#juspion

Megabeast Investigator Juspion was a Metal Hero series originally broadcast in 1985, following the Space Sheriff trilogy, featuring its title character fighting against the Megabeast Empire led by Satan Gorth and his son, Mad Gallant. The series was translated to English by the sub group Megabeast Empire and their subs were used in the Discotek release of the series in 2019... which is unfortunately out of print, however the series is also available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Despite falling into obscurity in Japan, it would be exported to Brazil and broadcast on TV Manchete in 1988 alongside Dengeki Sentai Changeman. Juspion became such a phenomenon in Brazil that a comeback graphic novel was published 35 years after, and I'm translating and reviewing it 40 years after the series ended. Even before this graphic novel came out, elements from Juspion did make a return in the 2017 Space Squad movie, Gavan vs. Dekaranger, which featured the return of Mad Gallant and a brief appearance from Satan Gorth.

Why the sudden interest in this graphic novel practically unheard outside of Brazil? Because I'm doing some preludes in preparation for the Combo Rangers Retrospective, which I'm sure a lot of Brazilians have also known and loved, and the revival of the Metal Hero series seems like an appropriate time to talk about it (plus I found some scans for it so I thought, why not?). Plus, my fascination for the Combo Rangers came as a result of my work reviving and reviewing the Sea Princesses books and animated series which was also created by Fabio Yabu, hence the (unofficial) overarching series title Fabio Yabu Extravaganza.

The Return of Juspion was written by Fabio Yabu and illustrated by Michel Borges, who previously worked on the 2013-17 Combo Rangers Universe graphic novel trilogy (which I also translated and reviewed), and published by JBC in partnership with Sato Company, which holds the rights of the series in Brazil, and Toei- wait, Toei? So, does that mean it's an officially-sanctioned sequel? If so, then that means I'm allowed to say that it's canon to the series! It was originally announced during the Anime Friends event in July 2018 for a release later in the year, but due to delays resulting from Toei requiring approval for numerous things (typical Japanese companies istg), it ended up being released in October 2020, during the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Its original release was intended to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Brazil and the 30th anniversary of Juspion being broadcast in Brazil, which in turn was 18 months to the 30th anniversary of the release of unrelated Belgian techno-pop anthem, Pump Up the Jam.

Something to note before I start recapping the story. When Juspion was broadcast in Brazil, they changed the spellings and names of characters and terminologies, and these localised names and terms are used in the raws and therefore, the transcripts. Like no kidding, some of the localised names, like Jaspion, Satan Goss and MacGaren, sound like how Philomena Cunk would probably pronounce the original names. Juspion's finisher is named the Cosmic Laser, and considering that the Plasma Blazer Sword is named the Spadium Laser, I have to wonder - why name your finisher attack the same as your weapon? For the translation and review, I'll be using the English names for them, whether based on the subs by Megabeast Empire (which I binged in preparation for this), the Metal Hero Wiki or just me TV-Nihoning it because the "official" names on the wiki are autistic af. With all that out of the way, let's get into it.

In order for people who may not have watched Juspion to understand this story, I will need to recount parts of it throughout this review. I binged the whole series in preparation but I'll try to keep the recounts short so I can keep the review going.

The story begins with a recap of the original series' final battle. Satan Gorth had molted into his monstrous form, Super Satan Gorth, and turned all of Tokyo into a forest. Having defeated Brima, Gyoru and Mad Gallant and gathered the five children who were struck by the light, Juspion faced off against Super Satan Gorth after his adoptive father, Ejin, was killed by him as he bought Juspion time to find the baby within the light. The five children came together and the Golden Bird's power formed into a golden sword for Daileon, but even that wasn't enough to defeat Super Satan Gorth because the baby hadn't been found yet. That was until Super Satan Gorth's power caused the earth to shake, revealing the baby within a golden egg.

BGM: 熱風野郎ジャスピオン

The baby's crying paralysed Super Satan Gorth, allowing Juspion to gain the upper hand and kill him with the Daileon Cosmic Harley, eliminating Gilmaza and the rest of his minions and returning Tokyo to normal. After the battle, Juspion adopted the baby, who he named Tarzan (short for Galactic Tarzan, Juspion's alternate title if you can call it that) and left Earth in Daileon for Ejin's planet with Anri and Miya.

Before the pages turn from colour to black-and-white, please enjoy the classic Juspion opening sequence.

Many years later on Planet Beegee, a crowd of aliens are drinking at a bar when Juspion comes in. All the aliens begin attacking him and a fight ensues.

Alien Owner: *BLAM* Stupid Juspion! Free drinks to anyone who can bring me his head! Juspion: Easy, guys. I’m just here to ask some questions! Has anyone seen the Joker?

As the fight goes on, Anri speaks to Juspion from aboard Daileon.

Alien Owner: What do you think you’re doing here?! My bar is legally licenced! Anri: Juspion, he’s right! You can’t just wreck private property like that, it’s against the… Juspion: Oh, Anri, this is why I don’t work with the Space Police! How am I supposed to get into bar fights if I'm a space policeman?

Exasperated, Anri calls Tarzan at the Space Police, who informs her that they can no longer turn a blind eye to Juspion, who has been causing trouble all over the galaxy for months.

So yeah, the baby revealed by the Golden Bird grew up and joined the Space Police. You know, it honestly baffles me that everyone else in this story has clearly aged since the end of the original series except for Juspion and Anri. Anri I can understand because she's an android, but Juspion looks like he's barely aged a day, particularly given how much time has passed since the end of the original series.

Juspion gets the upper hand on the owner of the bar and tries to get him to talk about the New Galactic Bible, but the owner was prepared for him as he unleashes a couple of hidden buzzsaws. Juspion transforms and the owner gets away onto a mecha of his own, which is soon defeated with the Plasma Blazer Sword. The owner finally tells Juspion what he knows; a stone was found on Planet Dodo saying that a false saviour will be revealed, Satan Gorth will return and not even the Golden Bird will be able to stop him this time.

We started off this graphic novel with a tribute to the end of the series and now we're paying tribute to the beginning of it, with the visits to the bar on Planet Beegee and now to Planet Dodo, the exact same places that Juspion visited in the first few episodes of the series before going to Earth.

On the way to Planet Dodo, Tarzan tells Juspion to go back to Ejin's planet and that he needs to finish his report for Commander K.O., whose request for Juspion to join the Space Police keeps being rejected because he claims that he works better alone (with Anri, anyway). Arriving on Dodo, Juspion and Anri are shot at by alien snipers, but Anri manages to deflect them thanks to a force field she acquired in her last upgrade.

Juspion: How many snipers are your sensors detecting? Anri: Six of them! Juspion: Well then… Let’s run away!

Thanks to his coordination with Anri, Juspion deals with the snipers using his skills of misdirection. The two of them prepare to confront their leader, who is revealed to be... Koko.

Koko, like Juspion, was an orphaned boy whose parents were killed when their spaceship crashed on Planet Dodo. While Juspion was adopted by the hermit Ejin, Koko was adopted by the Megabeast Namagerath. When Daileon almost crashed on Dodo in the third episode of the series, Juspion and his party encountered Namagerath, who was shot by a poisoned arrow on the orders of the city's unnamed leader, who is named Kleon in this graphic novel. Defying the leader's orders to have Namagerath killed, Juspion crossed the Windy Plains to obtain the Fruit of Life, which cured Namagerath only for him to be rendered berserk by Satan Gorth's power. However, Juspion fended off the berserk Namagerath and turned him back to normal.

Instead of greeting Juspion however, Koko points a gun at him. Juspion teleports away with Anri but he ends up taking Koko with him. They end up falling into Namagerath's hand and Juspion summons the Battle Giant Daileon to fight him.

BGM: 超惑星戦斗母艦ダイレオン

Juspion tries to get Namagerath to stop, to the point where he has to unleash the Daileon Beam on him. However, Namagerath begins draining Daileon's energy and its systems begin to fail. Juspion jumps out and Koko runs to give Namagerath the Fruit of Life to heal him. Koko explains that Namagerath just wanted to help, only agreeing to damage Daileon so that Juspion couldn't leave Dodo. Just as things couldn't get more confusing for Juspion, Anri arrives with the leader Kleon, who wants Juspion to hear what she has to say. Um, I have one question with that - WHY DID YOU ATTACK HIM?! We kind of find out the reason later, but all that ends up doing is making allies into villains who unknowingly facilitate the real villains' plans.

Anyway, Kleon, who has dedicated herself to studying the Galactic Bible following Ejin's death, informs Juspion that a few months ago, she discovered a stone containing the new prophecy mentioned earlier, and that the false saviour is a warrior wearing silver, resembling Juspion.

Juspion agrees to cooperate, but Kleon has her guards hold him at gunpoint. Anri comes to Juspion's defense, which is revealed to be a distraction as Miya arrives in the Garbin Tank to take them away. And that's the end of Planet Dodo's involvement for this story.

Kleon doesn't pursue Juspion because he can't leave Dodo anyway without Daileon. With the Space Police being contacted by Kleon, Tarzan gets in contact with Juspion's party, and Anri has Tarzan transport Juspion to the Space Police base. Juspion warmly greets his adopted son, who states that he couldn't teleport Anri and Miya otherwise he'd get caught. Juspion tells Tarzan that sometimes rules are meant to be broken, then Tarzan proceeds to cry about not being a nepo baby.

Juspion: Oh, come on, Tarzan, sometimes we need to break the rules to… Tarzan: “Break the rules”?! Do you have any idea how much of a burden it is to have been raised by you? Oh, I’m sure your resume must open doors for you, right? “The baby struck by the light”…? People expect me to be like you, but my power is useless! I spend all day at work just carrying things here and there! Juspion: Yeah! And meanwhile, your daddy’s takin’ care of all the monsters!

Tarzan then explains to Juspion why the Earth is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Space Police.

Tarzan: Ugh… Dad, I never wanted to tell you this, but do you know why Earth is no longer under our jurisdiction? Juspion: Er, because it’s so far away? Tarzan: No! It’s because of you! Everyone knows you saved the Earth, but your time there had consequences! Earthlings would rather face their monsters alone… …than have some space adventurer destroying their cities! They'd rather make their own heroes, with Riders and Sentai, and they'd rather destroy their own cities, with their armaments, vehicles and Megazords!

We then get a few vaguely-detailed portraits of the Space Police's officers, trained by Commander K.O. himself, representing some rather familiar faces that came before Juspion, who calls them all amateurs. Tarzan gets frustrated at his dad for not taking anything seriously and tells him to call the professionals once he's done with his investigation. As Tarzan sends Juspion down to Earth, he tells him that he does take his work seriously and that his power is very cool. Once Juspion is gone, Commander K.O. comes in and- HOLD IT!

Are you telling me... Commander K.O. is KENJI OHBA?! Holy crap, I'm fanboying and I'm not even a fan of Showa toku series!

Yes, based on the inclusion of the Space Police, the portraits of Juspion's "predecessors" the Space Sheriffs, and this revelation regarding Commander K.O., I'm inclined to believe- no, I firmly believe that this graphic novel also acts as a pseudo-tribute to the Space Sheriffs. I feel that the creators of this wanted to include Gavan and the Space Sheriffs in some way and Toei told them that they could as long as they didn't go into detail about them or use their actual names - this graphic novel is about Juspion, after all, hence Gavan aka Retsu Ichijouji is named Commander K.O. here. It's not helped by his character bio in the appendix making reference to Gavan.

Well, you know what? If this graphic novel was sanctioned by Toei then that means it's canon to the series, and if the graphic novel considers Juspion in the same canon as the Space Sheriffs (like the Kamen Riders and Super Sentai with their VS and Taisen movies), then I'm going to do what the creators couldn't. At the time when this graphic novel would take place (I'll get to that soon), Retsu was the commander of the Space Police (Galactic Federation Police Force) as shown in Super Hero Taisen Z. As such, in the translation, I renamed Commander K.O. to Commander Retsu, and I hereby declare it canon. *bangs gavel* Court adjourned.

Anyway, Juspion lands in Tokyo, noting that this doesn't look like the Earth he knew and that people are looking at their "little boxes". He is also alarmed to see a billboard of Gilmaza promoting Satan Gorth - "BEARING THE LIGHT OF THE FUTURE". Yes, a billboard in Portuguese in the heart of Tokyo. Are you sure he didn't land in Sao Paulo by mistake?

Earlier back on Dodo, Juspion guesses that five years have passed for him but Anri says that it's actually been 31.1 Earth years. Given that the original series took place in 1985-86, it can be deduced that this story takes place in 2017, and going by release dates, this would be just before the start of the Space Squad movie series. Given that this graphic novel celebrates 30 years of the series being broadcast in Brazil, you can argue that this takes place in 2019-20.

Juspion is confused whether the woman on the billboard is Gilza or Gilmaza. Gilza, the younger of the two sisters, is known as the Galactic Witch and was brought in by Satan Gorth to resurrect Mad Gallant after his first death. In one confrontation Gilza managed to steal Juspion's soul but he managed to get it back thanks to the help of Anri and Miya. In her final confrontation amidst the search for the five children, Gilza became haunted by a vision of a baby, perhaps foreshadowing Satan Gorth's eventual defeat, and this led to her being killed by Juspion. Following that, the older sister Gilmaza, known as the Spectre Queen of the Dark Galaxy, came to Earth to avenge her sister's defeat. Prior to that, she had caused chaos on several planets, spiralling one planet into crime and tricking two forces on another into nuclear war. She also led a group of five space ninjas in battle representing each of the five elements, though they were defeated in succession by Juspion.

Juspion is confronted by a policeman pointing a gun at him, having detected him to be an alien.

Policeman: Police! Juspion: Huh? Policeman: *SHACK* Hold it right there! My sensors indicate that you are alien! Identify yourself! Juspion: Hello, Mr Policeman! Your sensor is really good! Where can I get one of those?

The policeman asks Juspion to identify himself and when he does, he starts shooting at him. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know Juspion accidentally ended up in the USA. Typical police shooting innocent bystanders. The policeman calls for backup, but help arrives in the form of... Boomerang, who deflects the bullets and knocks out the policeman with his boomerangs. Juspion greets Boomerang as he asks him what he is doing back on Earth. Boomerang confirms to Juspion that this is the Tokyo he once knew, but when Juspion asks him what happened...

Boomerang: Isn’t it obvious, Juspion? You left.

Boomerang was a quasi-regular ally of Juspion, particularly during his first few episodes on Earth. His brother was an Interpol officer who was recruited into Mad Gallant's organisation hoping to destroy it from within, but his identity was exposed and he was killed, leading to Boomerang swearing revenge against Mad Gallant. It was also through Boomerang and his brother that Juspion was able to meet Rotto and Sachi, two siblings from Planet Sky who were recruited into Mad Gallant's organisation as spies but decided to desert after seeing him for who he was. After escaping Mad Gallant, Rotto and Sachi would settle on a remote farm, appearing a couple more times until they went to stay with Nanbara's family, after which they are never seen again. Presumably Juspion took them back to their home planet after Satan Gorth's defeat. They're not featured in this graphic novel, but I just wanted to give them an honourable mention.

Eventually, Boomerang realised that he wasn't strong enough to avenge his brother's death and left Japan to train himself, later returning briefly after being recruited as an investigator for the International Federation (not sure why he couldn't have joined Interpol, but anyway) before leaving again to help other people around the world corrupted by Satan Gorth. Boomerang was played by Hiroshi Watari, who played Den Iga/Sharivan in the Space Sheriff trilogy before going on to play Yousuke Jou in Dimensional Warrior Spielban (the series that aired the year after, ironically named Jaspion 2 in Brazil). According to Watari's letter in the graphic novel's appendix, the character of Boomerang was created to pad out episodes in the portion of the series he was in due to scheduling conflicts owing to Hikaru Kurosaki's theatre commitments around the time those episodes were being filmed. Interesting insight, isn't it?

Boomerang explains to Juspion that after Satan Gorth's death, Japan, having rebuilt itself after its post-war occupation by the US, found itself in a complicated situation once again. Japan gained a reputation for being the "Land of Monsters", causing many people, including scientists, teachers and investors, to flee, and rich nations to turn their backs on them, not wanting to invest in a country that could be destroyed at any moment. Countries around the world signed an intergalactic treaty, expelling aliens from Earth, closing their borders to the rest of outer space and withdrawing from the Space Police. Xenophobia rose in Japan and the resurrected Gilmaza began amassing a group of followers, the negative energy generated energising her and allowing her to extend her influence through the mainstream media, proclaiming that Satan Gorth will save them.

Boomerang: According to Gilmaza, Japan was a much better place before her time here - which isn’t entirely untrue, I must say…!

Juspion: This is crazy! How can they believe Gilmaza? Boomerang: It’s not that hard to understand why. Our world forces us to make difficult choices. We used to call people like her conspiracy theorists and all sorts of names. Now, we're waking up and realising that they had a point all along.

Boomerang takes Juspion through a network of quantum tunnels to his hideout, and it's here where we're introduced to his small resistance unit, consisting of Kenichirou Nanbara, Aigerman and Tiger Joe.

Kenichirou Nanbara and his children, Kanoko and Kenta, are part of the original series' story arc revolving around the Golden Bird. Nanbara had, by chance, captured a photo of a bird which was revealed to be the Golden Bird, the guardian bird of the galaxy that was prophesied to be the downfall of Satan Gorth. Mad Gallant offered a lot of money to Nanbara for the whereabouts of the Golden Bird, but his refusal to accept that deal led to him and his family being targeted by Mad Gallant and his forces. Funnily enough, the Brazilian version of the series, and therefore the transcript of this graphic novel, calls Nanbara a "Professor" when he was never addressed as such in the original. He was just a photographer who had come by the Golden Bird by chance. That's it.

Aigerman, who appeared in episode 28 of the original series, was an android hired by Mad Gallant to deal with Juspion and Daileon. Having studied and analysed all of Juspion and Daileon's battles, Aigerman piloted his Megabeast Aiger against them and was able to overpower him thanks to it. However, Juspion did the unexpected and invaded Aiger's cockpit, defeating Aigerman before going back into Daileon and destroying Aiger. For mysterious reasons, he was rebuilt and now serves as a member of the resistance, helping them access government systems and concealing their activities.

Tiger Joe (known in the Brazilian version as John Tiger) befriended Juspion when he and Ejin were staying on his planet in his childhood. After Juspion left, Joe had become an infamous bounty hunter who had a reputation for never letting his targets escape him. Eventually, he became sick of killing people for money and abandoned his weapons, settling on Earth and running an orphanage in Japan. When Tiger Joe was reunited with Juspion in episode 41 of the original series, he was found by Gilmaza who convinced him to take up his weapons and fight Juspion to the death. Juspion agreed to fight him so as to save him from Gilmaza's influence, which he eventually did. Joe went back to running the orphanage, but years later he took up arms once again following Gilmaza's resurrection.

After Juspion is reunited with this ragtag group of allies, Boomerang explains to everyone his plan, which boils down to killing Gilmaza. Nanbara disapproves of this, theorising that this would only serve to increase the negative energy on Earth, which is already at boiling point, and bring back Satan Gorth. Juspion tries to calm the two down, but when he asks Boomerang what happened to him, he snaps at Juspion and throttles him.

Boomerang: What happened to me?! WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?! Nanbara: Calm down, Boomerang!! Boomerang: I watched my country and my friends die while you went back to Ejin’s planet! It’s easy for you to put on your armour and play the hero… But did you ever think about those you left behind? Nanbara: Boomerang! That’s enough! Boomerang: Why?! Nanbara: I already lost Kanoko! I can’t lose you too.

You might think this is an out-of-character moment for Boomerang, but rest assured...

In the Megabeast Empire Temple, Commander Takahashi interrupts Gilmaza's meditation to report that Juspion has been spotted. We see the effects of whatever Gilmaza has done to Takahashi, as he becomes paranoid over the possibility of him forgetting the name of one of his daughters, but Gilmaza reminds him of it.

Gilmaza: Continue to serve me, and your daughters will remain a part of your memories and your life. And this timeline.

Gilmaza then goes to report this news to Mad Gallant, performing the signature castanet dance that she was known for on the original series. It's here that we learn that the prophecy found on Planet Dodo was presumably Gilmaza's doing, as she admires how humans did a great job spreading fear and hatred without much intervention from herself, making them easier to manipulate.

Gilmaza: Like you, I’ve been to Hell, and nothing compares to this… Earth is Satan Gorth’s dream come true! The true Megabeast Empire! Our time is coming, my lord, because… Juspion is already here!

Back at the Space Police, Commander Retsu is angry at Tarzan for nearly causing an intergalactic incident sending Juspion to Earth.

Commander Retsu: The Galactic Federation’s relationship with Earth is already delicate… We can’t even send our top sheriffs there, and you sent Juspion?! Just what were you thinking?! Do you know what will happen if we interfere in the internal affairs of Earth's heroes? The Toei cartel will put sanctions on our Space Sheriffs!

Anri tries to explain to Retsu about Satan Gorth's potential return and Tarzan tells him that Juspion is still their best option and he needs to trust him. Exasperated, Retsu admits that he turned a blind eye to Tarzan helping Juspion in secret because he hoped that the latter would join them.

Commander Retsu: Tarzan, I’ve been to Earth! It’s not Juspion I don’t trust… …it’s humanity!

Back on Earth, Juspion learns from Nanbara that the five children struck by the light have disappeared, including Kanoko. He also learns that the government had experimented on them after he left Earth.

Nanbara: After the battle against Satan Gorth, the five were taken by the government of the time… …because they believed that the Golden Bird was part of some ‘earthly force’, linked to other mythological beings. Their plan was to create a paramilitary team to make Japan a world power again! But they weren’t able to learn much from them. After many tests, the children were released and returned to their normal lives!

Kanoko and the other children went missing three years prior to the events of this graphic novel. Juspion asks Nanbara if it was the government, but he says that Aigerman hasn't found anything suspicious - the five just vanished, as if they never existed. Juspion reassures Nanbara that he will find Kanoko and the other children before they meet with Boomerang to discuss his plan, which he wants to execute before the negative energy around Earth reaches boiling point. Boomerang's plan boils down to... invading the temple and killing Gilmaza.

Juspion suggests that they capture Gilmaza and hand her over to the Space Police, if only so Tarzan doesn't have to get fired. Nanbara gives Juspion and Boomerang their gear before they are transported right to the front of the Megabeast Empire Temple. While they're being transported, Juspion tries to have a little heart-to-heart with Boomerang.

Juspion: You know, Boomerang, I hope that when all this is over, we’ll be friends again. I know I wasn’t the best of friends and I haven’t contacted you for years… …but time passes differently when you’re traveling through the galaxy, you know! I mean, it's not like you went out of your way to contact me or anything when you were overseas. Look, don’t take it personally, okay? Besides, humans usually live much shorter lives than I do! Believe me, with what little life you have left, it’s not worth it holding all that resentment in your heart. I mean, out of my predecessors, one's dead, another's not in the best of health... you're the only one of them left, man. What goes around comes around, Boomerang. You should know that better than anyone. I mean, can you imagine being my predecessor, taking a break for a year, coming back for me and then being my successor the next year?

Anyway, they get inside the temple, where Juspion sees statues of the Megabeasts he fought on display. Boomerang knocks out the cameras with his boomerangs, and in the process he knocks Juspion's pulse monitor out as well. It's then that the two are attacked by a wolf-like Megabeast - the combined form of Brima and Gyoru. While Boomerang heads off to find Gilmaza, Juspion fights Brima and Gyoru, splitting them from their combined form. They get back up and they begin draining Juspion's energy, which sates their hunger. Ikki arrives and begins fighting the two over Juspion, before Boomerang returns and slices their throats open with his boomerang.

As Juspion continued to serve as an obstacle to Mad Gallant's plans, particularly with the reveal of Satan Gorth's weakness, the Golden Bird, Mad Gallant called in four evil warriors from across the galaxy to serve as the Megabeast Empire's Four Divine Generals, namely the cyborg Ikki, the android Zanba, the psychic Brima and the illusionist Gyoru. Ikki and Zanba were defeated within a few episodes of their first appearances, while Brima and Gyoru went on to serve as Mad Gallant's faithful assistants. Of note, Zanba, a captain of the Machine Empire, was the one who killed Juspion's parents, Gary and Anna, when they got in the way of them slaughtering wildlife across the galaxy. Ironically, Zanba is the only one of the Four Divine Generals who doesn't appear in this graphic novel because, as explained in the appendix, "perhaps androids cannot be resurrected," but let's face it, they didn't want to find a fourth ally to fight Zanba, even if he's merely reconstructed with a hatred for Juspion.

Boomerang returns, bringing in tow Gilmaza and... Mad Gallant. Gilmaza had brought back Mad Gallant and three of the Four Divine Generals, but it left them with an insatiable hunger that not even human beings or the inhabitants of Planet Gyodai could offer. While Juspion did offer Brima and Gyoru some sustenance, they aim to feed on a being with unlimited energy - the Golden Bird. With the Golden Bird's power, they would be able to revive Satan Gorth and all the enemies that Juspion defeated.

Mad Gallant proceeds to siphon Juspion's energy into himself, but Gilmaza reminds him that they still need him alive because they need the Golden Bird's bearer to summon it. He then has Boomerang take him away.

Boomerang: You made a big mistake coming back, Juspion! You shouldn’t have come back. I would have solved everything myself! I would have saved everyone… Juspion: It can’t be… Boomerang: …even Kanoko.

It's revealed that Mad Gallant has the five children, including Kanoko, held in stasis pods.

Mad Gallant is the son of Satan Gorth and the main villain during Juspion's time on Earth. A lot of his plans revolve around manipulating humans, but a significant amount of them also involve him kidnapping children or taking children hostage for leverage against Juspion. Honestly, Mad Gallant involves children in his plots so much that I gradually believed that taking children hostage was his default stratagem, and it seems like he's done it again here. Mad Gallant was killed by Juspion over halfway through the series, then was resurrected by Gilza, and at the end of his climactic final battle with Juspion, he even briefly turned into a giant Satan Gorth before dying.

In the last third of the series, the quest for the Golden Bird is expanded. While travelling through space, Juspion is hit by a bright light and five children, including Kanoko, along with the baby inside the Golden Egg, are hit by the same light as well. They mark the elements that would bring the Golden Bird to life and smite Satan Gorth. For the remainder of the series, Juspion's quest was to find the rest of the children, namely Kumiko, Daisaku (Daisuke in the dub), Hiroshi and Mika. When each of the five were brought in contact with a piece of the Galactic Bible, it revealed a part of the Golden Bird in their hands. But now, with the five now-grownup children in the hands of the resurrected Mad Gallant, all he needed was Juspion to summon the Golden Bird.

Tiger Joe bursts in and fights Boomerang, revealing that he had somehow been convinced by Gilmaza's words (he had tried to attack the temple once before but was apparently tortured by Gilmaza for weeks), but Boomerang tells Joe that he wouldn't understand because he isn't human.

Boomerang: Japan was a great country! But it all changed when Juspion arrived! Tiger Joe: Have you gone mad, Boomerang?! Juspion is a hero! Boomerang: I lost my brother! My family!! All the deaths! All the horror! This needs to end! Tiger Joe: But not like this! I used to be a bounty hunter, Boomerang! I’ve seen my share of death and terror! But I’ve changed! Thanks to Juspion, who taught me to be good, generous… Tiger Joe: …and to summon the Iron Wolf!!!

Tiger Joe takes Juspion on Iron Wolf and they escape the base to meet with Nanbara and Aigerman; Nanbara had his suspicions of Boomerang and had taken precautions. This comes just as predicted to Mad Gallant and Gilmaza, the former taking the Plasma Blazer Sword that Juspion left behind and transforming into a new silver form.

Juspion falls unconscious as he is brought back to Nanbara, who uses a defibrillator to reenergise his armour. In limbo, he is met by none other than Ejin, who tells him that he still has a lot to do.

Juspion: Ejin, I feel like I’ve disappointed everyone! Even Tarzan thinks I don’t take anything seriously! Ejin: Juspion, do you know what the biggest mistake a hermit can make is? Juspion: No, what is it? Ejin: Being a hermit. I lived to see such comic failures as Marville, All Star Batman & Robin and Spiderman: One More Day. I regret reading every single page of them.

Ejin confronts Juspion about him living in isolation (despite having Anri, Miya and Tarzan) and tells him that no one needs to carry the burden of being a hero alone.

Juspion: But the Galactic Bible said that… Ejin: Juspion, are you really going to let an ancient stone define your life? Like I let it define mine? Juspion: What?! What do you mean?! Ejin: Go! Be the hope! Be Juspion!! *WHAWSH*

Juspion is thrusted back into the world of the living, regaining consciousness after nearly three days. He tells Nanbara about Kanoko and the children and about how Mad Gallant is using them to summon the Golden Bird. Aigerman tells him that his plans, whatever they are, are practically bound to fail as he doesn't have his sword or Daileon and his Metal Tech Suit is still re-energising and it could take days to fully recover, but Juspion tells him that he can't just do nothing. Tiger Joe shows Juspion a message from Gilmaza and Mad Gallant being repeated on every TV channel (for 3 days?), promising humanity freedom under the truth of Satan Gorth, and not-so subtly challenging Juspion to a showdown at the Megabeast Empire Temple.

BGM: 流星の戦士

Boomerang is tasked with guarding Gilmaza while Mad Gallant takes Brima, Gyoru and Ikki to confront Juspion, who is also with Aigerman and Tiger Joe. Brima, Gyoru and Ikki overpower Aigerman and Tiger Joe while Mad Gallant has another showdown with Juspion. He manages to catch Juspion in a headlock, when who else should show up but Anri and Miya. In a flashback, Anri kicked Gilmaza into Ejin knows where before confronting Boomerang, telling him that nothing justifies what he did and that she still believes there is a good man inside him.

Sure enough, thanks to Boomerang, Kanoko and the rest of the children are freed and Anri tells them to get to work summoning the Golden Bird. Juspion is stabbed through the chest with his own sword. As he falls to his knees and the pages briefly turn to colour, the Golden Bird flies to him.

Juspion: Come on, boy…

It's time.

BGM: おれが正義だ ! ジャスピオン

Juspion: Mad Gallant! I will never let you destroy the peace on Earth! This is a dream that cannot end, and I swear, I swear…! I will not fail!!!

The Golden Bird fully repairs Juspion and empowers him. Mad Gallant proclaims that the Golden Bird's power belongs to him, but Juspion tells him that the Golden Bird belongs to everyone as he shines the Bird's light on everyone, including Mad Gallant, Brima and Gyoru, fully reviving them. The hatred of humanity is also dissipated as it turns into light in their hearts around the world.

Mad Gallant: Curse you Juspion, what are you doing…?! Juspion: Humans sense bad things, and they have reasons for it, Mad Gallant! …There’s more injustice in this world than in any other in the galaxy, so it’s natural that its inhabitants feel fear and anger! But unlike you, humans are capable of nurturing other feelings! They are capable of loving, forgiving, and seeking forgiveness! As long as there is love and compassion in this world, the Golden Bird will live in each of its inhabitants! That is the nature of humanity! That is the true strength of the Earth! This beautiful planet will never become the Megabeast Empire! Earth will become an empire of love, hope, and freedom!

BGM: パワフルファイター・ジャスピオン

With Mad Gallant fully revived, Juspion takes his sword back and they fight, the pages going back to black-and-white.

Mad Gallant: You really think you can beat me, Juspion?! I’ve been waiting for this fight for a long time! *THAMP* You’re nothing but a damned worm, while I am the son of the great Satan Gorth! *TSASH* Juspion: And I am the son of Ejin! *PSHAM* A simple man who raised me, trained me, and taught me everything I know! Mad Gallant: Curse you! If I am the heir of evil, it’s because I deserved it! Juspion: Deep down, I pity you, Mad Gallant! *UHNSH* Juspion: Didn’t anyone teach you that greatness comes from within?! Mad Gallant: Fool! Soon I myself will become a powerful Satan Gorth! *CLAHN* *BWRUN* Juspion: Perhaps we’re not so different after all. But, unlike you, I chose the path of light! Mad Gallant: And I was chosen by the darkness! *SAHNG* Mad Gallant: And that’s where I’m sending you! Juspion: Thank you, but I already know my place! Plasma Blazer Sword!! *TWYRN WYRN* Cosmic… *TWFUOK* Harley!! *TWFUOK* *TABRUHNN*

Juspion kills Mad Gallant, which causes Satan Gorth to stir. Brima and Gyoru combine into their wolf-like Megabeast form, and Satan Gorth's dark power enlarges them.

Satan Gorth possesses the dark power to enrage MegaBeasts and make them go berserk!

BGM: 超惑星戦斗母艦ダイレオン

With Commander Retsu's permission, Anri has Tarzan deploy the Battle Giant Daileon to Earth. Juspion fights the combined Megabeast, hitting it with the Daileon Beam before finishing it with the Daileon Cosmic Crash.

But the battle isn't over yet. Satan Gorth emerges from the depths of hell and Juspion avoids getting Daileon's energy sucked away by him. He asks Anri what he should do.

Juspion: What do I do, then, Anri? Anri: Go to Hell! Juspion: Hey, there’s no need for that, alright? *VVAHMM* Anri: No, you idiot, I meant literally! Send him back where he came from before he regains his full power! Juspion: Great idea!

BGM: 熱風野郎ジャスピオン

With a new attack, the Daileon Justice Punch, Juspion punches Satan Gorth back into Hell, but he unleashes his tentacles and attempts to pull Daileon in with him. To close the rift and prevent Satan Gorth from escaping Hell again, Juspion has no choice but to activate Daileon's self-destruct. He farewells Anri, Miya and Tarzan, but Commander Retsu tells Tarzan to go and use his power.

BGM: 銀河のターザン

Satan Gorth is defeated once again and the rift into Hell is sealed, but Tarzan managed to take Juspion back to the world above in a ball, perhaps similar to the Golden Egg that Tarzan was found in when he was a baby. Juspion introduces Tarzan to everyone and Nanbara is reunited with Kanoko.

Anri: What will we do now, Juspion? Juspion: Good question, Anri. We have a lot of work ahead of us… …and something tells me that the threat of Satan Gorth isn’t over yet. As long as there is negative energy in the universe, he will always return! But for now, it’s time to celebrate. We have people to reunite with, new friends to make. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but one thing is certain: from now on… …we will fight together!

What's interesting about this final page is that Juspion and his allies are on the ground while Commander Retsu is in the sky, with the shadows of what are likely other Metal Heroes behind him. After recent events in the toku world, it feels more poignant than when this graphic novel was originally released.

It's sad that the ending is only one page and that it uses a version of the ending that was dropped after 12 episodes, so I'm going to put it here. If this were an actual movie there'd be an original song after it.

After the credits, Tarzan meets with Commander Retsu as he presents to him the blueprints for a new Daileon constructed by the Space Police, incorporating elements created by Ejin.

Tarzan: Do you think he’ll like them? Commander Retsu: I don’t know if he’ll like them… …but he’ll certainly need them.

Following this, there is a full-on 30-page appendix featuring an overview of all the characters, Juspion's arsenal and the production of this graphic novel, then we go into a full-blown article from Ricardo Cruz talking about how Juspion, a failure in Japan, turned into a phenomenon in Brazil, and after that we have some testimonials from people whom Juspion impacted their lives, from fans who watched the show in Brazil when they were young, the presidents of Sato Company (the biggest Japanese media distributor in Brazil) and Everest Video (the company that brought Japanese media to Brazil in the 80's), actors Hiroshi Watari (Boomerang) and Kiyomi Tsukada (Anri), singer Akira Kushida, and Brazilian voice actors Carlos Takeshi (Juspion), Wendel Bezerra (Koko) and Cecilia Lemes (Anri). I'm honestly surprised that Fabio Yabu, Michel Borges and the rest of the team behind this graphic novel didn't write testimonials or pre/postface pages for it (like with the Combo Rangers graphic novels); I was honestly looking forward to what witty things Yabu would have had to say about it.

This graphic novel, The Return of Juspion, is a great tribute to the original series. The original series only featured Juspion, Anri and Miya as the core protagonist group while the Nanbara family were the main regular characters for most of the series. Bringing back Nanbara and Boomerang were obvious choices, but it was surprising to see Aigerman and Tiger Joe, two characters who were only involved in a single episode, along with Ikki, who only had 3 episodes in the original series. There's references from all over the original series and the graphic novel does do justice to it.

There is a political slant in the story that some people may not like, but it doesn't get in the way of the story too much; in fact, if you've watched the original series like I have, you might agree that Mad Gallant and Gilmaza's scheme of using the fear and hatred of humanity to revive Satan Gorth and his forces is on-par with their usual MO. Besides, as Gilmaza said, she didn't need to do much because humanity was already doing a good job of spreading fear and hatred themselves without them.

Xenophobia in Japan is a main political point highlighted in this graphic novel. We hear from Boomerang about what happened to Japan, and the rest of Earth, after the events of the original series; many people fled Japan and rich nations stopped investing there after constant monster attack, causing Japan's economy to regress to what it was after WWII. The Earth closed its borders and withdrew from Space Police jurisdiction, and in Japan, the climate of fear created leads to racial attacks on aliens, plus it opened a window for Gilmaza to promote Satan Gorth through the mainstream media. This is a particularly poignant point to raise given recent discourse over foreigners in Japan. Japan is a country that has a reputation for being xenophobic that nobody talks about, despite people around the world appreciating the technology, culture and media that they export. People there like to say that Japan must defend itself and its culture from foreign influences and mass migration, and the sad thing is that Westerners are actually agreeing with them and defending this xenophobia. Japanese netizens have gotten into flame wars on social media about foreigners not appreciating their media "the right way" by buying it instead of pirating it, or foreigners thinking they have the right to have opinions about anything because they pirate media.

As I said in recent posts: Hey assholes, you don't live in the Sakoku period anymore. You live in a global society. Deal with it. You people should be grateful that, unlike actual Israel, your media and culture are interesting enough to make foreigners ignorant of the xenophobic genocide deniers that you are.

Xenophobia to the Japanese may be refusing service with a smile, but to me, it's just bigotry with extra steps and more people around the world need to see it for what it is. You can say that Japan should stay Japanese all you want, but all they're doing is unfairly tarring ALL foreigners with the same brush when most of them aren't doing anything wrong. That's my main problem with Japanese xenophobia.

Boomerang does seem a bit out-of-character in this graphic novel. He wasn't that happy to see Juspion come back after all these years (then again, when was he ever happy), and then we see Boomerang (subtly) expressing the same type of xenophobia that the rest of the Japanese are, cluing us all to the revelation that Boomerang was somehow compromised by Gilmaza following his attempted attack on the Megabeast Empire Temple. And then it somehow led to Boomerang siding with Mad Gallant and Gilmaza, perhaps waiting for the moment he could take them both down and rescue the five children.

In my opinion, Boomerang wouldn't be one to be spouting xenophobic views about aliens given his dealings with Juspion along with Rotto and Sachi, who he got to know because of his brother infiltrating Mad Gallant's organisation. He knew that there were aliens affected by Satan Gorth's influence across the galaxy just as there were humans in the same situation. Perhaps Gilmaza's influence on Boomerang intensified the hatred he already had for Mad Gallant and his group to the point that it surpassed reason, while also creating a desire to go back to a time before aliens arrived on Earth (by playing up his toxic nostalgia) and resentment towards Juspion for everything that happened after he went back to Ejin's planet, which explains his OOC behaviour in this graphic novel.

Brazilian-Japanese singer MIC (Miku Nakagaki) was invited to sing a new R&B arrangement of the series' opening theme, which was advertised in the leadup to the release of this graphic novel and also in the appendix. I'm sorry, but this new arrangement doesn't fit the tone of the original series or this graphic novel. If my hypothetical movie adaptation of this had a 10-minute credit sequence I would give this song a pass and put it in, otherwise I'd rather have an original song after the original series' ending theme.

In all honesty, I completely underestimated the amount of work I needed to transcribe, translate and review this graphic novel. When I got the Combo Rangers graphic novels, they were PDF files that had a selectable text layer, so I was able to select all the text and copy it into a Word document, then all I had to do was condense the dialogue, denote speakers and add sound effects. However, I wasn't able to get anything like that for this so I had to go for OCR, but the thing is that OCR tools are notoriously bad when it comes to transcribing comics. All the text ends up in capitals (because fonts in comics usually consist of uppercase letters), random text comes in between lines and not everything gets transcribed correctly. In the end, I just decided to transcribe the entire comic manually (I didn't transcribe all the sound effects due to brevity). Now, there are over 150 pages of this graphic novel that I had to transcribe; it took me 10-11 days of work to transcribe it over 4 weeks, 6 days of work to translate it over 2 weeks, and then another 2 weeks to write this review. The appendix was the only section that was transcribed properly, so I copied it onto a separate document and processed the translation first, then once I was done with translating the graphic novel, I copied the appendix back and made the necessary corrections.

Right now, I'm currently working on the Combo Rangers Retrospective; while I was able to extract transcripts of the Flash webcomics, the printed comics will have to be transcribed by hand based on my experience with the Juspion graphic novel, plus I haven't been able to get the digital trade release because it seems to have been delisted from Amazon and other platforms.

So, about that hypothetical movie adaptation, could it have been possible? Even without considering the fact that Hikaru Kurosaki and Kenji Ohba have passed away, most of the characters would need to be recast anyway because their actors have either left the industry or passed away, not to mention that Juspion and Anri don't seem to have aged a day. In fact the only actors who could easily be called back (as of 2026) are Hiroshi Watari (Boomerang), Junichi Haruta (Mad Gallant but only his voice) and Isao Sasaki (Nanbara). If the adaptation were made around 2015-2020, we could also bring back Shōzō Iizuka to voice Satan Gorth and Kenji Ohba to play Commander Retsu. But I suppose a comeback film wouldn't feel much like a comeback without its main actor reprising his role as the title character, so I'd have to call a movie adaptation an impossible prospect.

Speaking of movies, there is a Juspion revival movie in the works since 2018 when it was announced by Sato Company, but very little details about it have come in the following years. It was only in February 2026 that a synopsis was released for the European Film Market, revealing a new character named Jonas, a 22-year-old Japanese-Brazilian from Sao Paulo who would don Juspion's armor. What really helped the hype for this movie (in my opinion) is CGI animator Rafael Segnini creating a series of Juspion 3D animated shorts on YouTube which are honestly amazing in their cinematography that they could be mistaken for teasers of the movie itself.

This graphic novel is part of JBC's Henshin Universe series, which is intended to consist of original graphic novels based on classic tokusatsu series. In 2024, a new entry in the series, Jiraiya: The New Ninja Empire (Jiraiya: O Novo Império dos Ninjas) was released, written by Chris Tex and illustrated by Santtos and Jhonny Domingos.

Originally, this prelude was meant to be posted in June alongside the one of The Last Princess, but it ended up being delayed until now. It's honestly amusing how things lined up - I started transcribing this graphic novel in the wake of Kenji Ohba's passing, and now I'm publishing this review in the wake of Hikaru Kurosaki's passing. This is just as much a tribute to them as it is to everyone else who was involved in or a fan of Juspion.

This is the end of the preludes for the Combo Rangers Retrospective, and boy what a lot of work it was to make this review possible. Whether you discovered this review as a fan of Juspion, Fabio Yabu, myself or anything related, feel free to give this review a like and follow me as we (finally) dive into that mythical Brazilian toku parody comic series that is Combo Rangers.

IN MEMORIAM - Kenji Ohba

(Shirou Akebono/Battle Kenya, Retsu Ichijouji/Space Sheriff Gavan, Daigorou Oume/DenjiBlue)

1955-2026