It's a laugh a minute with new anime Astro Fighter Sunred, where the hero seems more like a bully, and the villain and his evil monster henchmen are the hero's helpless victims. This is a hilarious parody of the Japanese masked superhero genre which pokes fun at Power Rangers and Masked Rider.
Created by Makoto Kubota (Shampoo Oji), the manga can be read online at SquareEnix's free Web magazine site Gangan Online. Production of the anime is being handled by Anime International Company Inc's A.S.T.A. division which has previously worked on Ah! My Goddess, Gun X Sword and Vampire Princess Miyu.
Sunred is your typical red power ranger and a friend of justice. He is constantly hounded by evil organisation Florsheim who have nothing better to do than challenge him to fights. There is no reason for them to fight other than the fact Sunred is the good guy and they are the bad guys.
Sunred is an unemployed layabout who always wears his helmet, even when he's just in shorts and T-shirt, and spends his time playing the Japanese game Pachinko. Meanwhile, the evil leader of Florsheim is a housewife whose secret headquarters are a two-storey family homestead in the suburbs.
When Florsheim employees suddenly attack him and ruin his takeaway meal, Sunred beats them up and scolds them for not giving him advance notice of the fight. Each episode is a similar riot of comedy and action.
If you are a fan of the masked hero genre but have a sense of humour, keep an eye out for this when it's released on DVD in the next couple of months.