Eagle Talon Review: The perfect balance of humor and social satire

"Eagle Talon" - The hilarious daily life of a silly, evil secret society that aims to take over the world

■Overview of the work

Eagle Talon is an original TV anime series that aired on TV Asahi in 2006, and was created and directed by FROGMAN. It has 11 episodes, each 15 minutes long, but packed with content that entertained viewers. It was aired every Wednesday late at night from April 6th to June 15th, 2006. This is a comedy anime that depicts the daily lives of the Eagle Talon, an evil secret organization that aims to take over the world, but fails at everything they do.

■ Story

The story of "Eagle Talon" is about the kindhearted leader of the "Eagle Talon Gang" who come up with various strategies to conquer the world, but are ultimately defeated by Deluxe Fighter, an unreasonable hero who is only a champion of justice in name. This amusing depiction of their daily lives provides laughs for the audience. The leader's true goal is to unite the world and create a peaceful society, but this gap is one of the charms of the show.

■ Characters

The characters in Eagle Talon are unique and each has their own unique charm. The Führer (real name: Donichiro Koizumi) is the leader of an evil secret society, but he is timid and tearful, but behind that lies a desire for world peace. Yoshida-kun (real name: Yoshida Justice Katsuo) is a combat chief, but is a rather careless and free-spirited character. Dr. Leonardo (real name: Leonardo Deca Vinci) is a mad scientist with a genius mind who can build a spaceship out of products from a 100-yen shop. Bosatsu Toge is a mysterious esper boy with powerful psychic powers, who adores the Führer as his "daddy." Philip (real name: Kazuo Okamoto) is a timid contract employee who looks scary, but is a special being who is half spirit and half human. And Deluxe Fighter is a vulgar and selfish ally of justice, who often uses his special move, the Deluxe Bomber, as a threat. The comedy created by these characters is what makes "Eagle Talon" so appealing.

■Production Background

Eagle Talon is an original anime work, and FROGMAN was responsible for the original concept, direction, script, character design, drawing, sound, editing, and Flash production. TV Asahi, Frogman Co., Ltd., and DLE were involved in the production, with technical assistance from Adobe Systems Inc. Ryusuke Suzuki also assisted with Flash production. Executive producer was Ryuta Shiiki, planning was handled by Hideki Uchino (Universal Pictures Japan) and Azuma Tani (DLE), and producer was Naomi Nishiguchi (TV Asahi). Music was handled by manzo (Realand), and the opening and ending designs were handled by Yuya Sekiguchi (Wombat & Co. Film). The ending design for the final episode was handled by Shinko Kudo (saihate). These staff members worked together to complete Eagle Talon.

■Broadcast information

"Eagle Talon" was broadcast on TV Asahi from April 5 to June 14, 2006. The broadcast time was from 26:40 to 27:10 every Wednesday, and a total of 11 episodes were broadcast. The subtitles of each episode are as follows.

• Episode 1: Here Comes the Eagle Talon Gang (2006/04/05)
• Episode 2: Monster-making machine (2006/04/12)
• Episode 3: Bosatsu Toge-kun appears! (2006/04/19)
• Episode 4: There's No Tomorrow for Us (2006/04/26)
• Episode 5: Love in a Dream (2006/05/03)
• Episode 6: The Bad Fighter (2006/05/10)
• Episode 7: Don't Stop Loving Me (2006/05/17)
• Episode 8: Eagle Talon's Holiday (2006/05/24)
• Episode 9: Goodbye Doctor (2006/05/31)
• Episode 10: Final Attack Part 1 (2006/06/07)
• Episode 11: Final Attack Part 2 (2006/06/14)

■ Theme songs and music

The opening theme of "Eagle Talon" is "GO!GO! Rider", written, composed and sung by FUNKY MONKEY BABYS, and arranged by NAOKI-T. The ending theme is "Go Your Way", written by KOJIMA and SATOSHI, composed and arranged by Yamaarashi and Seiji Kameda, and sung by Yamaarashi. These songs add to the atmosphere of the work.

■ Related works

In addition to the TV series, many other related works have been produced based on "Eagle Talon." As a film series, "Secret Society Eagle Talon THE MOVIE: The President Only Lives Twice," "Secret Society Eagle Talon THE MOVIE 2: The Black Oolong Tea That Loved Me," "Secret Society Eagle Talon THE MOVIE 3: http://EagleTalon.jp Is Forever," and "Secret Society Eagle Talon THE MOVIE 4: The Man with Kaspersky" have been produced. There are also unaired episodes, spinoffs, a countdown series, and the NEO, MAX, EX, DO, and .jp series. There are also a wide variety of other related works, such as planetarium productions and collaboration works. Through these works, the worldview of "Eagle Talon" has been further expanded.

■ Evaluation and impact

"Eagle Talon" has won many fans with its unique humor and charming characters. In particular, the leader's kind-hearted personality and desire for world peace resonated with viewers. In addition, the use of a new expression method called Flash animation gave the series a fresh feel in terms of its visuals. Furthermore, as can be seen from the large number of related works, "Eagle Talon" has become established as a part of culture and continues to be loved by many people.

■Reasons for recommendation

"Eagle Talon" is a work filled with laughter and emotion. While it is a comedy depicting the daily life of a foolish secret evil society, it also depicts the Führer's desire for world peace and the human drama of the characters, deeply moving the viewer. In addition, by adopting a new expression method called FLASH animation, it can be enjoyed visually as well. Furthermore, since there are many related works, you can enjoy the worldview of the work in depth. Please try experiencing the world of "Eagle Talon" at least once.