Space Sheriff Shaider

Did You Know?

• Two movies were filmed: Space Sheriff Shaider (released July 14, 1984, between episodes 19 and 20) and Pursuit! The Strange Kidnappers! (released December 22, 1984, between episodes 39 and 40).
• A PlayStation 2 video game, The Space Sheriff Spirits, was released on May 25, 2006, by Bandai Namco in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
• In the video game, Hiroshi Tsuburaya had died before development, so anime voice actor Takuo Kawamura voiced Shaider instead.

Characters

The headquarters of Shaider and Annie is the Vavilos, which orbits Earth and can fire the Vavilos Beam from its wings. When Shaider enters the Fushigi Dimension and encounters a giant Fuuma gunship, he summons Vavilos and commands it to transform into either the Big Magnum, a giant gun, or the Vavilos Robot, a giant robot. The Vavilos Robot emits a giant laser beam called Vavilos Fire from its chest, fires Vavilos Lasers from its hands, can catch and throw back the Fuuma Gunship's missiles, and can shoot Vavilos Missiles. Dai Sawamura, a former archaeologist, continued his astronomer father's research into the Nazca images, tracking their meaning from Peru to Easter Island. There, he uncovered an altar that knocked him unconscious, and he awoke on Planet Bird. After solving a missing item, Dai became Shaider. He later learned of the ancient warrior Shaider and realized his fate was to finish his ancestor's duty by defeating Fuuma. When Fuuma took over most of the universe, Dai discovered the altar was an entrance to where the headless body of Kubilai was sealed, along with Kubilai's weak point. After escaping a sealed chamber with limited oxygen, Dai fought through the Fushigi Castle to save Annie and defeated Kubilai. With his Earth mission complete, Dai decided to take Annie around the world. To transform, Dai commands "Shouketsu" and is bathed in Plasma Blue Energy from Vavilos, forming his blue Combat Suit armor in milliseconds. As Shaider, he wields the Laser Blade sword for his signature Shaider Blue Flash, and the Video Beam Gun, which he can use with the Shaider Scope to track invisible foes. His attacks include the Shaider Punch, Shaider Kick, and Blue Flash Spark.

In other countries

In the Philippines, Space Sheriff Shaider aired as Shaider in the late 1980s, becoming the first tokusatsu show dubbed in Filipino on ABS-CBN, IBC, RPN-9, GMA-7, Hero TV, and TeleAsia. In this version, Dai Sawamura was renamed Alexis, Kojiro Oyama became Doctor Ang, Kubilai was called Fuuma Ley-ar, Priest Poe was renamed Ida and voiced by a female, and Hessler was called Drigo. The series aired in France on M6 as Capitaine Sheider, with a theme song performed by Bernard Minet. In Brazil, it aired as Sheider on TV Gazeta in 1990 and later on Rede Globo at around 5 am in 1992. Discotek announced a Blu-Ray release for September 2024.