Campus Special Investigator Hikaruon

This is a short one-episode Tokusatsu with one of those corny superheroes made of metal and with the glowing buttons no one presses. There's no backstory or character development at all (probably a good thing, actually) and very little characterization for our cardboard cutouts; the villain's motivations are also unclear. Granted, plotting and character nonsense is not usually the main factor drawing people to series like this, but it does help to have some kind of hook to keep the viewer interested—the appeal is the shortness and fast-pace, fun imagery, and a few bits of interesting animation. There is a mishmash of effective elements, butnot one thing that is done enough or consistently well to make this anything more than a forgettable time waster. The storyboarding is often pretty good, with the chosen shots being quite dramatic (love the bit with the car trying to run over the protagonists). This was a period of animation where they weren't afraid to incorporate background animation somewhat regularly, and there is a bit of that. Hideki Tamura's running sequence is nice, though short. Both Shinya Ohira and Yoshinori Kanada animate parts of the final fight scene. Not really among the best work of either, though some of the effects animation predict stronger efforts of Ohira's, such as his scenes in Angel Cop or Akira. Kanada's scenes are probably the most stylish—especially those great silhouette light shows, and he was always a shining light in the darkness for so many of these old TV series. The biggest standout, other than exposure to obscure work from a few industry veterans, is probably a much darker atmosphere than is usual for a show of this nature. It starts with a suicide, depicted in a creative fashion, and they even use unshaded and colorless bystanders to good effect. The multiple dimensions also lend this a bit of a surreal touch, with the chessboard setting being the most notable. Most of the scenes outside of the short school segments are nocturnal urban scenes that are well-rendered and moody.