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I have to ask: Are all Japanese kids’ shows as cool as Super Robot Red Baron (1973)? Because if they are, who could possibly concentrate on homework in the land of the rising sun? This giant robot extravaganza is just as much fun as Infra-Man (1975), and that's a comparison I do not make lightly.

Giant robot stories are inherently awesome, but the genre is surprisingly easy to screw up. Super Robot avoids the usual pitfalls by having cool stuff happen all the time, and not just when the big robots are punching each other.

Super Robot is the story of the world's most powerful robot, Red Baron, and the team of plucky human crimefighters (the Secret Science Investigation, or SSI) who assist it in it's battle against evil and tyranny. The bad guys, Dr. Deviler and his fiendish Iron Alliance, start their reign of terror by stealing all of the giant robots from, well, a giant robot expo in the first episode.

No, seriously. Every nation in the world builds a giant robot to get exhibited in an expo; the bad guys haul them all away with helicopters and tow cables. Now, the villains have an unlimited supply of 'bots to throw at our heroes every week. Some of them even reflect their countries of origin through the prism of ’70s Japanese racism — for example, the African robot is called Black Masai and has big lips and a spear!

The Red Baron itself looks like a big fire hydrant, but it's got several tricks up its sleeve, including detachable rocket fists and missiles that fire out of its nipples. And earlobes that shoot laser beams, because, well, why the hell not? As per tradition, its pilot, Ken (Yosuke Okada), yells out stuff like “Baron punch!” and “Elec-trigger!” whenever he fires the weapons.

In addition to culturally insensitive giant robots, Dr. Deviler has an army of foot soldiers, named Mecha-Robos, clad in black leotards and silver helmets. They descend on the heroes in massive waves of front-flips only to get their asses handed to them in karate fights. In one episode, they finally do the smart thing and attack with guns; the good guys respond by running over them with their cars.

For its part, the SSI is a suitably ludicrous hero team; all fresh-faced youths in matching flared jodhpurs and colour-coded neckerchiefs, each member is ready to karate fight evildoers at a moment's notice. Hardly a second goes by without them fighting for their lives — they can't even walk to the corner store without zig-zagging through 23 or so explosions on the way.

They are assisted by Inspector Kumano (Isao Tamagawa), who provides comic relief and is better known as the “Bicycle Inspector” because of his dorky (and weapon-packed) homemade bicycle. The Inspector's job is to trip and fall down for a cheap laugh before suddenly converting into a total badass, firing bullets out of his umbrella and eviscerating bad guys with a sword concealed in his bicycle pump.

The special effects are gloriously outdated and unconvincing, but this only makes them better. All of the robots are clearly stuntmen in foam rubber suits, but manage to be way more interesting than the lurching computer-generated images from the new Transformers films. Plus, it's very apparent that the human characters are doing real backflips within spitting distance of 11 gasoline bombs all going off at once, lending a genuine sense of danger to the whole enterprise.

Very little of Super Robot Red Baron seems like padding. It's as though the cast and crew filmed so much action that they dispensed of the dull expository footage to make it fit into a 30-minute time slot. In fact, that's probably the reason why everything constantly shifts into Benny Hill-style fast motion all the time. They just didn't have room for all the explosions otherwise.

Mill Creek Entertainment's newly released Super Robot Red Baron: The Complete Series box set manages to cram all 39 episodes onto four DVDs, resulting in one technical hiccup: towards the end of each episode, the English subtitles begin to lag behind the spoken dialogue. If you can forgive this flaw, this set is an essential purchase, especially considering the bargain price ($7.99 - $11.99). Baron punch!