Shout Out / Hikari Sentai Maskman

Here are the different shout-outs of Hikari Sentai Maskman to various shows and properties.

Robot Romance Trilogy

Maskman was largely inspired by mecha anime like Choudenji Robo Combattler V, Choudenji Machine Voltes V and Toushou Daimos.^note Ironically, Voltes V and Daimos are also big hits with Filipinos like Maskman is. Combattler is less of a hit comparatively, but most Filipinos are familiar with the Tagalog dub of the show.

Combattler V

• Galaxy Robo's Aura Road Spark/Spurt is a shout-out to Combattler V's Grand Dasher Wave.
• Great Five is sentai's first five-vehicle combiner robot, just like how Combattler V was for super robots, with Voltes V following suit.
• Combattler V's Choudenji Tatsumaki ends up not in the heroes' hands but instead in the hands of one of the show's villains. Thief Knight Kiros has a similar signature technique known as the Crescent Screw.
• The girly girl Momoko/Pink Mask, while a tough fighter on her own, has a slight flaw of low constitution which inflicts her with Heroic RRoD for one episode. Combattler V's Chizuru Nanbara wears pink, is actually more feminine despite fighting along with the boys, and has a valvular heart disease that pushed her to Heroic RRoD only for one episode.

Voltes V

• The Masky Fighter piloted by Takeru/Red Mask looks a lot like the Volt Cruiser piloted by Ken'ichi Gou.
• Prince Igam is looked down upon by the rest of Tube for being related to the traitor Princess Iyal, mirroring Prince Heinel's struggles from Voltes V.
• Great Five uses a sword to finish off opponents though, which is more of a Voltes trademark.
• One episode had Kenta learning the Barehanded Blade Block in order to thwart Baraba's scheme, just like Ken'ichi Gou did in Voltes V.
• The heroes also have a kunoichi in their group, Haruka/Yellow Mask. Yellow Mask also happens to be one of the primary colors of Voltes V resident kunoichi Megumi Oka (her piloting suit is yellow with pink accents).
• Voltes V having part of Volt Cruiser's airplane wings serve as a shield is an unused concept of the anime. However, Great Five ended up recycling that concept, with it bearing an airplane shield made out of the Masky Jet.

Daimos

• The main hero's girlfriend is actually the princess of the invaders he fights as in Daimos.
• Takeru being a practitioner of karate and learning the God Hand move seems like a shout-out to Kazuya Ryūzaki's karate background.
• Kenta/Black Mask's Masky Rod, a multi-section staff, looks a lot like Daimos's Sanryuu Kon.
• Akira/Blue Mask's Masky Tonfas look a lot like Daimos's Battle Break.
• Meanwhile, Commander Baraba is similarly named as Barubasu/Balbas from Daimos. They're both bald, wear black eye shadow, have prominent lips^note (Baraba wears blue lipstick), and fulfill the same role in the story as The Brute or The Dragon.
• The Galaxy Robo itself is basically Daimos, with its martial arts method of battle, multiple melee weapons, a hands-on finishing move^note Galaxy Robo's Finishing Move is also a death blow known as the Tekken Ōra Gyarakushī (Aura Iron Fist), just like Daimos's Hissatsu Reppuu Seikenzuki (Deadly Gale Holy Fist Thrust), and a truck mode^note (Land Galaxy is essentially Daimos in Tranzer mode).

Multiple References

• Igam serves as the Garuda/Heinel/Richter equivalent or the invader general regularly thwarted by the heroes. Baraba is her Girua/Jangal/Balbas and Fumin is her Miia/Katharine/Raiza. Emperor Zeba is also their Oreana/Empress Janera/Emperor Zambajil/King Olban while Anagmas is their Narua/Warchimedes/Zuhl/Georiya.
• Yellow Mask's Masky Rotor acts as both a heavy-projectile top and an entangling yoyo. This naturally references both Combattler's Choudenji Yoyo and Voltes's Choudenji Goma.
• The truck or trailer mode of the Galaxy Robo—the Land Galaxy—is actually a three-way reference to all Robot Romance Trilogy shows.
  • The Grand Dasher mode of Combattler V.
  • The unused tank mode of Voltes V^note (this was also referenced in the live-action Filipino remake of Voltes V, Voltes V: Legacy).
  • The pre-transformation wheeled Tranzer/Transer mode of Daimos.

Miscellaneous

Anime & Manga

• Prince Igam being played by a woman and eventually revealed to be biologically a woman is also a borrowed aspect from another 80's mecha anime God Sigma, in particular the antagonistic noble general Teral who is a woman posing as a man and voiced by a female actress.
• The Galaxy Robo's visual design is reminiscent of God Mars (helmet-like head and boxy body) and, by extension and coincidence, Mighty Orbots^note (whose creators were sued by toy company Tonka or the makers of the God Mars toys for allegedly plagiarizing the look of God Mars with Mighty Orbots' mech design).
• Thief Knight Kiros's own hidden agenda to claim Princess Iyal as his own is reminiscent of Prince Sincline's obsession with Princess Fala in GoLion.
• The Maskmen's giant robot "Great Five" slightly resembles the titular mech of Dairugger XV, especially with its red airplane chest plate and color scheme. They also share similar sword designs. Great Five's Gyro Cutter is not unlike the Spinning Laser Blades either.
• The story of a dying Lethal Doggler birthing an egg to produce his clone progeny, Lethal Doggler II, to enact revenge on the Tube Empire and the Igam Family that killed him has shades of what happened in Dragon Ball, when a dying Piccolo Daimaoh spat out an egg that hatched and turned into the current Piccolo, who was originally out to avenge his father against his (Daimaoh's) killer, Son Goku, and all of Goku's allies.
  • Speaking of which, Oyobu looks like a red Namekian or a Palette Swap of Piccolo Daimaoh Jr. with his pointy ears and bald head^note (which should delight fans who still hope for a legit live-action Dragon Ball Z remake since Oyobu's sleek design shows it's doable).

Comic Books

• Oyobu's design is a shout-out to The Flash. He also sort of has Flash's Super-Speed when running.
• Underground Empire Tube is reminiscent of the subterranean society of the Moloids discovered by Mole Man of Fantastic Four fame.

Movies & Television

• Like with Daimos, Maskman is basically Romeo and Juliet WITH SUPER SENTAI!, albeit less so since Princess Iyal is kept on ice for most of the story until they neared the climax.
• X1 Mask's design looks a lot like the ones used for Battle Fever J, so much so that fans joke he'd make a decent Battle Brazil or Ireland.
• Princess Iyal getting encased in ice is reminiscent of how Han Solo was also encased in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back.
• Underground Empire Tube is reminiscent of the Jashinka Empire from Kagaku Sentai Dynaman in that they're both underground societies who've evolved separate from humanity before invading the surface world.
• The Maskmen's "Turbo Ranger" is seemingly named after the "Bio Turbo" (police) car from Choudenshi Bioman because it looks like a gigantic flying car or van the size of an aircraft carrier.
• In episode 38, Igam's attempt to travel back in time and kill Takeru when he was a child to induce a Temporal Paradox is reminiscent of the plots of The Terminator and Back to the Future.
• Titan Boy from the previous series Choushinsei Flashman also looks a lot like Galaxy Robo with its baseball helmet head and boxy body. They're also both auxiliary robots to the main robots of the sentai team with a truck form.
• Commander Sanjuro Sugata being played by Hayato Tani is a great allusion to his previous role as General Tani in Takeshi's Castle.

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