The "immobile characters" that mediate between the dynamic world of "Shattered Fist Polymer" and the viewer.

The live-action hero action film "Shurakken Polymer" will be released on May 13, 2017. The anime by Tatsunoko Productions, on which the film is based, was first broadcast in 1974. Compared to "Shinzo Ningen Casshan" and "Space Knight Tekkaman," both of which were produced around the same time, "Polymer" has no serious elements, and its light-hearted and unconventional style is very appealing.
Armor Warrior, who transforms into Polymer, works as an assistant to private detective Kuruma Lock. A young girl named Namba Tell also works as a secretary in Kuruma's office and gets involved in the case. Both Kuruma and Tell are constantly being assisted by the mysterious polymath, but they are unaware of his true identity as the samurai.
In fact, Takeshi is the son of the chief of the Interpol Onigawara. He is most afraid that his father will find out about Polymer's true identity, since Takeshi ran away from home and has not been heard from since.
The plot of the 26 episodes is just this: "Takeshi keeps transforming into Polymer and defeating bad guys, but he hides his true identity from both the car and the teller," and "Takeshi doesn't want his father, Commissioner Onigawara, to know that he is Polymer.

Who is the character closest to the viewer?

However, there is only one character who knows that Takeshi is a polymer. He is the "Baron," a St. Bernard dog kept in the car's office. In the first episode, the Baron sees Takeshi transform into Polymer by means of the Polymet (the red helmet needed to transform into Polymer). However, he is frustrated because he is a dog and cannot tell the car about it.
The Baron occupies a privileged position in the film "Shattered Fist Polymer. Detective films are always accompanied by monologues, but in this film, it is the Baron who mutters the monologue. The Baron is a dog, so his words are inaudible to those around him (voiced by Kazuya Tatekabe).
The Baron is a detective with a name like Carlock Holmes, but he does everything so badly that no one ever comes to him for help with a case.
This cool young lady is Namba Teru, the office's secretary and telephone operator. She is the secretary and telephone operator of this office. What?　Why is the chief detective so subservient to his secretary?　She is the owner of this number one building.
......The Baron is the narrator who explains the setting of the characters and the development of the story. However, the owner of the car despises the Baron as a "useless, slow dog," so he is always blabbing.

Indeed, the car may be right that the Baron is a "useless" dog that does nothing but sleep. However, the Baron, who rarely acts on his own initiative and cannot communicate his will to the other characters, is the closest thing to the viewer in front of the TV set.　We can only sit still in front of the TV. We cannot talk to the characters, which is frustrating. The Baron, who knows the identity of the samurai but cannot tell anyone, is the viewer's surrogate and the only conduit to the world of the story.

The viewer becomes emotionally involved with the "stuck protagonist.

In the final episode, however, things take a turn for the worse. Takeshi and his father, Director Onigawara, are captured by the enemy organization. The enemy organization knows that Takeshi transforms into a polymer, but Director Onigawara refuses to believe it, saying that his son, Takeshi, cannot be a polymer. This is a critical situation for Takeshi, who wants to hide his true identity from his father alone.
And the Polymet, which is necessary for Takeshi to transform into Polymer, is still in the Kuruma Detective Agency. The enemy realizes this and infiltrates the office to retrieve the Polymet. The Baron plays an important role here. He runs around with Polymet on his head. He also infiltrates the enemy's flying fortress and plays an active role, igniting dynamite and blowing up the flying fortress until he hands over the Polymet to the samurai trapped in the base. During this time, for a whopping 18 minutes, the samurai was held by the enemy and unable to do anything.
In other words, only in the final episode, the Baron, who is always asleep, struggles to put on a poly helmet and switch positions with the samurai, who is unable to move or transform and is conflicted about whether his father will find out his true identity. The viewer becomes emotionally involved with a character who cannot act spontaneously and cannot communicate his will to anyone. The superhero, who is a polymetric and ever-changing character, is given a little bit of emotional involvement in the final episode.
The last episode of the film is a bit of an emotional rallying cry: "Oh dear, you finally realize that the samurai are polymers. Now I don't have to be annoyed anymore," the Baron murmurs in a voice that no one can hear. The Baron murmurs in a voice that no one can hear, a line that simply announces the resolution of the theme and the conclusion of the story. Over the course of 26 episodes, "Shattered Fist Polymer" has conveyed the simple fact that "the samurai is a polymer," and to do so, it needed a character that only the viewer could understand.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)

Recommended Articles