MovieChat Forums > Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad (1994) Discussion > I actually felt for Malcolm...

I actually felt for Malcolm...

posted 12 years ago by kartoon-1
7 replies | jump to latest

He wasn't evil, just misguided and lonely.
He had poor social skills but it didn't help matters when he'd get shot down when he TRIED to socialise.
And its even more damaging to a kids self-esteem when ADULTS butt in to take cheap shots, like that lunch lady who always had to make some snide remark at him or rub his nose in something that went wrong for him while the other kids who were the 'heroes' stood on the sidelines and laughed at him. I wished I could have been there to say; "Why don't you mind your own middle-aged business lady!"

Sure Malcolm came across as surly and arrogant, but so do a lot of people who get hurt a lot by the thoughtlessness of others.

The series could have come to an end with Malcolm finally reconcilling with the others. This show was patterned after Japanese anime and a lot of their shows ended with enemies becoming friends.

[–] mjn-seifer 12 years ago

Even as a kid I felt the same way. I actually thought there'd be an episode with Malcolm becoming a good guy, or at least becoming less of a bad guy. They came close to this with that "false season finale" thing they had, but no, they had to go and erase his memory, and bring Kilokhan back from the dead...

I loved this show, and to be honest, Malcolm was one of the most interesting characters, or at least had the potential to be the most interesting. It's kind of a shame, I haven't seen Glen in anything other than this, he seems like a good actor to cast in things to be honest...

My favorite Final Destination is the 4th – DEAL with it!

[–] Forgotten_Hero 11 years ago

Watching the series again as an adult, Malcolm was downright scary.

He insulted Sam over hosting a lock-in event for charity. Sam responded in good nature by claiming that they could use an artist and inviting him. Malcolm took this as an insult..... and arranged a virus to infect the heating systems and kill off everyone participating in the lock-in!

[–] mjn-seifer 11 years ago

^Looking back at the show in hindsight; Malcolm was basically whatever the writers wanted him to be for that episode. Sometimes (like the voice changing episode) he was an outsider who just wanted everyone to feel like an outsider themselves, some episodes he was basically some weird stalker character, and some he was actually pretty creepy when it came down to it - he tried to kill all of Japan in one episode just because a Japanese disk drive broke his arm some how.

Yeah, I love this show, but like I say Malcolm was basically as sympathetic or as evil as the episode needed him to be.

My favorite Final Destination is the 4th – DEAL with it!

[–] TVShowGuy 10 years ago

Watching this again. In episode 8 Mal-Kahn-Tent where Kilokhan took over Malcolm's body I couldn't believe in episode 9 they act like it never happened. Malcolm was confused and wanted to get Kilokhan for what he did, and then next episode Malcolm wanted to be buddy buddy with Kilokhan.

This would of made a great near the end of the series episode, but being the 8th in made things seem weird.

[–] mjn-seifer 10 years ago

As much as I like this show, it's continuity was very limited - they often had things happen in the episodes that realistically would have had more of an affect on the characters, but they "forgot" about the whole thing the next episode, or just didn't care. To make it stranger Malcom actually does bring the event up in another episode, so it's not like he forgot about it - it's like he suddenly doesn't care that much.

My favorite Final Destination is the 4th – DEAL with it!

[–] TVShowGuy 10 years ago

It's funny you mention that. While i do remember seeing this show when i was younger, and i think i even had a Servo action figure as i am going back and watching it again the continuity is killing me.

Battles at the very beginning of shows starting mid fight.

Malcolm getting sucked into the Camcorder and then the episode just ending

Sydney putting Kilokahn in the prison saying he can't make megaviruses become evil so then why when Malcolm tricks him with the pin the tail on the donkey deal that the monster becomes evil and not act like a kids program like Kilokahn is

In the same episode mentioned above the megavirus knocks down the same part of the building more then once

and again In the above episode when Sam goes to just visit the digital world he mentions that there is no reason to say Let's Samuraize Guys, but still becomes Servo. If he can become Servo without saying it why say it?
(Although i enjoy hearing what Amp comes up with each time)

In the nightmare episode Malcolm says Sam has a digital clock a few times, but when the camera shows it looks like it is analog with motorized flipping numbers.

When the Servo Warning screen comes on the one bar always goes up while the others go up and down.

I'm only about 12 or so episodes in, but so far my favorite source footage where you can obviously tell it is Japanese is the phone episode where you can clearly see the Japanese police cars parked at the station and in the Food episode when the convener belts stop you can clearly see all the Japanese writing on the food boxes.

I'd really love to see the subbed Gridman get released so i can watch both and compare the two.
Ultraman got a US release through Mill Creek so maybe Gridman will.

http://www.amazon.com/Ultraman-Complete-Susumu-Kurobe/dp/B002DQSKLU/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1386307755&sr=1-1&keywords=Ultraman

[–] Forgotten_Hero 10 years ago

Huge nerd that I am, I actually watched Gridman without subtitles on YouTube last year. Given how faithful an adaptation Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad was, and the simplicity of the overall series, it was fairly easy to tell what was going on most of the time.

It's kind of interesting seeing the little moments that were edited out - like where a virus would get a limb chopped offed. There were also a couple of fights that didn't make it into the translated series. I think Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad was the better series overall, but the original did make for a nice companion piece. Getting to see some new battles was fun too.

I think it's kind of interesting the fights that were chosen to introduce the series in the English version. The re-edited "Cathod" fight really makes Sam look like he's lost and struggling to defend himself. It was kind of a nice touch. Given how often they had to reuse fights to fill episodes, I'm kind of surprised that they didn't re-edit some of the others. Rearranging the individual clips could have produced some interesting results.