Customer Reviews

Iron King: The Complete Series

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I own both the BCI version and Mill Creek version of the Iron King DVD's. If you can find a copy of the BCI release I would highly recommend getting that version over the Mill Creek release. BCI is now out of business so those discs are harder to find. My reason is that the Mill Creek version is a very shoddy cheap re-release of the BCI version. The episodes are crammed onto 3 DVD's rather than the 4 dvd's in the BCI version. Normally this would not be a big deal only meaning higher compression artifacts and lower image quality however somewhere in the process Mill Creek screwed up the subtitles so that as you are watching the show they start to go out of sync with the voices. It eventually gets to the point where subtitles are appearing on the screen when there is no voice to go along with it. It's very annoying and makes watching the episodes much more difficult as you don't always know which subtitle goes with which speaker. From the price it's obvious Mill Creek's are a budget release but in my opinion it's worth the effort to find the original BCI release even if it costs a little more.

(The Mill Creek release of Super Robot Red Baron has the same issue)

This is a series I had never even heard of before proved so bad and so cheaply done that it proved highly entertaining and forced me to create what I call the "Saki-Rating" - as in " how many bottles were drunk when the evil robots and creatures were designed. Most I would rate a "6" with some closing in on "10", one robot would qualify for Handicaped-Parking. I spent most of my time laughing in evil delight when Iron King would first encounter his foe, and unlike the "expensively" produced Ultraman, this poor guy often gets his rear handed to him the first time they face. When the show is concentrating on things at the human scale you have the two heroes bouncing between goofball to serious, while the evil-doers are fairly cookie-cutter, and not all that bright.

The series is sub-titled in English, and sometimes I don't think the translations were quite literal. About the only thing that annoyed me was the theme music, also played most of the time Iron King appeared, getting stuck in my head. Packaging is good, with each of the three disks in it's own sleave in a sturdy case.

If high production values, creative writing, and great special effects are your thing, you may want to pass. But if you recognise that sometimes "bad" has it's own charming qualities, this is a must for your collection at a bargain price.

As the product description suggests, Iron King is a gloriously loopy Tokusastu Japanese superhero television show. It's filled with furious fast-paced action and campy humor. Brought to you by rhe same team that brought you Ultraman and Super Robot Red Baron, Iron King aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System from October 8, 1972 to April 8, 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. It's about Gentaro Shizuka (Shoji Ishibashi), best described as a singing cowboy, and Goro Kirishima(Mitsuo Hamada)to stop The Shiranui clan who've planned to conquer Japan for over 2000 years for banishing them from the country by The Yamato clan. Each member of the S-clan controls a gigantic robot warrior in order to overthrow the Yamato Clan. It's not Gentaro but Goro who has the power to become Iron King by touching the medals on his Turning Hat, and shouting "Iron Shock!" when danger comes around. Transforming into Iron King quickly dehydrates Goro and he can only remain as Iron King for a short period of time so this cause problems but it's a good plot point. At the tenth episode, the S-clan is no more but a new group fills that gap called the Phantom Militia. Then, later on- Iron King battles the Titanians who can assume insect-like monster forms.

Fans of Ultraman, Red Baron, Kamen Rider, The Super Inframan, and others will love this show. I rather enjoyed it myself as it's in the tradition of Godzilla and all these other programs I've mentioned.

OK, if you're reading this review you probably grew up on shows like Ultraman, Space Giants and Johnny Sokko & his Giant Robot. If you like those shows, creature features like Godzilla and Gamera, then Iron King is a must. Not the best, not the worst, just something different if you love giant superheroes fighting giant monsters. Plus you can't beat the price!

A good bargain from Mill Creek on a classic show that still makes me laugh out loud at its disjointed storylines, confusing editing, and some of the best monsters-on-a-budget you'll ever see. Sure, Iron King may be a rip-off of Ultraman, but its got a heck of a lot of charm that makes up for blatent copyright infringement.

When you pay $7 for a complete series of shows from Mill Creek, keep the expectations low. No problems with video quality at all. Picture is what you'd expect from an aged copy of a 1970s era show. On a few episodes there is a bit of a lag in subtitles. Out of the entire three disc set there were maybe three episodes that have noticable timing issues of a half-second to a second. Iron King hardly makes sense when the subtitles are spot on anyway, so just sit back and enjoy the inanity. I didn't want to shell out the bucks for the BCI version, so this set will do.

ya don't see these kind of shows on tv anymore this one is not in english not full screen very campy the sub titals don't match with the story but otherwise entertaining lots of product placement.