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The Mike Toole Show - Off the Grid, Man




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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 5120
PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Once I turned the recorder off and we headed for the door, I idly mentioned that I'd seen a Mirai Ninja cosplayer down on the floor. Naturally, Amemiya pretty much exploded with enthusiasm, explaining that Mirai Ninja was one of the most important movies for tokusatsu fans in Japan, and him especially! I gotta remember to ask more questions next time.

I remember Jacob Chapman (or was it someone else?) writing about how he was asking questions that that he had written beforehand of this Japanese director and when Jacob got to the question What are you working on right now? and said director said he was working on a sequel to a popular series. Jacob (or someone else? Confused ) wrote that he regretted not being quick-witted enough to deviate from his questions to ask about that sequel.


Last edited by nobahn on Sun Nov 11, 2018 6:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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mrsatan



Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 906
Location: Olympia, WA, USA
PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 6:12 pm Reply with quote
Someone told me there were Transformers references in this show.
The only ones I noticed were in the short, where a robot resembled Optimus Prime. But in one of the recent episodes, I noticed that the class field trip vans were colored exactly like Ironhide.
This rumor seems to be true.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4342
Location: New York
PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 6:48 pm Reply with quote
The thing with Syber Squad is that despite having no budget since they blew it on a fairly decent array of actors, its plot is actually a fair 1:1 for Gridman, with the Saved by the Bell filter matching up rather closely with the original. It’s not a complete switch over.

Hey, at least now we know Trigger isn’t going to do Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills.
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sniper_samurai



Joined: 28 Feb 2010
Posts: 76
PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 10:06 pm Reply with quote
mrsatan wrote:
Someone told me there were Transformers references in this show.
The only ones I noticed were in the short, where a robot resembled Optimus Prime. But in one of the recent episodes, I noticed that the class field trip vans were colored exactly like Ironhide.
This rumor seems to be true.


The show is littered with Transformers references, specifically the Transformers Collectors Club comic continuity Shattered Glass where the Autobots are the villains and the Decepticons are the heroes.

Yutas phone case is purple with an Autobot cut out on the back and his character design is based on Cliffjumper. This is most prominently noticeable with the horns coming from his red hair and the design of his shoes being Cliffjumpers vehicle mode from the Classics figure line.

The Neon Genesis Students are all based off the Michael Bay movie versions of the Dinobots.

Akane is based on Optimus Prime with the card case Rikka bought for her in the last episode, and shown in the OP, having the Matrix of Leadership as its clasp design.
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Generations



Joined: 21 Jul 2016
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 7:28 am Reply with quote
I really never thought that Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad would ever be brought back into the public mindset again, but here we are. Truly, miracles are happening.

Which means my dreams of remakes of other old barely-remembered shows getting redos by random studios is no longer a pipedream. Ninja Robots (aka Tobikage)? Macron 1? Saber Rider and the Star Sherriffs... again?

...Cowboys of Moo Mesa?
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Vavrick



Joined: 08 Oct 2011
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 9:47 am Reply with quote
mrsatan wrote:
Someone told me there were Transformers references in this show.
The only ones I noticed were in the short, where a robot resembled Optimus Prime. But in one of the recent episodes, I noticed that the class field trip vans were colored exactly like Ironhide.
This rumor seems to be true.


Suplementing what Sniper_samurai said, I'll link you a (somewhat outdated) imgur album with the comparisons.

https://imgur.com/a/0iP6Ik4
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4404
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:37 am Reply with quote
One thing that was really fun about Gridman so far is that it helped confirm that I had seen some of the American version of it was I was very young. I only was able to see a few episodes, and couldn't remember what the show was at all, but when I started watching this new series, I realized that Gridman himself looked really familiar.

A similar thing happened years ago with Dragonball. I somehow knew exactly how an interaction between Oolong and Puar would go despite it being a new episode. After I got to thinking, I remembered seeing an episode when I was little that was on TV before Funimation was around.
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#sukkar



Joined: 19 Nov 2014
Posts: 120
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 3:04 pm Reply with quote
Generations wrote:
I really never thought that Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad would ever be brought back into the public mindset again, but here we are. Truly, miracles are happening.

Which means my dreams of remakes of other old barely-remembered shows getting redos by random studios is no longer a pipedream. Ninja Robots (aka Tobikage)? Macron 1? Saber Rider and the Star Sherriffs... again?

...Cowboys of Moo Mesa?


If there's a Japanese following for them, maybe. Without the original tokusatsu show, this version of Gridman would have never been made.
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cyberdraco



Joined: 30 Jun 2013
Posts: 617
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:32 pm Reply with quote
Something is found out is that several of the Japanese cast have been in other Toku shows. Here's a list of the SSSS.Gridman characters that share actors with Toku characters:

Alexis・Kerib(Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger's Doggie Kruger/Deka Master)
Anti(Kamen Rider Den-o's Ryutaros)
Samurai Calibur(Chousei Kantai Sazer-X's Takuto Ando/Lio Sazer)
Max(Tensou Sentai Goseiger's Gosei Knight)
Borr(Kamen Rider Ghost's Yurusen)
Vit(Denji Sentai Megaranger's Shun Namiki/Mega Blue)

And of course, Gridman himself being voiced by the same guy who played him the original show.
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 28 Oct 2018
Posts: 480
PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:59 am Reply with quote
sniper_samurai wrote:
mrsatan wrote:
Someone told me there were Transformers references in this show.
The only ones I noticed were in the short, where a robot resembled Optimus Prime. But in one of the recent episodes, I noticed that the class field trip vans were colored exactly like Ironhide.
This rumor seems to be true.


The show is littered with Transformers references, specifically the Transformers Collectors Club comic continuity Shattered Glass where the Autobots are the villains and the Decepticons are the heroes.

Yutas phone case is purple with an Autobot cut out on the back and his character design is based on Cliffjumper. This is most prominently noticeable with the horns coming from his red hair and the design of his shoes being Cliffjumpers vehicle mode from the Classics figure line.

The Neon Genesis Students are all based off the Michael Bay movie versions of the Dinobots.

Akane is based on Optimus Prime with the card case Rikka bought for her in the last episode, and shown in the OP, having the Matrix of Leadership as its clasp design.


Everyone in the show is based off of a Transformer. Rikka's design is based off of Shattered Glass Megatron, Anti's blazer has a flame decal because he's Shattered Glass Hot Rod, the four Youtubers were all based off of different versions of Jetfire, the volleyball team girl is based off of the Go-Bot Cy-Kill (and her name was Tonkawa, after Tonka, who released the Go-Bots in the US)... they go hard. Like, Akane's glasses are cracked because Shattered Glass Optimus has a cracked windshield. They go so hard, they're diecast and worth $250 on BigBadToyStore.

Remember when the guys at Trigger made Panty and Stocking and they animated a "Trans-whore-mers" episode? Yeah, that was fun. Laughing

But seriously, I totally love how Akane is the villainess. I hate how the show just keeps making her into eye-candy, because she's insidious. Malcolm Frink's actions read as fairly creepy in a post-Columbine world, but you could charitably call him a child that doesn't know the extent of his actions.

Akane wants to kill people. Her anger at Gridman is because he's getting in the way of her fun. She only cares for people that are useful to her, as seen when she just trashes Anti once he loses--and she was playing footsie with the guy earlier that day.

And she can get away with it all because she's so cutesey nobody would think that she's capable of killing anyone.

Awesome column, Mike. I was super hyped for this show for a year, no lie.
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Jason_F



Joined: 11 Jun 2013
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2018 3:57 am Reply with quote
Thanks for your article. I still have my dubbed VHS tapes of Gridman '93. At that time it was hard locating Japanese media in Tampa Bay so I found a Japanese market that rented tapes for a week. I chatted with the person running it and told him I loved Ultraman so he recommended Gridman and I grabbed it. The tape was recorded from Japanese TV with commercials intact, mainly McDonalds and toys commercials, and no subs or dubs. I didn't care because it was easy to follow.
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 7319
Location: Maine
PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:12 am Reply with quote
Another little Easter egg is that all of the characters that have died in the series so far have been named after defunct robot toy companies like Kenna-chan (Kenner), Tonkawa (Tonka, more of a brand than a company now), Toiko (Toyco), Doi Hako (Toybox), and Takada Hana (Takara Seven, Seven once being a spin-off of Takara). The YouTubers "Arcadia" are named for the toy company of the same name with each member being named for former Japanese toy companies that made Macross toys and models: Yamato (former name of Arcadia, still in use outside Japan), Takato (Takatoku), Arii, and Imai.

Emerje
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