Review: Wow, this disc is one hell of a visual history lesson. In its hallowed halls you'll find 71 openings and closings of Toei live action shows from 1959-1974; some of them dull, some of them dynamic. For the most part, this disc consists of a who's who of original Toei superheroes, as well as some non-effects intensive shows and a few comedies. It's really interesting to note the progression of the openings throughout the years. From black and white shows like NINJA HATORI-KUN to the bloody and primal antics of KAMEN RIDER AMAZON, just watching the collection from beginning to end sends you along a Toei timeline tour of catchy tunes and increasingly flashier visuals.

If you don't know the characters of Shotaro Ishinomori's name, then you will by the time this disc is through spinning. Tons of his creations pepper the chapters here, from KIKAIDA and KAMEN RIDER to some real oddball classics like GANBARE! ROBOCON and its follow-ups. There were a lot of surprises with his name attached, and the latter half of this DVD really gives you the impression that he worked on almost everything worth mentioning.

There are only a couple of real downsides to this disc. The first is going to become pretty apparent once you pop it in and start basking in the glowing glory of "ye olde" theme songs: without some knowledge of the Japanese language, you'll end up doing your own research just trying to figure out what some of the shows are called. I'd love to pretend that I know the titles of everything present on this disc, but most everything non-superhero (that doesn't repeatedly chant the title in the song) completely escapes me. But truth be told, the highlights of the disc are the henshin hall-of-famers, so this isn't that huge of a deal.

The other downside is a bit more difficult (and expensive) to correct. Once you start watching intro after intro of astounding Toei shows, you'll be grabbing the air around you clamoring for a chance to watch some actual episodes. There's a constant pattern of elation followed by disappointment after each intro ends and moves on to an outro. It's like someone snatched your favorite childhood tapes and erased the content, or nabbed your sandwich and wiped off the creamy peanut butter. What you're left with is the chocolate part of an Oreo without the filling, which isn't a total loss by any means. You can also rest assured that quite a few of these shows likely had bread that tasted better than the meat.

These small and somewhat irreparable gripes aside, the only thing this disc needs to come with is either a microphone, a bottle of sake, and a lyric book in romanji; or conversely, a box of sugary cereal and pajamas with footies. As the title indicates, this is the first in a series, and it's a pretty entertaining primer to the sing-song world of tokusatsu themes. The following volumes will be a must-have once this one gets worn out, although the price of each makes this a selection that's more likely to land on the shelves of hardcore fans.