So Tubi, for those of you who don't know, is an amazing free (currently) site containing an absolute wealth of obscure films and television shows and it's kind of shame realizing that it'll inevitably fall victim to corporate greed eventually and probably shed the bulk of its content while switching over to a costly pay-per-view model. For fans of animation, it's kind of become the last ground for stuff like Looney Tunes and the Cartoon Network catalog as they've been purged from HBOMax despite that being an initial selling point for the service.
But as it stands, next to just searching on YouTube to see what people upload that passes by copyright laws, so I want to give some love to some of the gems that have graced Tubi and I'll begin with probably the most effective film I've seen on the platform, 1985's Legend of the Stardust Brothers by Makoto Tezuka. And like, yeah, this is THAT Tezuka's son.
A very inventive musical film inspired by The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Phantom of the Paradise, two films I've found Japan absolutely adores (take a shot for every Japanese media character which has the mask of the Paradise Phantom like Femto from Berserk and Beezlebubmon), it's very offbeat. As a fan of Tokusatsu, a lot of the effects used also feel very 80s/early 90s era Sentai to me in addition to the style of its humor in being sort of surreal. If you've ever heard of this movie, you probably know of its jaw dropping finale reveal but this movie as a whole has a lot of moments that just blew me away upon first viewing. The music is actually extremely catchy, and has stuck in my head since I first viewed it near two years ago. There's also a pretty amazing segment, the segment that popped up on Youtube before the film was restored, with some awesome puppetry work and an animated segment by Monkey Punch of Lupin fame.
The film bombed and was kind of forgotten about but has received, and deserves in my opinion, a lot of love---this is one of those films that changed my brain chemistry as they said. It actually got a sequel which as far as I know has never been subbed, and features the dude who plays Ankh from Kamen Rider OOOs, which is right up my ally so I hope that's corrected soon but yeah this is a huge recommendation if you like weird offbeat musicals or enjoy Japanese tokusatsu.
