everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I really do not know what Takashi Miike was thinking when making this movie. He moved away from the horror, but kept the crazy. This movie was pretty messed up, but in a different way. A man fantasizes about being a superhero and it comes true because the world is being attacked by aliens. There is a lot more to the story, but you will have to watch it to see what I am talking about it. If you know Takashi Miike, you will have to watch it to understand it all. The movie also makes fun of old and new superhero type movies, but the cheezy ones, like the Power Rangers. In fact because it is making fun, some of the scenes will really have you laughing. Sho Aikawa plays the so called Zebraman and does an excellent job. Going from a shy older man who does not connect with his family to the powerful Zebraman. The rest of the cast really doesn't need to be mentioned here. I will say that most of them did an excellent job of acting for the most part. There is CG in the film; mostly for the aliens. Combining the mind of Miike and the writers really came up with some strange aliens. They are so evil, but also come off as cute at parts. The story again has a deep meaning behind it, but if you don't catch it, the film seems just strange. But if you like strange, then you got yourself a good movie. I did enjoy the movie for the most part, but I would not recommend this film to Miike fans for they may look at him in a wrong way.

In fact, I might call it his worst, or at least it's close to it. Miike is actually a very good director-for-hire, but he never seems to feel comfortable when he's directing a movie for younger audiences. Like The Great Yokai War and Andromedia, the two other Miike films of this type I've seen, Miike keeps the worst part of his normal aesthetic – that is, the incredibly drawn out, Asian art-house dialogue scenes. It can work well in dramas or in suspense pictures, but these three films lack anything that could be considered suspenseful. Miike's not allowed, I would guess, to push the boundaries much, so he can't create any memorable setpieces. He works a lot with computer effects in Zebraman, but they're extremely poor. They wouldn't have been acceptable ten years ago in the United States. The film concerns an ineffectual teacher and father, played by Sho Aikawa, who longs to become a super hero he remembers from TV when he was a kid. He is soon endowed with the powers he wishes for so he can fight an alien invasion. Sho Aikawa is very good in the lead, and there are a couple of good sequences. But, all in all, it's a bore.

I loved this film, and had a great time watching it. Then, I came here, and yet another comment that is deprecating towards women. You know, we can see every film out there, if we want to. You're just placing your own mistaken impressions and trying to make them apply to everyone.I thought little boys had to wait until they were 16 to watch mean old yakuza films, or something as great as Imprint.If you tell anyone "I rented this movie but you won't like it", chances are you're setting yourself and your partner up for disappointment. I know that it's hard to filter comments for anything, especially this sort of thing, but I still wish it would happen.Please, grow up.

Believe it or not this is an Takashi Miike film! Zebraman is the tender side of Miike. About a junior high school teacher who fails as a teacher. No one understands him beside his new student. Miike message through this film is "belive in your dreams". In the movie when he is talking to his son, he says that I should have a bike, every hero should have one. Miike was always fascinated of bikes, he actually wanted to be a pro. You can still see that it's a Miike in some scenes, specially the one where they find a dead-body twisted. The best scene in the movie is near the end when Zebraman becomes a real hero, good effects, not a the original theme but in the scene mentioned earlier (when he becomes a real hero) is pretty cool, overall Zebraman is a nice family film, in fact the only Miike film you can watch with your family or your girlfriend. Watch this movie!