Anime — Astro Fighter Sunred

“This is the story of the conflict between good and evil that takes place in the city of Kawasaki.”

Q4 '08 was a strange season. I had expected to only watch Tytania; but that just lost my interest partway through. The good series were the ones that didn't actually appear so from the pre-season material. Mouryou no Hako was one; this was the other.

Sunred, a former sentai hero (but don't let on that you know about that!), lives the NEET lifestyle, sponging off his girlfriend Kayako. His opponents in the evil organization Florsheim (named after the shoe company, I believe), are a mix of monsters (usually in McJobs of their own), plushy animals, and a few actual employees, all of whom get the occasional necessary drubbing from Sunred in the local playground to keep them in line.

Meanwhile, they carry on with their domestic lives, with a strange sort of friendship between Kayako, and General Vamp, the local Florsheim leader, as they cook, clean and help each other move house. Indeed Vamp seems to be as much preoccupied with the culinary arts as he is with plotting Red's downfall and subsequent world domination.

An amusing and ironic deconstruction of the whole superhero genre in 26 half-length episodes (and the promise of another season to come).