Anime Review: Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman

Usually a combination of release drought and apathy prevents me from reviewing the current anime titles, so occasionally I find myself reviewing some old school anime. This exercise allows me to reflect on anime's good qualities that got me into the hobby or notice how the new anime is on a steadily declining slope compared to the halcyon days. I found a copy of Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman in the bargain bin of an anime store. It is a fifty minute OVA (Original Video Animation) with only two episodes, which is a shame because Shinesman is awesome. I was more entertained with this than I was watching an entire block of Naruto filler episodes.

The Shinesman plot involves an alien race attempting to take over the world through a war of-I swear I am not making this up-big business. Luckily another big business is up to the task of preventing hostile alien takeover with their ragtag team of business people. Clad in their high-tech combat armor-available in red, moss green, gray, sepia, and salmon pink-and business-themed weaponry like business card cutters, The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman battle evil in the name of freedom, honor, and making sure one of the team member gets to give his daughter a stuffed fish.

Upon rereading the previous paragraph, Shinesman looks like a stupid idea on paper. But seen animated, things become a lot better. Shinesman is a parody of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or other sentai shows featuring a team of masked color coordinated superheroes teaming up to defeat alien megalomaniacs through teamwork, weaponry, and ridiculous poses. If you like that sort of thing, you will notice how Shinesman makes a great effort to incorporate the nuances of the sentai show into wicked parody. If you hate that sort of thing, Shinesman lovingly skewers the clichés of sentai shows. If you have no opinion of sentai shows, then the nonstop witty one-liners in the English dub are enough to entertain.

Shinesman does have its faults. The plot is shallow even for a sentai show. The dated animation is nothing to write home about. And with only two episodes, the series ends completely unresolved despite the potential for more developments. But most of these criticisms are tossed aside whenever another well-timed one-liner is delivered. As mentioned before, these witticisms only apply to the English dub. Most of the humor in the Japanese soundtrack is how the characters are named after the voice actors portraying them, which does make the dialogue more convincing that they actually are talking to each other.

So for a quick comedy with a dash of sentai action, let Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman into your DVD player. Yes, the colors of the Shinesman unit are lame.