Zebraman Takashi Miike

Superhero tropes have gotten about as worn-out and used-up as can be these days, but Zebraman has come to save the genre from itself, crappy papier-mâchéd head and all. Our un-superhero, Shinichi, is an ineffectual schoolmaster unloved by his wife and disrespected by his children. Small wonder he seeks to escape his realities, though regressing into the world of a short-lived, failed superhero show (Zebraman) is an odd choice. Or is it when the world needs saving from giant foam-rubber-crab-head-wearing villains, or the threat of global takeover by a race of green Jell-O like aliens growing under the school gym? It's a relief that Miike is just as fucked-up when being purely comedic as he is when being gory or giving his audience the sexual shudders. Zebraman's hyperbolic ridiculousness is a constant stream of excellent cinema: "Don't bridle me!," shouts our superhero. And none would dream of doing so in the face of a world plagued by rapist crabs and eggplant attacks, bad kids and cheating wives, and the hopes of one geeky man and his sewing machine. An inspirational tale. (Toei/TBS/Central Arts)