YMMV / Blue SWAT

• Angst? What Angst?: We don't see much of his reaction in the final episode, but Zaji doesn't seem to care at all that his "dad" is now an alien possessing the brain-dead cadaver of his real dad's body.
• Ass Pull:
  • Blue SWAT thwarts Queen's "ultimate plan" in #47, only for it to then turn out she had a second "ultimate plan" in the works.
  • In episode 37, Gold-Platinum is able to destroy the large Space Mafia mothership without much effort, yet in the final episode he has to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy a (much smaller) asteroid hurtling towards the Earth.
• Complete Monster: Jisp is the commander of the Space Mafia's body-snatcher invasion, taking as his host a comatose boy named Zaji, whose father is Sig's host. Over the course of his campaign, Jisp spreads a fungus that turns humans into food; conducts purges of his own subordinates; attempts to hack into America's nuclear missile system and use it to send the planet into a nuclear holocaust; and even stoops as low as possessing Sig's host and attempting to make him strangle Zaji. Jisp eventually attempts to overthrow Queen and use a pheromone to make the rest of the Space Mafia submit to him, his only desire being for a planet to rule himself.
• Ending Fatigue: Queen's ultimate plan is first introduced in #47 but gets put on hold for the next two episodes, which deal with Jisp's plan to usurp control of the Space Mafia and his final showdown with Blue SWAT, after which the final two episodes are devoted to Queen's plan. You can literally skip from #47 to #50 and pretend Jisp died of a heart attack in between, and you won't have any trouble understanding the plot.
• I Am Not Shazam: Show is not “Blue SWAT”. Blue SWAT is the name of the organization he, Sarah and Sig work for. Sarah and Sig aren't "Purple SWAT" and "Grey SWAT" either.
• Narm:
  • Jisp's second human host overacts on almost every line to the point where it can be hard to take him seriously.
  • Show summons Gold-Platinum by getting really angry. While in some episodes it's over something serious, like the Space Mafia committing some sort of atrocity, in other episodes the reasons get a little ridiculous, like in #25 when he's mad because the Space Mafia made him look uncool. #25 is especially egregious since said episode also featured the Space Mafia harming children and targeting his teammate Sarah with the same device they used on him, yet neither of those were enough to make him mad enough to summon Gold-Platinum.
  • While Show getting really angry and summoning Gold-Platinum the first time is a dramatic moment, it loses its effect and becomes hard to take seriously when Show starts shouting "YURUSANAI" it Once an Episode.
• Paranoia Fuel: With the Space Mafia aliens being able to assume the identities of anyone by going in their bodies, it mades it hard for the trio to figure out who's a friendly and who's not.
• Periphery Demographic: Much like Chōjinki Metalder before it, Blue SWAT did quite well with older fans, at least pre-retool.
• Seasonal Rot: Blue SWAT became the low point of the Metal Hero series post its retool. While it gets off to a strong start with the gritty premise established in the first episode, as a result of the changes the episode plots get increasingly goofier and more nonsensical, the villains become increasingly inept and non-threatening, props get recycled over and over, the editing gets a lot worse and plot developments get pulled out of nowhere.
• Squick: Aliens apparently don't need the central nervous system of a body they invade, but this question only comes up once in the show.
• Suspiciously Similar Song The "Blue SWAT, Victory!" BGM track sounds very similar to the Back to the Future theme.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Sarah really gets the short end of the stick in the second half, receiving little focus in comparison to her male teammates. While Show has his new Super Mode and a number of episode plots centered around him, and Sig has his arc involving Zaji and enmity with Jisp, Sarah doesn't get anything to distinguish her and basically becomes a Satellite Character to the two of them. This is despite the fact that she was shown to be the most capable member of Blue SWAT early on.
  • Despite forming the crux of several major plot developments in the second half, Gold Platinum is basically a heroic Giant Space Flea from Nowhere whose purpose is most episodes is just to give Show his Super Mode.
  • Yanimi is a threatening Dark Action Girl played by a professional wrestler, something that could have made her a good physical foil to Blue SWAT. Despite this, she gets much less focus compared to Jisp's other two minions and spends most of the second quarter Out of Focus, before coming back for a two-parter halfway through and getting killed off.
  • Queen. If you're wondering why she's the only Space Mafia member who looks human, or why half her face is withered, or why she's so bent on conquering Earth, don't expect answers to any of those questions.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: One of the ways the Space Mafia are made out to be threatening early on is how it's implicitly stated they've infiltrated high levels of society, which is the reason why Blue SWAT have to operate in secret. This opens up a lot of plot opportunites, but it's dropped midway in and never brought up again post-retool after the Space Mafia are made to be a generic Nebulous Evil Organisation.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: While not without comedic moments, Blue SWAT is much more grounded and darker than your typical Toku, and it can be easy to forget you're watching a children's Toku series at times. It didn't help that the cast comprised of late-teenagers and adults. Apparently, not even some kids realized it was intended for them, which led to it getting a Lighter and Softer retool midway through.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: While Jisp's original alien form is very sleek and creepy looking, his "upgraded" form gives him a perpetual big, toothy mouth, wide round eyes that make him look perpetually surprised, and a bunch of syringes stuck in his head. The result is him being too ridiculous to take seriously.