I gotta be honest I don't even know where to start on this lol. For the most part this series was exactly what I expected, campy/cheesy fun. I couldn't help but be reminded about the 60s Adam West Batman series and the 70s Lou Ferrigno Hulk series while watching this. It has the same charm that those old comic hero shows had. The action, the villains and the plots all have a campy charm to it. I had a blast laughing at how silly some of the villainous schemes were, though I'll admit some of them were surprisingly dark plots.
I really liked that Hongo Takeshi is a calm, tough, intimidating looking guy and at the same time was arguably the most intelligent character in the show. He practically solved about 80% of the issues he faced by himself. Hayato Ichimonji was more of a hothead with a more playful demeanor than Hongo and he took a more simpler approach to things, he wasn't as smart as Hongo but I actually liked that since it ended up with Hayato receiving help from the side characters a lot of the time. Their suits look great in my opinion, I love how alien-like their helmets are (really gives off a great reminder that they were supposed to be Shocker cyborgs), I like how the material of it looks like leather just like what a stereotypical tough biker would be wearing.
While I found some villains bland, a couple of them always had me laughing with how over the top they were, their hammy acting made them very entertaining. As much as I tried I couldn't take the enemy mooks and some monsters seriously thanks to the ridiculous sound that they all make, what the hell is that sound even supposed to be? Lmao.
The show is definitely outdated but that contributes to the fun charm that it retains to this day. It is also very episodic with practically no sub plots going around, it got quite repetitive at some points and left me wondering how many enemy bases ended up being found and destroyed in every episode. Some might dislike the fact that the fights in this series aren't as complex and fast as the ones you see in modern day Tokusatsu shows but I wasn't really bothered by it since I thought the slow heavy combat gave the fights a bit more realistic feel (minus the 20 feet high jump kicks and flips you always see lol). As it goes along you can definitely see an improvement in fight choreography though. It is also longer than it should be in my opinion, by the time Hongo returns I wouldn't blame you if you're tired out, I actually had to take 3 breaks to finish this show. But despite the cons it has I still think it was worth watching and you should try to look past the fact that it is a very old show. It was quite an experience and it's interesting to see how far back some Tokusatsu aspects and formulas go.
