Tony Oliver was right,Power Rangerswas going to be copied by others, andSuper Human Samuraiwas the first.

The series opted to adapt footage fromDenkou Choujin Gridmanfrom Tsuburaya Productions, famous forUltraman.

Story:High schooler Sam Collins is the leader of his own rock band, Team Samurai.

Kilokhan partners with Malcolm Frink, a student who attends the same school as Sam and despises him.

Sam has everything Malcolm wants, particularly his off and on girlfriend Jennifer.

Sam is the easygoing main character whos a little full of himself but has a good heart.

The strangest of the group is Amp who appears to live in his own world.

Later in the series Amp leaves (maybe he reallywasan alien?)

and is replaced by surfer dude Lucky, always laid-back, and new bassist for the band.

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What Worked

Unlike Toei, Tsuburaya provided DIC with high quality copies ofGridmanfootage.

The show boasted amazing talent, more than any other Ameri-Toku.

Matthew Lawrence, who portrayed Sam, was a hot item after appearing inMrs.

Doubtfireand gave the show some of its star power.

The real star however was renowned voice actor Tim Curry, who played Kilokhan.

The best part of the show, he invested his supreme talent into the snarky villain.

that sadly has never been released.

For a show where the main characters rock band NEVER plays a song?

Its nice we got some decent rock and roll to keep the fights engaging.

Sams spirit goes instead, and while defeating Kilokhan, is forced to stay in cyber space.

You see,Gridmanonly had 39 episodes whileSuper Human Samuraihad 53.

Thus, several monsters returned, upgraded or were just outright reused for fights to open certain episodes.

Again, the whole thing seemed repetitive.

Losing one of the more fun characters in the last run of episodes didnt help either.

He was just a meat suit to pilot one of the vehicles.

The shows lack of budget was the biggest thing holding it back from success.

Speaking of the quality, the show had a lot of fun elements but nothing really stood out.

It was a copy ofPower Rangersand it was plainly obvious.

The only thing that seemed original and had some depth was Malcolms relationship to Kilokhan.

Its very probable that Malcolm would have taken on the new mantle, as his counterpart inGridmanwas going to.

Sadly, it was never to be.

Is It Worth Watching?

For Toku fans, its really only for hardcore Ameri-Toku enthusiasts.

If youre curious however its damn easy to pick up.

Not a huge investment but they might sit on your shelf unwatched for quite awhile.

Trivia

Aaron Pruner who played Percy onVR Trooperstried out for the part of Amp.

Super Human Samuraiis only one adaption of the popularUltramanfranchise on American shores.

PreviouslyUltramanhad largely been ported over as dubs, including the well known 1966 dub.

G. Beaudin described that he wore a ring for the character of Malcolm to signify being married to Kilokhan.

When crew members asked, Isnt that a bit gay?

he responded, Its not gay, its just weird.

-In the original PowerBoy concept, the character who became Sam Collins was originally named Zack Jason.

Yep, you ready that right.

-The greatest bit of this PowerBoy intensity is just how petty the feud between DiC and Saban got.

Check this bit from a1994 Variety article.

Saban issued a statement last week at the National Assn.