears and disappears while other criminals have zero alignment with him. I felt like he was an improvement to how Takaoka in Solbrain and how Daimon in Exceedraft were only added midseason. He was an overarching villain who knew how to be a real troll. Yet, I still feel like that Dekaranger is more lighthearted. Janperson had darker, more serious moments while Dekaranger tends to give happy endings most of the time -- except for that episode Hoji deleted his girlfriend's brother and had to end things up with her.

I end up liking Winspector, Solbrain, Janperson and perhaps Exceedraft over GoGoFive, Timeranger, and Dekaranger based on their storytelling. I still like them all one way or another -- though I'll never call them equals. I could still rant all I want about how Kyuranger is more enjoyable than Juspion or how I still prefer new school Kamen Rider over the Showa era. It's just that I have my own personal preferences with almost everything. Here's me signing out while looking forward to Lupinranger vs. Patoranger.