Big Drawer (Super Giant Heavy Industrial Machine) - Dekaranger, EP 18 "Samurai Go West" Japan 6/13/2004
Marato (The Robot God) - Power Rangers SPD, EP 18 "Samurai" US 6/11/2005
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The kaiju gimmick for 2004's Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger were the Heavy Industrial Machines: giant battle robots piloted by the show's various alien criminals in place of the usual method of growing Godzilla-size themselves, minus a handful of exceptions. The Heavy Industrial Machines were often distributed by Agent Abrella, a bat-like Rainian arms merchant and the closest thing to a main overarching villain within Dekaranger.
One of the more unique and clunkier robots was Big Drawer, a bigger-than-average Heavy Industrial Machine that could teleport away structures and people with a blue-green light ray, housing the captured inside energy spheres and further placed within its many drawers for safe imprisonment. Big Drawer was also armed with multiple flare-like missiles from the center drawer located in its center.
The pilot of Big Drawer was a blue-colored Batsuroid, one of the many middle-grade robot foot soldiers also sold by Agent Abrella throughout the series' run.
There was a white and gold Big Drawer II who showed up in episode 44 but I couldn't find any good screen-captures of that model so we'll save him for a later date (maybe) though you can see it in the concept art alongside its predecessor.
Big Drawer was later adapted into Power Rangers SPD with an admittedly cooler sounding name of Marato, The Robot God though this title ended up being just salesman ballyhoo from Broodwing, the equally greedy American adaptation of Agent Abrella.
Raijin God - Sazer X EP 25 "A Recreated History" Japan 3/25/2006
Super Fleet Sazer-X (2005-2006) was a Toho production aping the Super Sentai and Metal Hero genres, though with a bigger emphasis on giant robot action whenever possible, likely due to Koichi Kawakita as the show's special effects director.
Raijin God (雷神ゴード) was the guardian deity of the descendants of the ancient Lighting Clan and was summoned by Lightning Shogun Thundera, the last living modern member of said clan (the cute alien gal in the tight blue pants), from the bottom of a lake.
The robotic giant was a fierce combatant, holding its own in a four-way battle with three other mecha opponents, until Thundera saw reason and sends God Raijin back into the lake, never to be seen again in the series, unfortunately.
As you can tell by God Raijin's appearance, choice of weaponry (The Divine Sword Godius [ 神剣ゴーディウス ]), and overall iconography (the parting of the waves), he is a direct homage to Daimajin and his 1966 trilogy of fantasy films. If you're a fan of Daimajin, be happy to know God Raijin represents the demonic status of divine retribution quite well as, again, he was a real bruiser in the fight and could have won without a scratch had he not been returned to his aquatic sleep.
The character was played by television suit actor Shinya Iwasaki who mostly does work in the 2000s Ultraman franchise based on what I could find.
Here's some intriguing kaiju and other giant monster-related videos to for me to share and for you all to enjoy. I will be keeping up this feature as-often-as-possible for the remainder of 2021.
Direct from MONSTROSITIES Tokusatsu Vlog:
The story of how a tokusatsu technique created for the original MOTHRA (1961) was passed on to the original Kamen Rider and continues to be practiced to this very day.
In Japan Hero's latest video, they take a closer look at the history of the Robot Detective TV series ( ロボット刑事 ) including a brief look at some abandoned giant robot concepts.
Linkara's History of Power Rangers returns with a relatively (relatively) short and coherent recap of POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS, the first of the Hasbro-era of the franchise but produced with creative talents from the previous vanguard. The whole of Beast Morphers is available on Netflix and I might give it a watch as it's a far better alternative to the one-episode-every-rare-blue-moon-year scheduling Nickelodeon was and still is infamous for.
Ronin Warriors, known in Japan as Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers (鎧伝サムライトルーパー, Yoroiden Samurai Torūpā), is a Japanese anime series created by Hajime Yatate and animated by Sunrise somewhat riding the popularity of Saint Seiya. Ronin Warriors first aired on American television during the summer of 1995 and subsequently appeared through syndication, as well as the USA Network and later on Cartoon Network as part of Toonami. Besides being known as Ronin Warriors, Yoroiden Samurai Troopers and Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers in some parts of the world it was known as Samurai Warriors.
After almost a decade of waiting, the 25-year-old journey finally comes to an end. Here's Yoko Higuchi's review of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time in anticipation for its international streaming release on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.
Sometimes the fossil record preserves some truly extraordinary glimpses into the past life on our planet, including traces of prehistoric animal behavior. In this video we're exploring 5 examples of such remarkable fossil finds - moments forever frozen in time.
Nothing too spectacular for today, just another image gallery based around one of my many, many, MANY favorite giant monsters from Japanese fiction. The header illustration, by-the-by, was drawn by yours truly.
From the 1967-1968 series Giant Robo comes Lygon, a giant Egyptian-style android statue monster built and operated by the intergalactic criminal organization known as Big Fire, or The Gargoyle Gang as they were renamed in The American International Pictures dubbed version, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.
Similarly, Lygon was renamed Ligon-Tyrox for said American broadcast.
Lygon appears in episodes 4 (Monster Ligon-Tyrox, A Strange Monster) and 10 (The Transformed Humans) and is probably my top favorite monster from the whole series as Egyptian-themed monsters are always cool which Japanese fiction seems to have an abundance of while android monsters, giant robots made to look like living breathing beasts as opposed to more obvious machine-based ones and temporary disguises (see Fake Godzilla), are a rare sub-genre that's barley been played around with.
Lygon perfectly captures the fun aspects of both creature motifs / sub-genres in-my-opinion while also being a real bruiser when in combat against the titular Giant Robo despite his virtually thin and tall feline frame.
Plus, the guy fights with an optional drill horn and a gold metal chain! How ridiculously cool is that!?!?
The following set of screenshots were taken from a very old Angelfire (Tripod?) web-site and slightly cleaned up by yours truly, again. Unfortunately, I've long lost the link and cannot give adequate credit to the screen-captures' originator. Apologizes in advance to you, good sir.
Thanks to the magic of the mighty Surfing Shark of V.P.N., I was able to view the first episode of GODZILLA: SINGULAR POINT which is being released on Netflix Japan on a weekly basis instead of a full season drop (still no word of an international release date though one is still coming this year).
Similar to the first act of "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" (1995), the first episode is a slow burn building up the mystery behind a missing scientist and a haunting 1930s love song that's somehow being used to summon and/or resurrect the ancient monsters, with the 'Rodan the First' only appearing in the closing minutes to menace our heroes (as seen in the Toho Animation video clip released recently online).
I'd go more into the plot but, unfortunately, no English subtitles were available to me. However, unlike other untranslated kaiju media heavy on dialog, the human cast instantly made an impression with their appealing character designs alongside quirky personality moments and related visual gags, all of which kept my interest.
In addition to the previously mentioned "Gamera" comparisons, the first episode's atmospheres and the near future world presented within was also reminiscent of "Ultra Q" and early Showa-era science fiction films like "The Mysterians" (1957), "The H-Man" (1958), and "Rodan" (1956): a virtually quiet, normal world on the eve of a monstrous cataclysm or an otherworldly event.
