Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman Review

story 8/10

I've seen quite a few parodies of the mecha/superhero type genre, including Del Power X, Ariel, and a number of others. For the most part, all of them are simply average with nothing but a handful of laughs. Shinesman, on the other hand, I found to be hilarious. Nothing of the caliber of Cromartie, Abenobashi, or other random humor type shows for sure, but definitely a notch above the usual parody show. The plot is filled with hilarious bits such as one of the planet's invaders going off about how stupid and ditzy his worthless sister is, or hilarious character quirks such as a woman who can crush anything in her hand (causing the males to back away, sweating). The heroes themselves have ridiculously funny color names (sepia? salmon pink? moss green?) and hilarious (and inappropriate) backgrounds are shown every time they come on screen. As if this wasn't enough, random lines are thrown in all the time for effect (when faced with death, the Shinesman team all ponder reasons why they need to live including one who just wants to drive his car again!). As far as what the point of the series is, it's just the Shinesman protecting the world from evil, like any superhero show!

Yeah, it's no Cromartie, but the randomness and true funny factor made this a good viewing. At only two episodes, I was surprised how funny it was. Normally I watch these parody shows and am bored to tears, but this made me laugh out loud a lot of the time.

The main downside is fairly substantial: it has no ending. At only two episodes, this surely was yet another OVA that didn't have enough funding or didn't sell well enough, and got the axe. Unfortunate, due to how genuinely funny it ended up being.

In summary, while maybe not the funniest show out there, there are enough laugh out loud jokes and random happenings to make the story good in my book.

animation 6.5/10

While the animation wasn't bad, it wasn't anything breathtaking either. Don't get me wrong, some scenes were hilariously animated such as the scenes when the one woman crushes various objects, and the expressions on the faces of the men as they back away in a scared fashion. But for the most part, there were no spastic humor elements in the animation (chibis, deformed people, extremely outlandish and out of place scenes), and that could have helped even more with the humor level. I absolutely loved when the Shinesman gang were introduced, since they each had a hilarious background that had absolutely nothing to do with the character themselves. "Moss Green" had bouquets of roses behind him. Another had giant cartoon looking fish swimming around, and so on.

The characters themselves were nothing to scream about, looking fairly normal in every way. The invaders definitely looked very fantasy-like, which was a plus, but again, nothing exceptional. The monsters were amusing. Colors ranged all over the map, though were fairly dull. An abundance of colors were used for the parody effect, as well. I will admit I laughed every time I saw the very odd colored Shinesman folks run around on screen.

Overall, some very humorous aspects of the animation, but overall it wasn't anything super exciting, hence the above average (but not fantastic) score.

sound 5.5/10

The problem with Shinesman's music is that the majority of the time, it didn't have ANY. Not even light background music, mind you, I'm talking about absolutely nothing. The intro is great, and incredibly funny, though. The song is sung by a male, and is extremely, extremely cheesy. It truly fits this kind of parody show perfectly, and would have sounded terrible for anything else. During the second episode there was an extended fight between Greatman and the Shinesman, and at that point some background music was finally inserted. Cheesy again, and great for an action scene, but besides that, the music was almost non existant! It's unfortunate they chose to ignore this section as much as they did, since some ridiculous parody music would have been great throughout the entire OVA.

Voice acting was done well.

characters 6.7/10

The characters were the major upside to the OVA, but also the downside. The Shinesman crew themselves were for the most part hilarious, and had weird quirks. One guy, for example, obsessed over his car (even when faced with death). I enjoyed the woman who crushed things as well, and the invader who always complained about his sister. These particular characters helped keep an element of randomness that was refreshing.

On the other hand, the OVA also had too many characters who were unrecognizable, looked the same, or in general you didn't understand them. Things happen fairly quickly and since the invaders pose as humans, it was sometimes hard to follow who was who (then again, I was paying 90% attention instead of 100%, but still). I would have liked for ALL the characters, not just a few, to have had very blatant quirks that could have helped with the humor even more, rather than blending together and being unrecognizable.

overall 7.4/10

I found Shinesman to be hilarious. Not Cromartie hilarious, but pretty damn funny nonetheless. The randomness and wonderful parodies combined with the occasional random and funny animation made for a pleasing watch. At only 50 minutes or so, it really won't waste too much of your time, and I think you'll be pleased at how much funnier it is, compared to other supposed parodies out there. Hate the Power Rangers? This is a show for you. You'll laugh, at least a little.