Junya Okgo: My First Hero

During the tokusatsu explosion of the 1970s, a variety of costumed superheroes and giant robots appeared across television screens in Japan where kids were guaranteed several shows a week detailing the exploits of their favorite heroes. From 'Ultraman ' and 'Kamen Rider ' to shows like 'Spectreman, ' 'Jumborg Ace ' and 'Fireman, ' the shows were a staple of 1970s Japanese youth and his continued to this day with many shows enjoying continued entries and a renewed fanbase. Director Junya Okabe, once one of the figureheads of Tsuburaya Studios which produced so many of those shows, offers this new modern-day take on the subject matter which pits two of main heroes together in a new adventure.

In the year 2050, the Killgis aliens arrive

The main brother, Koji Kasuga, played by Shunsuke Daitô, is pretty much the prototypical courage-first hero found in these movies. His basic point in this one is to offer encouraging speeches and perform as many heroic actions as he can, which is a fine point if certainly somewhat cliched of a character. The other main male member, Kozo played by Soran Tamoto, doesn 't come off as well. Typically appearing as the electronics wiz that doesn 't really do much beyond that, you rarely see him without some form of technological device or machine that needs to be repaired. The lone female member on the journey, Haruka played by Chihiro Yamamoto has even less to do. The quiet, demure Asian woman who doesn 't have a lot of dialog or important moments, we really don 't get much about her at all. Her background in other tokusatsu shows is obvious with the swordplay she exhibits but that 's all we get from her in this one. The other two members of the family, Koichi and Hitomi stay behind and might have more to do in Part 2 since they’re useless as they

Ken the younger brother, played by Shu Watanabe, comes off rather nicely. Initially appearing as the hard-nosed, stubborn streetfighter who is quite irritating being so, he comes around eventually into being a likable figure. Being the main pilot of Red Baron, he has plenty of screen-time in the later half moving it around but a solid subplot about being guilty for attacking the Black Baron adds a nice dimension to the fight and it resonates nicely. This is due to his older brother Kenichiro played by Hisashi Yoshizawa who is one of the best characters in the film. A father figure to the younger Ken, he is more of a protector who is doing research into robotics that comes in handy for the time-travelers that conflicts with his family duties. It 's a nice relationship and comes into play late in the film during the final battle as there 's several emotion pieces included due to this