A school teacher who's students and family do not respect him imagines himself to be his childhood hero from a canceled television series. After making his own costume he discovers that the series is coming true, aliens really are invading and only he can stop them. The short clip from the Zebraman TV series features a theme song recorded by Mizuki, Ichiro who did the theme songs for many actual henshin hero series.

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Product Description

The year is 2010. Shinichi (played by Sho Aikawa) is a second-rate third-grade teacher who gets no respect from his family and little from his students. It seems that in 1978 he fell in love with a TV super hero named Zebraman that was cancelled shortly after airing. The show was set in 2010 so this year he sews himself a makeshift Zebraman costume and slinks around the city at night. His harmless escapism becomes reality when he runs into a half crab half man enemy of the same TV show and begins to realize the stories of Zebraman and his strange alien enemies were actually prophecy and that by making his Zebraman suit he elected himself to fulfill those prophecies. Now he must be the super -hero of his fantasies or let the Earth fall to cute little green aliens bent on conquering our green world.System Requirements:Running Time: 115 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/HEROES Rating: NR UPC: 631595080285 Manufacturer No: TSDVD0802

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32589 in DVD
• Brand: Media Blasters
• Released on: 2008-02-19
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Japanese, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 115 minutes

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Customer Reviews

Miike's Curious Family Film Blend
"Zebraman" is a male fantasy fairytale involving a repressed/milquetoast's attempts to embody the characteristics of his favorite TV series character (a not so popular 'Zebraman' who survived 8 episoides.) The idea of this film is pretty good, actually, and if I was still in Hollyweird I might be tempted to try to develop this. The plot, however, falls apart and is predictable in the last third of the film (which doesn't however, impact too much the enjoyability level. It's supposed to be cliched and comfortable - not like the usually disturbing Miike fare.)

Miike, suprisingly, always works well with young actors, but his low-key male lead is also nuanced here. The film is slow, allowing emotional involvement with the characters (doesn't always pull it off but it tries.)

The 'force' payoff (where Zebraman learns to fly based upon his belief system and the faith of a young boy) is pretty lame, but I think it's supposed to be. More interesting is the surrogate family Zebraman adopts (it threatens to explode into infidelity - in this, a kid's film?)

While this film is a mixed tonal bag at times, it's ultimately warm and nostalgic, very pro-human at it's core. Worth seeing, even if the story is a little wayward and the 'family fare' a little 'too adult.'