Yatterman 2008 is a sequel disguised as a remake of the original 1977 series. The basic plot is very similar to the one of the original show with only one core difference to it: instead of the four pieces of the Dokuro Stone this time the main McGuffin are the five Dokuro Rings which can grant any wish when collected together. The show basically feels as two different shows pasted together mainly due to an issue that plagued its original airing: it was initially aired in the 7PM Monday timeslot which allowed for some slightly more mature content: while it doesnt have the naked scenes and stuff like that from the original series the show still has some edgy satire such as an early episode criticizing the idol system and how theyre forced to mantain a certain image or another that parodies the 2008 USA elections in a school setting where two kids that are obvious parodies of Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton going against eachother to become the school council president and other stuff that kids wouldnt get cameos from characters by other Tatsunoko shows from the 70s or parodies of Japanese TV shows that were airing in the same period as this anime and many episodes featured popular Japanese comedians as guest stars in a way that makes Yatterman feel like an anime version of Family Guy at certain points: one episode even features an extended Evangelion parody where the guest star is forced into the villains mech via an Entry Plug and one of the villains starts doing a Gendo Ikari impression throughout the episode. This timeslot however ended up being problematic due to both baseball games and longer episodes of Detective Conan which usually aired right after this show something they actually joke about a few times in the show itself taking Yattermans place. As a result the show got low views and the producers had to do only one thing to save it: move it to another time slot. As a result episode 35 acts as a fake finale where the villains finally get all the Dokuro Rings only for them not working because it turns out that there are actually TEN rings and not five. This plot twist acts as a kind of soft reboot for the show which moved to the 7AM Sunday timeslot and transformed immediately into a kinda generic buy our toystype of show for little kids. The plots lost their edge and often became childish nonsense such as the one set in Australia where the main characters discover get ready that Ayers Rock is actually an emergency button to push in order to refill all the water sources in case of a drought. However the general show didnt become bad at all none the less: new characters were introduced such as the big bads spoiled grandson who pesters the villains by using a voicechanging staff to menace them in his grandpas voice and then tries to do their business by himself or a varied team of additional villains who were at the same time more competent than the Dorombos and more flawed my favourite is the muscular construction worker who annoy everyone with his fixation of listing one by one all of his muscles. The ending actually requires to watch the 2009 tiein movie to have a complete image something that the show actually lampshades. None the less the show is a great way to pass some time if you need an oldstyled lighter comedy anime.