Time and time again these heroes defended Fukuoka from the evil Yabai Kamen, the bumbling CEO of Secret Society of Darkness, Inc.
One day, a normal young man named Jiro Tanaka moved from Tokyo to Fukuoka to see his childhood friend Yuki, whom he hasn't seen in 17 years. He was saved by Ohgaman when Yabai Kamen was about to do him in! Seeing some potential in Jiro, Ohgaman trusts Fukuoka's safety in his hands! Now as a hero simply known as "Rookie", can Jiro able to be the hero that saves Fukuoka?
DogengersNote is an independent tokusatsu series that premiered on April 12th, 2020 and consists of 12 episodes. It's a crossover that brings together all of Fukuoka's Local Heroes into one show. The show quickly gain a small but dedicated following due to its quirky writing and respect to tokusatsu genre as a whole.
A second season
, officially titled Dogengers: Nice Buddy, was announced for an April 11th, 2021 release and aired on Tokyo MX, unlike season 1 where it premiered on KBC (Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting). It introduced a new hero named Great-Z, played by Katsuhiro Suzuki (Red Buster, Kamen Rider Quiz), with Mr. Kamen Rider himself Seiji Takaiwa serving as his suit actor. You can watch the trailer here.
The Dogengers suddenly lose their popularity due to a scandal, thus canceling their highly anticipated second season. Now they are making a living doing stage performances in front of small audiences (consisting of their friends). Standing before them is a new hero of justice Great-Z, who announce that he's going to take Yabai Kamen and his cronies as villains for his upcoming TV show. In order to reclaim their popularity (and getting their second season Un-Canceled), the Dogengers must sneak in to this new show and save the Secret Society of Darkness from the clutches of Great-Z.
A third season was officially announced on May 11th, 2021. For this season, the production crew held auditions for a female cast member aged 15 to 25, which would land the winner a spot as a new and important character of season 3. On January 10th, 2022 the third season's released date was officially revealed; April 2022, under the title Dogengers: High School. Along with the teaser visual the season also teased the winner of that audition, which was later revealed in an official press conference as Sora Fujimatsu, an idol from the group MAGICAL SPEC from Toki wo Ikiru, playing the role of Mako Yamada. She transforms into the new hero MAKO with a sword haunted by a ghost named Kireko. The tagline for this season is "The story that 'changed' an 'ordinary' girl." The season will premiere on April 10th, not only on Tokyo MX and KBC(the channel that originally aired season 1) but also Dogengers YouTube channel for the first time ever. You can watch the trailer here. This season also gives the Dogengers new members in Koujin Ex of Kagoshima (he made small appearances in the last two seasons) and "Charcoal Fire Warrior" Bincho Fire of Kitakyushu. In anticipation for High School's final episode, the official Twitter account announced that all eleven episodes will receive English subtitles with the help of violinist Sho Omagari, known for his work on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.
A fourth season was officially announced, titled Dogengers: Metropolis, which aired the first episode on April 9th, 2023. It featured Shion Tsuchiya (JK of Kamen Rider Fourze) as new hero Hyactoban, and alongside him are Virtual YouTubers of hololive and HOLOSTARS, respectively; Omaru Polka as Yuzuyuzu and Aragami Oga as Hatena, two new villains of this season.
There's a one-shot episode spin-off known as A DAY OF OHGAMAN.
"Take these tropes and sleep":
- 24-Hour Armor: Jiro is the only one who can switch between human form and hero from, every other hero and villain wear their suits literally anywhere. Averted in Nice Buddy with Great-Z who has a civilian identity, Riku and his father.
- Affectionate Parody: Of Toku in general, but in style of Local Heroes. The superpowers are real, but characters fight like they would in a kids' stageshow and behave like normal people when not busy.
- A Hero to His Hometown: The very idea of Local Heroes is this.
- As Himself: The Tagline seems to imply that the heroes are actors who played themselves in a TV show.
- BBC Quarry: A toku staple that pops up occasionally.
- Be Yourself: The Central Theme of both seasons. You can be flawed, insecure, irresponsible, or weak, but if you like yourself and you like helping others, that's all you need to be a hero.
- Big Good: Ohgaman.
- Big Bad: Yabai Kamen.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ohgaman saves the heroes and Jiro from Yabai Kamen in an epic fashion.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- When Yabai Kamen explains his evil plan in the form of an animation, the heroes comments that the editing is terrible.
- Kita-Q-Man and the other heroes tells the audience to write articles about Yabai Kamen on Wokipedia after a brief exposition about the villain in question.
- After Ohgaman gave Jiro his own transformation device at the beginning of episode 2, he dramatically announced the opening is about to start.
- Calling Your Attack:Fukuokalibur: Yabataka Slash!El-Brave: Brave Impact!
- Childhood Friends: Jiro and Yuki are this.
- City of Adventure: Fukuoka Prefecture is depicted as this.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Yamashiron is actually a fusion of three Ranger-like heroes; Redron, Aoiron, and Daidairon.
- Combat Commentator: Minor villain of the Secret Society of Darkness Shaberryman serve this role while getting his butt kicked by the heroes in the first episode.
- Combat Medic: Ohgaman in a nutshell.Ohgaman: Solving the leftover medication problem and protecting the peace of Fukuoka are my sworn duties.
- The Comically Serious: Fukuokalibur is said to be "Fukuoka's number one most serious and earnest hero." Shuraomaru contrasts heavily with the rest of his co-workers at Secret Society of Darkness.
- Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: As is the custom for Local Heroes, each of the heroes' suit are filled with logos of their respective sponsors. Some heroes even act as the mascot for specific companies; Ohgaman and Rookie for Ohga Pharmacy, Yamashiron representing Yamashiro Gas, Great-Z/Great-2 for Pizza Cooc, and MAKO representing FUKUYA Mentaiko.
- Dirty Coward: Kita-Q-Man full stop. The guy would rather run away and let his fellow heroes do all the fighting, much their annoyance. All because his suit limits his movement.
- Idol Singer: I-Doll is said to have a really good voice. Also helps that her name is a pun on "idol."
- Letters 2 Numbers: The 'B' in "Nice Buddy" is shown to contain '2', as in "Season 2".
- Lighter and Softer: While mostly silly, the first season still deals with villains terrorizing the city, the heroes fighting personal struggles and eventually going into Cerebus Syndrome. In Nice Buddy, while there's more to Great-Z than meets the eye, the season is effectively the about the heroes trying to ruin the man's regular commercial just because their Big Bad was kidnapped.
- Ninja: Shuraomaru is one. A really good one.
- Once More, with Clarity: Throughout Nice Buddy, a stagehand is shown handing people items as part of the show. Episode 9 reveals that it's Riku.
- Tsundere: I-Doll towards Yabai Kamen. Emphasis on her "Tsun".
- This Is a Work of Fiction: The tagline reminds us that the story is fictional. It comes up again when Gulf blows up a building for kicks.
- Those Two Guys: The wolf monster brothers Gulf and Garia.
- Wham Shot: Nice Buddy episode 6 ends with the stage show Great-Z taking his helmet off revealing Riku, who was supposedly the true identity behind Great-Z.
