A live action adaptation of an earlier cartoon series. The film features the son of a toy store and his girlfriend who spend their time building giant robots, but transform into Yatterman 1 and Yatterman 2 when it’s time to go fighting evil. Evil in this film comes in the attractive form of Lady Doronjo who with her evil sidekicks are seeking some skulls.

“Yatterman” isn’t as artistic as some of Miike’s films which is say it is quite watchable. Besides the special effects and costumes and sets he does add a certain amount of risqueness. It is all quite lunatic and oddball.

The film is both a celebration of the original “Yatterman” (and one guesses other similar shows,) but also a critique of it. So Lady Doronjo openly admits that the ‘evil’ guys always lose, in fact they normally lose because of what they do rather than the good guys defeating them. The heroes sing silly songs when they win because that is what they do.