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Juspion and his robot, Daileon.

Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion ("Megabeast Investigator Juspion") is the fourth in the Metal Heroes series of Tokusatsu shows. It is extremely popular in Brazil due to it being broadcast there in the '80s. The series revolves around space orphan Juspion and his eccentric android assistant Anri, who are sent by old wizard/scientist Ejin to destroy Satangorth and his army of Megabeasts (kyojuu), as prophesied in The Galaxy Bible. He has a giant robot at his disposal and is followed around by Team Pet Miya.

The series got a Blu-Ray release stateside in 2019 courtesy of Discotek Media as part of their foray into tokusatsu.


Recurring Metal Hero tropes include:

  • Humongous Mecha: Daileon, who for the most part fights barehanded until he gets a sword to kill the Big Bad.
  • Instant Armor: Juspion transmits his armor from Daileon in a split second by raising both hands to his head. However, he does not have a proper Transformation Sequence like the previous Metal Heroes for nearly the whole series. It is only seen in episode 18 for dramatic effect when he answers the call to seek the Golden Bird in his parents' stead.
  • Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Madgalant constantly makes the point of turning Tokyo (sometimes, all of Japan) into the land of monsters. Several of his schemes only fail due to targeting only the specific city patrolled by Juspion. Furthermore, when Juspion dumps supporting characters to Hokkaido, they are suddenly free from the villain's constant surveillance and threat of kidnapping.

Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion provides examples of the following tropes:

  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot
    • The villains' plot in one episode is to use household appliances against the people through robot maids.
    • Anri is vulnerable to being controlled by other machines, but luckily the villains rarely try to turn her against Juspion. Examples include episodes 2 and 10, but Juspion saved her in the nick of time.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Juspion first defeats Mad Gallant by severing his arm and following with a Cosmic Halley to finish him off. Said arm is left stil gripping its sword as it flies and then falls on the ground.
  • The Artifact: In the first few episodes, the narrator would describe Juspion as a hero on a "journey filled with dreams and adventure". He stops doing that as the story settles on Earth, but it's still referenced on the lyrics for Daileon's battle theme for the rest of the series.
  • Ball of Light Transformation: Juspion is first seen using turning into a white ball of light to fly in episode 6. This ability has been degraded from its appearances in the previous series because Juspion only uses it on occasion to evade enemies for short distances and never attacks them with it... until episode 44, where he suddenly attacks a kaiju with a Cosmic Lightning Dash.
  • Battle Boomerang: Boomerang dual wields them.
  • Badass Normal: The JAC Brothers hold their own against Brima, Gyol and several minions despite being just civilian singers with martial art skills.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Not Juspion, but his mech Daileon. The latter only gets his first weapon in the end of the series.
  • Bare-Handed Blade Block: After recovering his soul in episode 30, Juspion catches a stab from Mad Gallant's sword with his gloved hands.
  • Beam-O-War:
    • On episode 35, Gilza attempts to read Eijin's memories by firing lightning beams from her eyes, but he counters with focused eye beams and ironically overwhelms her with a glimpse of what she wanted to know — the holy child meant to bring Satan Gorth's defeat.
    • During their first bout, Super Satan Gorth and Daileon have a clash of lightning beams from which the vengeful villain emerges victorious.
  • Big Bad: Satan Gorth. Emphasis on the BIG.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Namagerath follows the kidnapped Koko to Earth and is able to save Juspion from Donges's rampage.
    • Episode 26 starts with Juspion saving Nanbara's family after they had been finally found by Mad Gallant's forces. Later he struggles to fight Boga on his own until Daileon recovers from the monster's absorbtion of its energy and comes for the hero's aid. It's the first time in the series Daileon is portrayed with a significant degree of sentience.
    • On episode 29, Juspion is too late to keep Sachi fron being kidnapped but saves Rod before he can be executed by Mad Gallant's minions.
    • On episode 30, Juspion is completely defenseless and about to be executed by Mad Gallant when... Miya, the series' mascot, stumbles into the scene looking for him and holds off Mad Gallant, Gilza, Gyol and Brima just by flailing about and shooting spikes until Anri gives Juspion's Soul Jar back to him.
    • On episode 44, Juspion saves the four chosen children who were trying to take on Satan Gorth and Mad Gallant by themselves but is surrounded by mega beasts. Anri suddenly arrives on the Garbin tank to rescue them. In the next episode, she also swoops in guns-blazing to save Juspion and Mika from Mad Gallant's forces. Since when was she so helpful?
    • Subverted in the final episode when Juspion takes too long to help Ejin fight Satan Gorth and the old man is incapacitated by a lightning blast. When Juspion arrives he accidentally knocks Ejin out of the monster's hand without realizing he was there. Assuming Ejin wasn't mortally injured by Satan Gorth at that point, the fall does the trick and he perishes shortly afterwards. At no point does Juspion blame himself for it though.
  • Boss Subtitles: Characters and machines are introduced with subtitles.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • The Mega Beasts become destructive once enraged by Satan Gorth's lightning beam. Namagerath and Gelgon are two good-natured beasts Juspion manages to spare and pacify early on, but afterwards Satan Gorth's brainwashing is treated as irreversible and Juspion ends up killing every single Mega Beast including a giant tree and a lion who once were also harmless.
    • Boomerang in episode 7, forced to fight Juspion on a wrestling ring overseen by monsters dressed like KKK members.
    • Episode 37 involves Mad Gallant trying to brainwash Miya and convince her to avenge her mother who sacrificed herself for Juspion, but without success.
    • Miki gets brainwashed by Satan Gorth into becoming a priestess whose lucky charm pins drain and brainwash more people into becoming hateful beasts.
    • Tiger Joe is brainwashed by a hypnotic speech from Gilmarza into giving in to his bloodlust as a former bounty hunter and challenging Juspion to a duel to the death.
  • Call-Back:
    • On episode 25, Mad Gallant's forces kidnap Koko from planet Dodo, who was last seen in episode 3, and attempts to use him to lure Juspion into a trap. It is noted that the boy's friend Namagerath was one of the few beasts who ever recovered from Satan Gorth's brainwashing.
    • On episode 28, AI-GER Man reviews footage of Daileon's fights throughout the series to plan countermeasures to each of his moves.
  • Car Fu: On episode 42, Juspion runs over two of the Space Ninjas while riding the Iron Wolf. The villains are sent flying and comically spin towards the screen.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Episode 20 opens with Mad Gallant waking from a nightmare of himself and Satan Gorth being overwhelmed by Juspion and a tiny little Golden Bird.
  • Catchphrase: In the Brazilian dub, many instances of Mad Gallant and other characters cursing Juspion are translated to the same "Maldito Jaspion!" ("Curse you, Juspion!"), which quickly gained infamy among viewers.
  • The Chosen Many: In episode 35, Juspion confirms his role as The Chosen One and begins a quest to find the six children chosen as vessels by the Golden Bird, of which one hadn't been born yet.
  • Cool Chair: On episode 28, the villains plot to build a temple for Satan Gorth and taunt Juspion by placing a giant throne over a mountain as the first thing for that project. Juspion sets it ablaze after defeating AI-GER Man.
  • Crucified Hero Shot:
    • Madgalant binds Anri and Miya to crosses in episode 11.
    • On episode 21 Anri is bound to a cross pattern on a wall and suffers from some offscreen torture, but it's played for comedy.
    • Episode 29 makes it Sachi's turn to be bound to a cross, to lure Juspion into a trap.
    • Episode 38 has Miki chained to a cross with a time bomb. The villains try to pit her cultists against Juspion while he's trying to save her.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Golden Bird, a mystic being that terrifies Satan Gorth and creates the only weapon capable of killing him when it is properly summoned.
  • Deus ex machina: Daileon is getting completely thrashed by Super Satan Gorth when an egg containing the prophesied chosen baby suddenly appears from the rubble made by the monster's attacks and freezes him in place. Juspion then effortlessly executes Satan Gorth in a matter of seconds.
  • Didn't See That Coming: AI-GER Man is a capable fighter who collects information on Juspion to build the perfect machine to best Daileon. However, when Juspion realizes the AI-GER beast is a robot with AI-GER Man acting as his A.I., he simply jumps up to the villain's cockpit. AI-GER Man is then turned into mincemeat in complete confusion without moving even a finger in his own defense.
  • Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The rest of the galaxy classifies dinosaurs from Earth as kaiju and nicknames it the "Planet of Monsters". This is why Satangorth is so interested on ruling Earth.
  • Dub Name Change: Boomerang is called "Boomerman" in the Brazilian dub.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Satangorth's ultimate form, which he assumes towards the end of the series.
  • Energy Absorption:
    • Boga forces Daileon to retreat the absorbing his fuel with an elephant-like trunk, complete with Critical Annoyance for Juspion in the cockpit as it is depleted.
    • The mega beasts can absorb the essence of young humans, who are then turned into cavemen.
  • Epic Fail: A particularly stupid one happens when Boomerang returns and unveils a new Cross Cutter skill by tossing both boomerangs at once... at a random tree right before one of his opponents just pokes him out of the air.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As inhuman Satangorth and his kin may be, Satangorth and Madgalant truly care about each other as father and son. As shown during the penultimate episode where Madgalant and Satangorth talks about their dream to dominate Earth with their race, Madgalant truly respects his father and is determined to help his father achieve their dream. On Satangorth's side, he considers Madgalant to be his important heir and that everything he did to expand his empire was so he can one day bestow all of them to Madgalant. Unsurprisingly, when Madgalant is killed off for the second and final time by Juspion, Satangorth was truly pissed and proceed to beat the crap out of Daileon.
  • Evil Twin: Juspion's enemy is Satangorth's son Madgalant, who has a suit of Powered Armor similar to Juspion's, only black.
  • Fusion Dance:
    • The Cutie Girls fuse into the cerebus-like Triple-Faced Beast Warrior, lose their advantage of numbers over Juspion and are promptly shot and finished off upon using an invisibility trick that means nothing against him.
    • Gyol and Brima also fuse into a fire-breathing monster when they fight Juspion for real. They likewise do this for no practical reason and are easily killed in this form.
  • Gratuitous English: Whenever Juspion pilots his flight jet, there are a set of English signs behind him. In order: "Air-to-ground", "Auxiliary power unit", "electrocardiograph" (just this one is in lowercase), "Flight Data File", and then "Missio(n) Timer" and "Radiofreguency". Also note how the "Auxiliary power unit" panel to Juspion's right is on a smaller font than the one to his left.
  • Game Face: The helper robots in episode 32 look deceptively friendly, but when set to fight a pointy teeth pattern comes up on their face and they start talking with a deep male voice on top of their squeaky normal one.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: As the series goes on, Juspion becomes widely known as a superhero. So Gilmarza attempts to smear his reputation by kidnapping several children and pinning the blame on him.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Juspion tricks Chip into getting in the way of flamethrower from one of his own helper robots.
  • Hope Spot: In episode 23, Juspion arrives on time to keep Satan Gorth from enraging Shishion, a friendly lion megabeast. Unfortunately, he lowers his guard helping civilians in the confusion and Satan is able to resume the brainwashing unimpeded. Unlike with Namagerath early in the series, Juspion ends up killing Shishion in the fight.
  • Idiot Hero: Juspion was written as one at first, but actor Hikaru Kurosaki forced the writers to change him a bit, as he wanted to do a more dramatic performance.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Madgalant dies for the second time.
  • Important Haircut: The mark of Juspion's Character Development.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: The villains generally retreat when Juspion has the edge over them until they run out of Plot Armor and fight him to the bitter end. Juspion himself is forced to retreat with Daileon when he faces a beast with an energy drain ability and another designed to counter his every move.
  • Lighter and Softer: Juspion has much lighter tone with more comedic moments compared to the Space Sheriff Trilogy.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: In episode 38, Satan Gorth uses his super lightning to amplify the healing powers of a girl called Miki. He quickly corrupts her into becoming a big shot and gifting pins to people that drain their life force to a Mega Beast.
  • Load-Bearing Boss: Planet Peace explodes after the electronic brain Sakura is destroyed.
  • Losing Your Head: Happens with Gilza. Juspion beheads her, but she just summons the head back, which can talk even while still detached.
  • Madness Mantra: The people brainwashed by Megabeast Profiit start rambling over and over that they are beasts.
  • Magic Versus Science: Pointed out in episode 33: being a gynoid, Anri cannot be affected by Gilza's magic.
  • Make My Monster Grow: Satangorth can turn small monsters giant upon enraging them. A strange subversion is seen in episode 16, where he does that but Juspion finds the giant monster was a solid projection made by the still small original one.
  • Medium Blending: In episode 1, when Juspion eacapes from a cave where monster eggs were hatching, a colony of cartoon bats fly out of the live-action background.
  • Megaton Punch: Daileon's finishing move, a rushing punch with both fists.
  • Messianic Archetype: Let's see, this show is about a hero who descended from the skies to protect mankind from the evils of Satan and his minions... Sounds about right. note 
  • Money to Burn: In episode 24, Mad Gallant creates a money-lending company called Magellan, steals from young people's bank accounts and then convinces them to work as debt collectors. The money acquired in this scheme is used to feed a beast named Profiit.
  • The Nose Knows: In episode 5, Juspion smells a monster lurking nearby a school despite it being in another dimension.
  • One-Hit Polykill: Boomerang stuns Zauru, Genga and Silk all at once with a Cross Cutter before Juspion kills them with a Cosmic Halley.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Madgalant is quite determined to defeat Juspion. During their final battle, he even ordered his underlings to stay away from the fight as it's a fight between him and Juspion only.
  • Put on a Bus:
    • Boomerang was written out on episode 12 because of Hiroshi Watari leaving for leg surgery. Once Hiroshi came back, Boomerman only appeared for two more episodes as a Jobber before leaving Japan for good and entrusting Mad Gallant's defeat to Juspion.
    • Nanbara finally leaves with his children to Hokkaido on episode 27, and despite being aware of it Mad Gallant decides to not focus on him if there's no news on the Golden Bird... despite saying only a couple of episodes prior that they had to get Nanbara as a hostage simply due to the link between him, Juspion and the Golden Bird. His family comes back into relevance when it's time to find the children who are chosen hosts to the Golden Bird.
  • Quicksand Sucks: On episode 21, Juspion is lured to a coastal dune to save a boy named Takeshi and has to transform to get him out of a quicksand pit.
  • Rapid Aging: Gamadoraz is a monster whose oil is said to bring immortality but instead turns young people into deranged eldery who want to destroy science. They turn back to normal just from getting shot by Juspion's laser beam.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Hiroshi Watari broke his leg in a traffic accident after the end of the Space Sheriff trilogy and played Boomerang in this series with pins from surgery still in the fracture. Boomerang was written out after episode 12 because Hiroshi had another surgery to remove the pins. The character briefly returned in episodes 31 and 32 after Hiroshi's full recovery, but just to have his part on the story closed off for good — and on a loss to Mad Gallant at that. In compensation, Hiroshi Watari became the main character in the next Metal Hero series.
  • Rent-a-Zilla: The main enemies in this one that get beaten up by Daileon.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Miya, the bipedal monster who accompanies Juspion and Anri.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: Anri, in spades. Ironically enough, this is especially present as the series gets more serious; if she doesn't mention it, it becomes easy to forget she's an android.
  • Right Behind Me: On episode 29, Rod urges Sachi to escape without him. She then stumbles backwards in distress, right onto Mad Gallant who was standing just out of frame the whole time.
  • The Rival: Madgalant to Juspion.
  • Running Gag: Anri getting knocked out with all her limbs raised like a goat's or in other ridiculous poses.
  • Secret Public Identity: Unlike previous Metal Heroes, "Juspion" is the hero's real name.
  • Shot in the Ass: In episode 1, Juspion is arrowed on the butt and yelps in pain with a ridiculous expression.
  • Shout-Out: To Star Wars. Satangorth is inspired in Darth Vader. Also in the first episode, there's an alien music band in a bar, a reference to Episode IV: A New Hope.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance:
    • On episode 37, the staff remembers the existence of the intense Ryusei no Senshi battle theme song, which played just once back in episode 11... and they use it for a scene of Juspion eating food before he realizes it is poisoned and the song cuts off.
    • On episode 38, Ryusei no Senshi is then played to... Juspion sneaking into Miki's temple in a silly old man disguise. It cuts off when the actual fighting begins.
  • Spell My Name With An S
    • The Brazilian dub calls the series and its main character "Jaspion", following the kana spelling; although the name is supposed to be a portmanteau of "Justice" and "Champion". With that said Toei went for "Jaspion" in their official video uploads.
    • The same happens with the villain side: Satangorth became "Satan Goss", his son gone from Madgalant to the Scottish-sounding "MacGaren", and Gilza was dubbed as "Kilza." In the Brazilian comics, Satangorth's named was also spelled as "Sathan Goss".
  • Spoiler Title: The title of episode 29 makes it clear that Mad Gallant will die by Juspion's sword and that a new villain will do something about it.
  • Stars Are Souls: In the end of episode 5, Juspion convinces Satomi that the monster Madgalant had her summon couldn't be a reincarnation of her father and instead points to a passing shooting star which Satomi does visualize as her dad.
  • Suddenly Voiced: Satan Gorth spends most of the series in silence until Juspion finally kills Mad Gallant. The giant then asks Gilza to resurrect his son, and affirms he will inherit his empire someday.
  • Super-Soldier: Juspion is trained in martial arts and uses an advanced combat suit to fight the forces of a giant armored demon lord.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: On episode 37, the villains try to assassinate Juspion by tricking him into eating food tampered with the strongest poison in the galaxy. The hero passes out for half a minute before waking up and fighting them like nothing happened.
  • Theme Music Power-Up:
    • The series' opening theme for many of the series' fights. A version with English lyrics is played on episodes 11 and 12.
    • Daileon gets "Chou Wakusei Sentou Boukan Daileon" from episode 6 onwards.
    • Juspion gets the dramatic "Ryusei no Senshi" on episode 11. It is the most underutilized battle theme in the series, as it only plays again in this context 30 episodes later. It then is used in four more fights, gets left out of the two-part finale and unlike other themes never gets played in its full length.
    • "Ginga no Tarzan", a melancholic song about Juspion being an "intergalactic Tarzan" without parents. This actually becomes the most important theme for his character, as he adopts the orphaned baby chosen by the Golden Bird and names him Tarzan.
  • This Is a Drill:
    • The Garbin Tank allows Juspion to drill into secret underground bases and get certain megabeasts out of hiding.
    • AI-GER Man figures Daileon is first and foremost a brawler, so he sets a huge drill on the chest of his AI-GER beast to pierce the mecha at close range.
  • This Is Unforgivable!:
    • Part of "Ryusei no Senshi", one of the battle themes, reads: "I can’t forgive this, I can’t stand it anymore/Who is it, who is it/Who disturbs the eternal peace".
    • After Juspion begrudingly kills Shishion and attends the beast's funeral in silence, the narrator stresses that the hero holds Satangorth in contempt for his corruption of the megabeasts.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In episode 44, the four chosen children found by Juspion run off to fight Super Satan Gorth on their own. Mad Gallant finds them so laughably idiotic that he lets them try to summon the Golden Bird to no avail and nearly executes them all before Juspion arrives.
  • Tragic Monster: The reason for "The Villain Sucks" Song. The giant beasts are simply creatures of varying levels of intelligence that are minding their own business until Satangorth forces them into an enraged state. With no way to reverse it, Juspion must take them out to protect the humans and aliens at their feet, but the monsters are victims too, every last one.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Madgalant suffers one in episode 45, due to his refusal to accept that a mere human like Juspion could defeat him, a super lifeform. He goes so far as to become a second Satangorth, but doesn't get to do much.
  • "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Kyojuu-tachi yo" is basically the monsters lamenting that Satangorth is making them attack.
  • Who Dares?: In episode 1, Juspion is at a bar when one of the archers from earlier starts doing target practice on Miya, a creature that had helped him and Anri. Juspion deflects the second arrow and, when a mob boss-looking alien asks who dared to do that, replies by blowing the guy a kiss.
  • The Worf Barrage:
    • Boomerang introduces the Cross Cutter by misfiring it in the middle of a battle. It also does nothing to the helper robots or to Mad Gallant.
    • Juspion tries to hit Super Satan Gorth with a Cosmic Halley as soon as he has the chance, but just gets blown away. Even when he gets the Golden Sword for Daileon and tries a Daileon Cosmic Halley out, Satan Gorth just keeps teleporting away until the chosen baby appears and stuns him.
  • Worthy Opponent: Juspion for Mad Gallant.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Pretty much the bad guys' point. Since the Golden Bird chose children as vessels before it can awaken, Madgalant (and, by extension, his dad) gleefully guns for them.

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