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[ a parent's guide to anime ]

[ rated g ] Shinesman

A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: G
Suitable for Family Viewing

Review by Lynda Feng

"The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman" from AnimeWorks is rated 3 and up. The first VHS tape contains 2 episodes. The dub is extremely well done. There is no profanity in the dub.

This show is a spoof on the Power Rangers. There is less frequent and milder violence than the Power Rangers, and there is a lot more comedy, both for small children and for adults. The violence consists mainly of people falling down, and there is no blood and no injuries to humans.

The jokes work on both an adult and a child level. We especially love the comment "I can't lose, I have to give my daughter a stuffed fish!" While I really dislike Power Rangers, I like Shinesman enough to watch it even when the kids aren't around.

The Shinesman are five superheros, protecting the world against alien invaders, out to conquer the earth by taking over corporations. They have lame colors (sepia, moss green, ...) and lame weapons (business card cutters, tie tac bombs, ...), but they are all genuinely nice adults in "real life".

The aliens are humans in funny clothes with funny hats, bad clothes, and wierd ears. They command various multi-limbed disposable monsters.


Additional review by Lei Magnus

From a recent personal experience:

In the world of anime, there are countless viewers who prefer subtitles over dubbings. Shinesman broke the rules. When one of the leaders at our anime club popped Shinesman into the VCR, she warned us. She said it was dubbed, not subtitled. That was shocking right there. The rules of the anime club are stated plainly at the website - no hentai and no dubs. Ever since I first went to the anime club there were no dubbed anime shown. Needless to say, many of us frowned at the idea of watching dubbed anime. But our frowns soon turned to gaping holes as we all laughed harder than we ever had. Shinesman dubbed is perhaps the best anime ever dubbed. Most dubbings use horrible voice actors, but Shinesman sounds like it was dubbed by fans, people who know what anime should sound like.

Shinesman is nonstop comedy. Anyone who has seen the Power Rangers will get a kick out of this. Our first reaction was, "Ew a dubbed anime version of Power Rangers... We're going to kill her for putting this tape in." A few minutes into the show and we were on a nonstop laughing spree. The puns are ceaseless. Shinesman wear red, gray, sepia, moss green, and salmon pink. Their weapons are business cards and tie tacks (think Gambit from X-Men). The aliens are dressed in typical anime villainous alien uniform (Mardi-Gras costumes). And what do the earthlings think of all this? "Great show!" They are totally oblivious to what's really going on. You may be asking, is there a plot to this show? Yes there is - planetary corporate take over!

What is the best color for a superhero? What colors should superheroes wear? And just how hot is it inside a godzilla costume? All these questions and more are answered in Shinesman. You are guaranteed to get a laugh out of Shinesman even if you have already seen it before. And what was the most memorable line to me from Shinesman? "Just get into the glowing green square."


Parent's Guide Rating:

green (suitable for family viewing)

The trailers at the beginning of the tape for Earthian, Ninku, and Yu Yu Hakusho actually have more violence than the Shinesman.



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