As I said yesterday: I was browsing Tokusatsu videos on Youtube to make my Hilarious posting this week. My idea was to see how cars were actually used through these series. Of course I mean recognizable cars and not the Bosozoku styled super-heroes cars.
First of all I found this intro of the 1988 Choujuu Sentai Liveman series:
At 0:30 the first hero drives a white Mazda FC convertible.
A poor student at Academia, but a strong leader and quick thinking under pressure. He is brave and a hardworker. Initially starts as hot-headed and sarcastic, but grows into the role of dependable leader as the series progresses.
Could this have been the inspiration for Shuichi Shigeno for Ryosuke Takahashi in Initial D? Only difference is that Ryosuke is not a poor student but rather a rich student taking a break during his study…
Then take the intro of the 1986 Choushinsei Flashman series:
The red Flashman is a professional racing driver. To be more precise: he drives the number 170 Mazda 757. It must somehow be true that he did was the driver because number 170 did not finish Le Mans 1986. Probably one of the villains must have wanted to sabotage Le Mans 1986 and in order to prevent this red Flashman must have abandoned the race. ;)
And in the last (but not least) example the 1984 Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!! series:
The blue Kamen Rider drives a Mazda HB Cosmo (a.k.a. the Mazda 929 overseas) like he’s doing audition for the first movie of the the Shuto Kousoku series (a.k.a. Shuto Trial or Freeway Speedway).
Somehow I see a pattern in these intros: Toei and Mazda! Coincidence? No, I don’t think so…