Robots and Rescues: A Winspector Review

Sometimes, you just get an odd hankering to pop in a Japanese superhero show from 1990 and gun it. You just want a show full of shiny costumes, excessive pyrotechnics, a surprising bit of heart and drama, and a sprinkle of vintage fashion. It’s the reason I love the tokusatsu medium, and specifically the henshin hero subgenre of transforming superhero action from Japan. Needless to say, I went into Special Rescue Police Winspector with all that on my mind. I’d been meaning to watch this installment in the defunct Metal Hero series of tokusatsu hero programs for a while now, and I ended up popping it in on a whim back in December. I took my time with it: Sometimes watching in chunks, other times just putting on an episode after work, but always finding myself going “wow, that was a wild time” by the end credits.

Now that I’m all done with it, I can say that this 34-year-old show has plenty in it worth looking at today.

Set in the far-flung year of 1999, Winspector presents an image of Japan struggling with high tech crime and disaster on a regular basis. With the advent of new technology and craftier villains causing a panic, commander Shunsuke Masaki establishes the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Special Rescue Police division: Winspector. Made up of the bold young captain Ryoma Kagawa, aka Winspector “Fire”, his two Super-AI powered robot colleagues Bikel and Walter, and sharpshooting policewoman Junko Fujino, these cops put their lives on the line to stop perps and save lives week after week with the latest gear and stunning techniques. 

Unlike other tokusatsu heroes, Winspector isn’t out there to pummel monsters into a burst of pyrotechnic death. In response to growing PTA and media concerns over the henshin hero genre’s penchant for heroes killing frightening monsters and glorifying violence, the production team focused on a team that uses nonlethal means of abating far more human villains. As a result, you seldom get rubber-suited monsters or flashy killing moves, and instead are faced with mad scientists and sleazy criminal masterminds who end up in cuffs by the episode’s end.

That, and a scene of Ryoma popping his Fire helmet off and shaking the sweat away in the most handsome way he can after a job well done rescuing innocent civilians from the clutches of evil or a raging fire in the abandoned warehouse district of Tokyo.

It’s a simple premise that the show excellently toys with it in new and intriguing ways every episode.

The first episode of the show sets this mood perfectly by focusing on a stolen truck speeding through Tokyo with the intent to cause massive damage. And there’s a kidnapped baby in the passenger’s seat. And the driver’s an evil robot engineered by a mad scientist wanting revenge on his former fellow researcher. Later episodes then find ways to push and pull at the barrier of crime drama meets science fiction: One week, you’ve got Ryoma and the team reuniting an estranged father and daughter while both are pursued by deadly hitmen; another week has bumbling robot hero Bikel’s Super-A.I. short circuiting and falling in love with a female bombing suspect; yet another episode has the show clearly ripping from the 1989 version of The Blob as an alien substance engulfs and controls a small town and its inhabitants. And don’t get me started on the bizarre case with a psychic cult attempting to bring down an asteroid on Japan. 

Noboru Sugimura thought he was so slick for this.

Whether you want family-friendly crime drama or sci-fi superhero action, Winspector delivers both with passion and sincerity. Beneath these outlandish plots, though, are some key themes. The idea of technological growth and its dangers and blessings run rampant through Winspector. Acts of illegal experimentation and toxic waste dumping, pollution and human greed, all run in line with the hot-button issues of the late 80’s and early 90’s that would go on to define much of the era.

Even American police brutality and violence is, to an extent, highlighted near the end of the show with a fourth Winspector robot returning from a stint at the NYPD armed to the teeth with lethal gear and cold pride in killing hundreds of criminals. Though the presentation may be silly, there is a sincerity to them from the writers room: These situations are dangerous, lives are at risk, and the heroes have a job to do to protect innocent lives. And it all works surprisingly well.

If this isn't biting commentary on American law enforcement, I don't know what is.

Those plots are always made even better by the excellent dynamics of the main cast: Both the “face”
actors and the suit actors they work alongside.

Masaru Yamashita, a man who had previously served as a stunt and suit actor, does an excellent job being a warm and heroic lead as Ryouma. While his personality may not be the most unique in the genre, its played with sincerity and passion that makes him a fitting team leader and elite cop. His stuntman background makes for outstanding action, too. Amidst death-defying stunts, hand-to-hand combat, and explosions erupting left and right, he sells every hit and the desperation behind any shootout and car chase. Those sweat-shaking shots always feel earned. He’s a solid lead in a solid show, and this isn’t the last time he’d be in this role.

Mami Nakanishi is great as Junko. Never the damsel in distress, she provides the extra sleuthing needed in the team without a suit of armor to protect her. Instead, her trusty scoped pistol comes in handy on the regular, and her chemistry with Ryouma, Masaki and the Robot Duo alone is excellent. Where she also shines is alongside fellow Winspector undercover officer Hisako Koyama, played by Sachiko Oguri. Neither woman in this show tends to get shoved into a position of weakness. Rather, they’re out there kicking ass and slapping the cuffs on the perps on a regular basis while ending up risking it all to spy and investigate the suspects , and Hisako and Junko make for a fun duo on the episodes they’re together. 

Of course, I have to give tremendous props to the legendary Hiroshi Miyauchi as commander Shunsuke Masaki. Miyauchi was already a legend in Toei hero shows at this point (playing the lead roles in Kamen Rider V3, Kaiketsu Zubat, and Aorenger from Himitsu Sentai Gorenger), and the charisma and authority he had honed from the 70’s to 1990 is on full display in this role. Rather than being on the frontlines, he typically leads the team with conviction and maturity from their HQ. He’s the ideal leader, cool and composed under life-or-death emergencies, but the love he has for his subordinates is always on display in his worry for their safety and lives over anything else. And Miyauchi still does get some opportunities to jump into the fray and trade blows with the villain of the week, including an outstanding showdown in the series finale that has him questioning the very morals and duties of the organization he started while holding his foe in the tenses point-blank aim imaginable.

It’s not just the face actors who excel in the cast, however. Bikel and Walter, Winspector’s two big robot cop components, have outstanding screen presence through their suit actors and voice actors alike. Duty-bound aerial Walter, voiced by Seiichi Hirai, bounces well off of the Nagoyan-accented and comical Bikel, portrayed by Kaoru Shinoda. The two of them have plenty of personality to compliment Ryoma and co. in the ongoing adventures, and their goofy little movements and quirks. Particular shout outs to Shinoda’s Bikel, whose Nagoyan dialect and flippant performance (cleverly adapted to a thick Brooklyn accent by the unofficial subtitles for an English comparison) rubbed off on me by the end of my viewing. The only mildly annoying non-face character on the cast had to be the very scrappy doo-esque Demitasse, a tiny, can-shaped robot who generally exists just to tell the rest of the team that they suck. A lot. While Issei Futamata’s delivery has its charm, the character himself got old fast.

So you have your plots, you have your cast, but what about the action? 

Oh baby, that’s the peak of the Winspector experience. The Metal Hero franchise was already known for bonkers stunts and endless pyrotechnics, which Winspector uses to full advantage for the constantly burning down warehouses and setting explosives every five feet in combat. You’ve got your daring rescue scenes with the main trio saving civilians or yanking perps out of their own foolish decisions, typically paired with some sick car stunts from Ryoma (made even cooler when his second car, the Winsquad, arrives with its far-too-cool transformation into the most 1990 rescue cruiser of all time) shifting between the classic Toei Abandoned Factory and the even more iconic Toei Rock Quarry. Hell, you want weird props? There’s at least one gigantic, uncanny Eagle animatronic that shows up and steals Bikel’s weapons. You’ve got folks on fire, and you’ve got Fire (the Winspector) on a moving car swinging around violently. The show uses every bit of its special effects budget with gusto, and makes the action a real treat, even in the weaker episodes. The suits and the gear are phenomenal. I won’t deny: I wanted a Gigastreamer cannon or a Multipack Fire Version bit of rescue gear thanks to how damned cool the cast made it look. The hero suits glistening in that retro film grain style.

I mean, c'mon, just LOOK at that thing!

 It’s that action and style that ties together all the camp of “Handsome actors and Goofy Robots stop a fire and crush a wanted terrorist with a wild scheme” week to week: That love for the genre and managing to create and effective story in the post-Bubble economy is something that’s stuck with me for Winspector. 

By the end of Special Rescue Police Winspector, the team finds themselves having grown more aware of the things they cannot save for everything they can solve. A pressing concern to save not just a person’s life, but their very heart and soul, lingers with Commander Masaki as the final episode comes to an end. While that will drive the second installment in this trilogy of Rescue Police series (and we’ll get to that soon enough), I found myself just smiling at one last round of props and congratulations for our heroes as they set off to new horizons before the goofy ending credits played one last time. It’s a good feeling, the kind of vibe I love the most from retro tokusatsu, and one you shouldn’t miss out on.

Winspector aired in several countries around the globe in the early 1990’s, with dubs in French, German, Korean and a plethora of other languages. English-speaking regions are, in fact, one of the only ones who have yet to get this title. I certainly hope that changes with the rise of companies such as Discotek Media putting out other classic Metal Hero titles on blu-ray in the past decade, but I’ll be calling out for a “Mayday! Mayday! (S! O! S!)” until the day our Red, Yellow and Green trio of heroes are on the scene officially. Until then, English subtitles exist for the show thanks to fan efforts, and if you know where to find them, I highly recommend you give this one a watch.

Shout outs to that absurdly cheery ending credits sequence. Pure gold.

With that, it's one series down, and two to go. It may be a little while, but hopefully we'll get to a show full of Soul and even some Brains in the near future...