Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit (スーパーデリシャス遊星ゴールデンスペシャルリザーブゴージャスアフターケアーキッド28号, Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit?) is a traveling superhero who has franchised his identity. He roams the galaxy in search of good children, offering to sell them versions of his power-granting suit so that they can be superheroes like himself. Because of this, there are technically multiple versions of Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit, with the one we met being identified by his number; #28.
Biography[]
Ten encounters Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 whilst wandering Tomobiki one night after losing a fight with Ataru Moroboshi. Discovering the superhero laying on a rooftop, exhausted and weak from thirst, Ten fetches him a bucket of cool water, which revives him. The grateful Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 explains that he travels the stars searching for courageous, kind-hearted children, and because of his good deed, he now considers Ten to be one of his friends. He presents Ten with a scaled-down version of his own costume, which he proclaims will give him superhuman strength, durability and flying speed, then flies away.
An excited Ten attempts to use his new super-suit to exact revenge upon Ataru, but loses each time. After each defeat, Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 appears to reveal a previously unmentioned weakness of the suit, or to offer Ten a new piece of gear that will compensate for its latest weakness. This goes on until Lum interrupts them, having been alerted to the superhero's presence by Ran, who spotted one of Ten's earliest battles against Ataru. She reveals to Ten that the Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kits are a company of scammers, who trick kids by giving them super-suits and related paraphenalia, then charging exorbitant sums for their dubious goods from the kids' parents - something that happened to Lum and Ran when they were Ten's age. Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 protests that the two alien girls must have fallen afoul of a bad seed in their ranks, pinning the blame on Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #5 specifically, but he ultimately gives himself away and is sent retreating from Earth after a beating by the two angry oni.
Appearance[]
Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 resembles a tall, handsome, roughly middle-aged human man wearing a stereotypical American superhero-style costume, with a mask that covers the upper half of his head, a full-bodysuit with integrated gloves and boots, a flowing cape, a belt, and even tights on the outside, similar to the classic costume of Superman. The bodysuit is covered with ornate designs, including kanji placards, a border resembling crashing sea waves on the hem of his cape, and an image of a turtle on his forehead, with a crane on either temple on his mask. The belt sports a buckle with two shachihokos on it, forming a pair of L shapes with their heads facing towards each other.
Personality[]
Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 presents himself like a mixture of a stereotypical Silver Age American superhero and a Japanese super sentai hero. He acts friendly and charming, talking of himself as a friend to all children and a protector of truth, justice, righteousness and compassion. Underneath it all, however, he is a swindler who preys on the gullibility of little kids, overawing them with his "coolness" before tricking them into taking his super-goods so he can charge their parents for a lot of money. He is very poor at deflecting attention from this side of himself, as whilst he initially pins the blame on his teammate Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #5, he ultimately reveals his true colors after Lum pointedly asks if the stuff he has given Ten is supposed to be free gifts.
Powers and Abilities[]
Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 is capable of flying between planets under his own power, and can likewise fly through the air at will. He is also a charismatic salesman, easily able to trick little kids like Ten into unknowingly buying his junk.
When he presents Ten with his copy of the Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit costume, it claims it grants different powers - specifically, the bodysuit itself is impact-absorbent, the cape lets the wearer fly at 100km per hour, and by turning the shachihokos on the buckle, the user can imbue one or both arms with superhuman strength. However, to activate the suit, the user must first press a "reserve" button located in the small of the back, which is quite awkward to reach.
Trivia[]
- The character seems to be a parody of both American superheroes and Japanese super sentai franchises; his costume largely resembles Superman's with the addition of a facial mask similar to a de-eared Batman, but his costume is filled with an overabundance of Japanese imagery and his name is a parody of many super sentai heroes. His scam of conning children into buying overpriced junk to become superheroes "just like him" is a parody of the extensive kid-focused marketing both genres have in the form of toys, fake costumes, etc.
- He is most likely intended to be a direct parody of the 1967 manga series Perman (パーマン), written by Fujiko F. Fujio and published in Weekly Shonen Sunday - and specifically of the character スーパーマン - originally translated as "Superman", but subsequently renamed "Birdman" to avoid litigation from DC Comics. Birdman is an extraterrestrial superhero who travels across the universe, seeking a worthy successor by giving children power-bestowing costumes that allow them to assume the identity of "Perman", with the story focusing on a Japanese boy named Mitsuo Suwa, who becomes Earth's first Perman. The costume he gives a Perman consists of a mask that grants super strength, a cape that grants flight and super speed, and a badge that allows water-breathing and communication with other Permen. Super Delicious parodies the concept by making the character a swindler whose goal is to trick the kids into paying a fortune for his dubiously useful costume and other gadgets.
- In the 1981 anime, his name is spoken almost entirely in English; only the words "Planet" and "#28" are spoken in Japanese.
- In the 1981 anime, his super-costume is available in different colors; Lum and Ran's suits, for example, have distinct color schemes.
- In the Viz Media English translation of Chapter 231, his name is spelled as "Kid" rather than "Kit".
- His seiyu also provided the voices of Kitsune's Cat Teacher from Episode 158, the Gambling King and Shinnosuke's Grandfather in Ranma 1/2, and Kaijimbo in Inuyasha.
- The shachihokos on his belt are a yokai described as resembling a carp with the head of a tiger or a dragon. Shachihokos were believed to have the power to summon rain, and so statues to them were often erected on the roofs of buildings to ward off fire.
- In the 2022 anime, he makes an cameo in episode 29 at the end of the third segment.