#1980's tokusatsu

[super-heroinecomparisons]

Star Virgin (1988).

[tokuherosuits]

Moonlight Mask.

[centrally-unplanned]

Saw this really cool post of a 1982 "SF" (Science fiction but in Japan that included things like anime, manga, tokusatsu, etc at the time) magazine that did a survey of active fan groups/circles at the time - ~woo, precious data! Lets see what we got:

Love to see a good gender breakdown - as is often the case in these things, while it is of course majority men the number of women participating is very strong. You do notice the age imbalance there - many women in their teens and college-aged, but it drops off quickly. I suspect that this is primarily because this survey is right in the middle of the first wave of the "pop SF boom", where more approachable works like Gundam and new manga subgenres were rapidly growing the community. So the older cadre was more heavily men, while the new group is more balanced. However, this is the early 1980's - it might just be that when a woman graduates college she was expected to marry and "settle down" still, inhibiting participation in these kinds of groups. I think it is primarily the former, Japan had pretty rapidly changed in the 1970's and female creative types were commonplace by then, but I won't pretend the latter players no role.

The writing on this page just contextualizes the piece, not much to report, though it does note that "3 people replied 'other' for gender...as a joke!" Sure, jan!

Anyway, on to page 2, what is our poll question of the day...

ロリコンについてどう思いますか? What do you think about lolicon?

....*siiiiiighs* guys I didn't, I didn't look at the second page before typing this up! I just wanted to report the gender data! This just happens to me, I swear -_-

But I can't back out now I guess:

It actually splits the question by gender - men are asked "are you a lolicon" while women are asked "what do you think of guys who are lolicon" - sexists, way to erase the female lolicon. Not actually joking there, it is a quite a thing due to its overlap with rape and dubcon fetishes - but I won't pretend I have expertise on the prevalence of that in 1982 Japan's SF community, even if it you see it today. Anyway, most men are not lolicons (the tallest line), though others fall on a spectrum from interested to "graduated", certainly a choice of words one could make.

Funnily a good dozen say they are called that by others, but not themselves - I believe that is related to the vague line between loli & shoujo aesthetics at the time. Which is important to emphasize, as I always do on this topic - sometimes the word lolicon just means "youthful" or "cute", sometimes it means like high schoolers, and sometimes it means real-deal underage stuff, and you won't know without context.

Meanwhile two women label lolicon men as "cute!", good for those two living their truth, while others are broadly tolerant but have Opinions. Which is fun, because the rest of the page is people sharing said opinions, sorted into "good" or "bad"! Some choice ones:

★ It's a symptom of modern civilization’s sick parts, but also an inevitable phenomenon. It’s better than having a rabbit or cat complex. Don’t lay hands on young girls. Lolicon must remain platonic. (♂/19/)

You see this theme a bit, "symptom of modernity", the new sexual fetishes are a product of a changing world. Certainly up for debate, but also very "in vogue" for the 80's & 90's to worry about that sort of declinist narrative. Then again, guy is a catgirl and bunnygirl hater, not sure we should listen to their shit taste.

On the flip side you get the "natural way of things" types, of which this is my favourite:

★ There’s nothing abnormal about having a dream involving an uncontrollable urge towards pre-teens. Even Romeo and Juliet would have made Romeo a lolicon given Juliet’s age (14), but people don’t think of it that way. Only at that age can girls love and respect men without ulterior motives. (♂/19/)

That last line, you are telling me so much about you with that one!! You can see how this is discourse, right? Like if one side says you are a "symptom of modernity" you ofc respond with "this is how all guys are" and with callbacks to traditional culture.

The "bad" side has a lot of ruthless condemnation, with more than one call for the lolicons to simply die or labelling them worthless scum. The magazine's writers do try to keep the tone breezy but I do think this topic being actually contentious in the community pokes through here. Though this serious one really did undercut herself a bit at the end:

★ I can understand why one person of the same gender might feel admiration or affection for a child or young girl, but for a man to only be able to love much younger women? That’s a mental illness! If they aren’t willing to fix themselves, they might as well die. They’re enemies of women. It's not going to turn out like Nabokov's Lolita. (♀/20s/)

I mean they did also kill jesus Humbert Humbert in Lolita. that was a pretty significant thing that happened. like i understand where you’re coming from here but they very much did kill the Lolita guy.

There is an editorial at the end, and it echoes something one of the comments also states; that the lolicon boom was seen as coming from "hard" SF fans, the people who did the really nerdy stuff. There is a word they use actually which is neat: 根暗/Nekura, meaning someone with a "gloomy root". It began seeing use as a slang for hyper-serious, boorish people in the late 1970's and became a fad to use in precisely 1982 - here is a live record of that! They associate "hard SF" fans with these sort of gloomy types who can't take a joke or appreciate hanging out with the buds at a bar, that kind of thing. From there, and here I am reading between the lines, these fans like a sort of "idealistically sterile" world, and lolicon as a preference (in comparison to Real Adult Women) flows naturally.

I mention this because astute readers might be going "oh, like otaku?" and that word was only just buzzing around at this time - it is typically dated to 1983. The editorial writers note that these nekura-types are nowadays proud of that fact, wearing it like an identity:

A: I’m not really sure why, I don’t fully understand the inner workings of the SF world, but it’s like, out there, hardcore SF fans are considered gloomy. Maybe that’s why there’s this connection to lolicon? B: But surprisingly, everyone’s actually pretty cheerful. In today’s world, the 'dark and gloomy tribe' is trendy. It’s like they’re enjoying calling themselves gloomy, almost as a fashion statement.

So yeah, I can totally see proto-otaku discourse going on at the edges here.

There is a third page but it continues in a similar vein. A bunch of mentions of Hideo Azuma, who I am growing increasingly convinced was more of a lodestone for the lolicon boom than is currently appreciated - he is the ur-reference everyone makes. More discussion of girls in sailor uniforms as a gateway drug, yeah yeah, "is fine as long as its fiction", of course of course, one of the magazine editors remarking he wants "a wife for practical uses but a daughter as a pet" yeah okay we can call it we're done here, no more survey data anyway.

Not the topic I expected to find, but still this is really valuable "primary source data" - you can't trust the literary class fully on these things, having first hand quotes from community members on otaku culture in the era is always valuable.

Sorry if you got tricked into reading this - in my defense I did too!

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 1: The Mighty Atomic Prelude (The 50's and 60's)

Welcome to An Abbreviated History of Mecha anime. Today, we're starting at, as Fraulein Maria would say, at the very beginning. We're taking a quick peak at the beginning of the canon, which means that we're starting back in 1950 (specifically 1952). I should also confess right now: there are two series on here that are demonstrably NOT mecha shows. However, due to their sheer influence on Japanese media as a whole, I feel it is important to bring them up as being honorary mecha shows due to their sheer influence pop culture.

Tetsuwan Atom/Mighty Atom/Astro Boy (1952)

Starting us off is Osamu Tezuka's seminal manga series, Mighty Atom. Known over here in the west as Astro Boy, this series would be what kickstarts a lot of the modern anime and manga industry due to its sheer popularity. Astro Boy would also be one of two series that would be emblematic of how Japanese pop culture would portray the recent use of atomic energy. It should also be worth noting that realizing that Astro technically is a mecha is what got me to start using a broader definition of mecha instead of the classic giant robot definition.

Due to its fame, Mighty Atom has receive multiple adaptations throughout the years. Of note are:

The original 1963 anime.

New Mighty Atom (1980) which updates the series to 1980's animation standards.

The 2003 anime, which does the same, but to the standards of early 2000's anime.

The 2009 CGI movie.

Gojira/Godzilla (1954, honorary mecha series 1)

1954 would also give us Ishiro Honda's Godzilla, the movie that would make tokusatsu-styled live action stories in Japan. Godzilla, alongside RKO's King Kong, would play a large part in popularizing the concept of kaiju. And boy will kaiju play a big part in the history of the mecha canon. As we'll see soon enough, the history of tokusatsu heroes, kaiju, and robots are all intertwined with one another.

Godzilla has starred in numerous movies since the original, but for stories based off of the original there are:

Godzilla Raids Again (1955), a direct sequel.

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: All Out Monsters Attack (2001), a Heisei-era production that uses the original '54 Godzilla as a manifestation of the horrors of World War II.

Shin Godzilla (2016), a re-imagining of the original movie set in contemporary times directed by Hideakki Anno.

Godzilla Minus One (2023), the most recent outing inspired in part by GMK.

Tetsujin 28-go/Gigantor (1956)

(Oh hey, this gif again!)

Tetsujin 28-go is the creation of one Mitsuteru Yokoyama and is generally regarded as the grandfather of the giant robot style of mecha. Tetsujin is unique amongst mecha in that it is controlled not by a pilot riding inside of it, but by a little kid with a controller. Tetsujin 28, alongside Mazinger Z, would help to codify a lot of the tropes common to the classic superhero mecha anime that would be prevalent in the 70's. Like Mighty Atom, Tetsujin would receive multiple adaptations throughout the decades.

Shin Tetsujin 28-Go/The New Adventures of Gigantor (1980), which updates Tetsujin's design to look more in line with something like Mazniger Z.

Tetsujin 28-go FX (1992), sporting a radically different look that's more akin to something out of the Brave Franchise.

Tetsujin 28 (2004), a faithful adaptation of the original manga (at least I think it is) directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa.

Cyborg 009 (1964)

Created by Shotaro Ishinomori in 1964, Cyborg 009 is another classic human-sized mecha series. Cyborg 009 would be the first of many hits for Ishinomori, and he will be mentioned again later in this series.

Oh boy... I am not a Cyborg 009 nut, but in terms of adaptations, Cyborg 009 has:

The 1966 Film

The 1980 Film

009 Re:Cyborg (2012)

The Call For Justice Trilogy (2016)

The 1968 Anime

The 1979-1980 Anime

The 2001-2002 Anime (I actually remember when Toonami aired this series!)

Cyborg 009 vs Devilman (2015 OVA)

If you want to follow someone who follows a lot of Shotaro Ishinomori's works, I'd recommend checking out YouTuber Mercury Falcon for more info about Ishinomori.

Ultra Q and Ultraman (1966, honorary mecha series 2)

(The urge to use a gif of Ingraman is strong)

Ultra Q and Ultraman are the first two entries of Tsuburaya's legendary Ultra franchise, with the latter in particular being one of the most famous pop culture icons of all time. Ultraman's influence on Japanese media is so large, that I'll be mentioning it at least once in relation to other series later on.

Ultraman, like Godzilla before him, would get the Hideaki Anno treatment with Shin Ultraman in 2022.

Giant Robo/Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (1967)

Another one of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's classic manga series, Giant Robo deserves a mention due to its influence on tokusatsu. Giant Robo would usher in an era of tokusatsu that would rely on using giant robots as the main protagonist.

In terms of adaptations, there are two animated adaptations, but only one will be listed here:

GR: Giant Robo (2007)

If you want to learn a little bit more about the history behind Giant Robo, I'd recommend checking out blunova's video on Giant Robo for more info on this important series.

Conclusion

As the 60's would lead way into the 70's, we would see a lot more live action tokusatsu series involving giant robots. Of course, this would be untenable due to how expensive it was to do tokusatsu effects for television. However, one robot would appear in animation that would change everything.

(Read in the voice of Tessho Genda) AND ITS NAME IS...!!!!

[outofcontexttokusatsu]

People have been giving you crap for not liking Kingohger, and trust me I don't agree with you, but I am at least glad you're still watching it and giving it a shot. You even praised a cliffhanger! So, be honest: Do you think it'll be crap (in your opinion) beginning to end, or do you think this is just a weak opening introduction arc or what? Also, do you think that, regardless of the series's quality, that doing non-set-in-Tokyo series will be a good step forward for plot diversity?

Going to assume these anons are all from you as well based on the wording (and if not I apologize to you and those anons but for sake of convenience I'm going to lump them all together).

Honestly overall I wouldn't exactly care that much people disagree with me about the show since I've spent enough time online to deal with people disagreeing with me about media (hell Faiz is in my top 5 and people still treat that show like the plague), but because Certain People I Won't Name wanted to start a massive argument over it and seem convinced that they can bully me into changing my mind for some reason I feel compelled to keep my rebuttals up.

I didn't go in WANTING to hate it, I've never gone into a show expecting or wanting to hate it beyond maybe Saber and even that I gave it a fair shot. I made my post about it to keep the running joke going (which I planned to do anyways regardless of quality) and when asked I made my points very clear, and at the point of the writing the first 3 episodes all have the very same reaction from me: the CG is ugly and genuinely distracting, the cinematography and general production of the show is very bad and makes a lot of basic mistakes that Sentai has never really struggled with before (seriously how hard is it to make sure the lights on the actors match the lighting of the environment?) because they're putting the fancy new tech first, the writing ranges from being decent (I do like Gira's gimmick of just pretending to be a moron want to overthrow Racules as a despot but so far little is done with it) to bland (Yanma and Himeno end up being pretty one-note despite attempts to add a new layer to them, Bugnarok and Racules are 1980's JRPG levels of generic BBEG) and even decently written/acted scenes are ruined by terrible editing or throwing in LOLRANDUM wacky and zany shit to them (DUDE HACKING BATTLE LOL) that takes me out of it.

If it weren't for the excessive flashy CG and cool new projection theater stage tech being front and center it'd be a painfully average Sentai show that is exactly why Sentai has been flopping in ratings and sales since Gokaiger, nothing new is being done and there isn't anything to hook a viewer, and the toys are kinda boring looking too. Especially after the moldbreaking psycopathy of Zenkaiger and Donbrothers, that we've gone right back to the same shit as always rather than keep pushing the envelope in the areas that actually matter is the problem. I don't even want to say someone didn't "get" Donbros (although based on some of the arguments people keep raising to me they really didn't) or blame it on sensory overload like my initial post, definitely a bad choice in hindsight but I was self aware about that, but this obsessive defense really makes just no sense to me at all.

I don't set out to make myself as the true objective arbiter of taste despite the jokes I make, and you shouldn't treat my words as such. I'm just some goofy (insert gender here) dork on the Internet who has some modicum of attention on themselves. Jokes(tm) aside I don't put myself above or below anyone else, I've been an avid fan of tokusatsu for ages and gotten particularly deep into it, deeper than the average person for sure, but I don't use that to build a pedestal for myself. You like Kingohger? Good, I'm glad you find something in it I don't. I won't attack or insult you for liking something I don't or enjoying something that from an objective standpoint is not good content, excluding maybe Ghost but even then you do you weirdo. But I've made my point and will continue to make my point until the show ends or I give up, and no outside force will change that.

Basically, what I'm trying to say about my opinion is:

And to get back to your point, I don't WANT the show to be shit beginning to end and I really hope it isn't, but based on opening perception and knowing who's behind the scenes I have low hopes for the show improving. Knowing me I end up just watching the entire show out of spite at some point but I really am going in each week hoping each episode is the one that changes my mind. Hell, I stuck with Kyuranger longer than most and that ended up getting pretty good when Houou showed up so maybe whenever SixOhger drops the show gets that kick it needs but as it stands now I couldn't say. As for the alternate setting offering plot diversity, see it's too early to make a judgement but I don't really see it. The different kingdoms are all so drastic from one another and the bizarro Final Fantasy-eques schizotech levels put the show in a weird place where paradoxically the setting itself doesn't really matter much, if the show were confined in one specific kingdom or at least had each kingdom separated into different plot arcs I could see it - which it may end up doing who knows - but the approach it seems to be going for seems to make it irrelevant. Even then, Adult Concerns will eventually rear their ugly head and the show will go through some shift to where the unique setting is dispensed with to end up with the same 8-9 filming locations we always end up in, again with Kyuranger that set itself up as a cool spacefaring action-opera and then we park our asses on Earth 4 episodes in and spend nearly the entire show there and the few times we DO go offworld after we just end up at the same quarry and stream we always go to.

[canmom]

Animation Night 103: Toshiki Hirano

Hi friends! It’s a Thursday, and I hope you know what that means by now~

Next week: the two year anniversary of Animation Night! I’m aiming to get a commenting system up on my blog by then and do some of the cleanup tasks for the Animation Night archive.

Now, you like Animation Night and want it (and various other creative projects) to continue, please forgive me for humbly passing around the Patreon hat. The next week or two I’m going to be working on illustrating, and then releasing, a certain RPG setting with all sorts of things I like such as jelly alchemists, weird gender shit, and early-modern body horror, and I’ll be keeping you posted on there.

Anyway, on to this week’s event: lesbian apocalyptic sci-fi mecha OVAs from the 1980s.

Tonight on Animation Night, I have two of the earliest ‘big’ OVAs, back from when the new format was still an open question, which both became cult classics: Megazone 23 and Fight! Iczer One. And this writeup, I’m indebted to Youtube user MercuryFalcon, who put together a 30-minute video about Iczer-1’s production, and even more so the blog aaltomies, who wrote this impressively detailed retrospective.

We’ll begin with the erotic manga magazine Lemon People, which I believe I first talked about back on Animation Night 69 (now in its proper place in the Animation Night archive!), and the mangaka Rei Aran (阿乱 霊). Despite the long shadow that Lemon People’s work cast over the evolution of anime and manga styles, and Aran being active at their strongest period, Aran remains barely known outside of his work on Iczer One. Aaltomies writes that Aran was prone to overworking, and as a consequence, most of his works - including Fight! Iczer-1 and Galaxy Police Patrizer-3 (the latter running from 1983 to 1993).

You can see some of Aran’s work at the link above. He was a self-taught artist, working his way up through dōjin groups before submitting work to Lemon People at the suggestion of his friend Hariken Ryu. but here’s a cover he drew for the issue of Lemon People in which Iczer 1 debuted:

The jump to OVA came via Hariken Ryu’s college friend, Toshihiro Hirano (who’d later change his first name to Toshiki), who in 1982 had been working on Macross (Animation Night 64). Having yakked sufficent de culture, Ryu, Hirano and many Macross animators announced in ‘83 they would adapt Ryu’s 1982 manga Gekisatsu Uchuken (Space Punch) for TV, but it fell through. Meeting Aran, Hirano instead started talking about adapting Iczer, perhaps as one of these new-fangled OVAs...

The OVA format was still very new in 1985, and even in the bubble economy (c.f. Animation Night 34). The ball was supposed to start rolling Mamoru Oshii’s Dallos (1983), but when it flopped, the idea was postponed and Hirano went to work on other projects like Megazone 23 (1985). Planned as a 12-episode TV anime, funding was pulled and Megazone came out instead as an OVA, where in contrast to Dallos, it proved wildly successful. Suddenly adapting Iczer was back on the table for AIC, who gave Hirano the choice of what to adapt; he chose Iczer, and the first episode released that very same year.

Hirano is one of the major sources of the look of 80s anime, and yet he was slow to come around to the medium. (Drawing now on another retrospective on him here). Born in the 50s, Hirano was initially dismissive of anime, seeing it as inferior to his beloved manga; he changed his mind after seeing Toei’s The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (わんぱく王子の大蛇退治, Wanpaku Ōji no Orochi Taiji, 1963), which was I suppose you could say his sakuga awakening, but his biggest passion was tokusatsu, particularly Tōhō’s kaiju movies and TV series like Ultra Q and Ultraman. His interests drifted to Western movies, but he was pulled back in high school by the 70s era of tokusatsu (notably the original Kamen Rider) and early robot anime such as Mazinger Z.

This waxing and waning interest continued as he went to Tokyo Designer Gakuin College, falling in with a group of future mangaka including Hariken Ryu who shared his love for robots and toku. Still, it wasn’t as if he then ran straight for anime; he took a part-time job at Toei at university, drawing inbetweens for none other than Yoshinori Kanada (see Animation Night 62); he only gradually came around to working full-time at Toei.

As such, he is an artist whose passions are very straightforward: he wants to make stuff with the same feeling as tokusatsu; he likes drawing robots, superheroes, monsters and women he finds beautiful. He got his start at Toei only to find to his immense disappointment that he’d instead be working on a 200-episode historical series Ikiyu-san about a young Buddhist monk, which ran from ‘75 to ‘82. He absolutely hated the ~8 months he worked on this series, only finding relief drawing robots for Televi-kun magazine. Eventually he escaped to draw nigen [2nd key animation, aka tiedowns] of cars for a racing show Arrow Emblem: Hawk of the Grand Prix (1977) directed by Rintaro, which proved much more to his taste. This led him directly to work on Captain Harlock, drawing nigen for two episodes, particularly proud of his illustrations of the women antagonists in each. (Not sure if the following is one of Hirano’s...)

Next came inbetween checking on Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978) - it’s notable that here Toei were already outsourcing douga (cleanup and inbetweens) to South Korea, and Hirano’s job here was to fix those drawings or even fully redraw scenes that weren’t up to standard. This is where we can join (drink) Matteo Watzky’s account of the period here, as Hirano finally left Toei to found studio Beebow with Tomonori Kogawa, working as a subcontractor mainly for Sunrise, particularly on Space Runaway Ideon (see: Animation Night 88). There, we started to see some real breakthroughs in drawing characters with solid 3D form; Watzky points to this cut from the Ideon followup film Be Invoked.

Following this, Hirano launched another new studio, called Io, and it’s here his work on Macross takes place. Hirano was very frustrated with the corners the anime had to cut, but here he started rising to prominence for his animation of Linn Minmay, off the back of which he became one of the animation directors for the Macross film Do You Remember Love (Animation Night 64), made an episode director debut in the foundational ero-anime series Cream Lemon (Animation Night 69). DYRL was followed for the Macross team by Megazone 23, pitched as a sci-fi series Omega City 23 that ended up awkwardly compressed into an OVA film after a troubled production, yet this all found unexpected success on the sheer strength of the animation and style - much of that being Hirano’s character designs. (Notably, this film also featured the key animation work of Hideaki Anno.) Which brings us back up to Iczer One...

So what’s it about? We’ll start with Iczer One. Let’s put it this way: in 1983, throwing around the word Cthulhu wasn’t nearly so stale as it is today. It’s packed full of indulgent ideas and things that someone like Hirano would like: women, robots, body horror... and he made it even more so, making it much more lesbian centric. As not just the director but also the character designer

The story begins with a catgirl called Iczer-One - this is a catgirl of the classical anime big hair mode - who wishes to fight aliens called the Cthulhu (no relation, I think) who are attempting to take over the Earth by implanting mind control parasites. When Iczer foils this plan, they escalate to full-on military invasion. To fight back, Iczer needs a suitable ‘synchronisation partner’ to pilot her mecha... which she finds in a Japanese schoolgirl called Nagisa. The battle against the aliens rapidly escalates, destroying much of the planet that Iczer wished to defend.

And Megazone 23? It’s set in a far-future city deep in space, locked in a war with a rival megazone. The government of the eponymous Megazone 23 launch a plan to hack the city’s governing AI, EVE, and force it to participate in the war. In the midst of this is Shōgo Yahagi, who gets pulled into a complicated intrigue which reveals that, surprisingly enough, the government is full of lies and his world is some kind of simulation. The first two parts of the OVA series, released in 1985 and 86, tell the story of what happens to Shōgo, while the third, released in 1989 under the direction of Ichiro Itano (yep! the missile circus guy!), takes place after a centuries long time skip during which time Shōgo has undergone a serious heel turn. whoops, I got this mixed up: Itano directed the second episode in 86, and actually that’s a really interesting story in its own right which I’ll address in a followup post!

The animation is absolutely spectacular: you can totally see that this is the same team that made Macross DYRL, and it’s full of the ideas of the Kanada school taken to an absurd level of polish - like just look at this background animation, how??

I will admit, these are absolutely on the more indulgent end of OVAs and probably not going to offer deep meditations on the human condition, but they’re also a fantastic window into a period when the craft of animation was going through some seriously rapid development. It really is hard to overstate the difference in animation of 1980 and 1983: the drawings are more convincingly physical, rich in detail, move better; effects animation has completely transformed; the complex camerawork of people like Itano has come in. Nothing would be the same after.

Hirano would go on to make many more OVAs and films, both as a director and key animator which I may well address in the future; he would later fall in with the realists and work on Roujin Z and Akira, and work on Itano’s gory 90s OVAs like Battle Royal High School. And although his 80s designs sensibility went out of fashion, he is still very active in the anime industry today, most recently directing a Netflix-backed adaptation of the Grappler Baki martial arts manga just last year! Which is wild, because he is almost 70 years old at this point.

So if that all sounds fun, please join me at 7pm UK time at our usual place, twitch.tv/canmom! In the meantime, I will hopefully soon be live with some drawing of my own.

[himitsusentaiblog]

TOKUSATSU THURSDAY 3/25

This Thursday 7pm CST on Twitch Channel: himitsusentaiblog TOKUSATSU THURSDAY PRESENTS: SUKEBAN SHOWDOWN In the 1970s and 1980s Sukeban were gangs of rebel Schoolgirls who would alter their school uniforms and fight each other in violent conflicts. This gave rise to the Pinky Violence films of the late 70s and to manga like Sukeban Deka. This week we take a look at that era with a slight sidestep from the usual Tokusatsu to show 2 episodes each of 2 series featuring Rebel Schoolgirls. The first is 1985's SUKEBAN DEKA, the story of an infamous Sukeban blackmailed by the government into becoming a police agent, armed with a combat yo-yo she is tasked with infiltrating the one place the cops cannot go, High School! 

Our second series is SHOUJO COMMANDO IZUMI. Izumi was a normal girl until she was captured by the government and turned into a living weapon. Now, on the run from those who would use her for their own ends she seeks to reconnect with her lost past and battle a collection of increasingly bizarre enemies. Fortunately, she has something a bit more lethal than a Yo-Yo, a Rocket Launcher!

All this and episode 3 of KIKAI SENTAI ZENKAIGER!

[franco-ikari]

Hana no Asuka-gumi! depois do fracasso de Izumi a Toei retoma o velho estilo na série Sukeban mais insana e maravilhosa com todos os elementos que faltaram e porque as séries acabaram

O grande sucesso de Sukeban Deka motivou a Toei a querer seguir com a série mas como os atores tinham um contrato de um ano como de costume nas produções japonesas foi preciso a Toei fazer alterações drásticas e criar histórias originais com novos personagens nas duas temporadas seguintes,afinal era muito lucrativo séries Sukeban estreladas por idols. No entanto a quarta temporada desagradou o autor do mangá o Shinji Wada o que fez com que eles tivessem que criar uma nova série do zero apenas aproveitando o conceito de Idols interpretando Sukeban e assim nasceu Shoujo Commando Izumi que acabou falhando principalmente por retirar tudo que era mais legal dessa séries,porque ela é a que teve menos cara de Tokusatsu,sem aqueles exageros e coisas muito absurdas em sua narrativa,tendo um fim precoce com somente 15 episódios.Assim a Toei decidiu voltar as origens e resgatar os elementos que fizeram sucesso buscando outro mangá pra adaptar e o escolhido foi Hana No Asuka-Gumi! de Satosumi Takaguchi publicado entre 1980 e 85 e que curiosamente ganhou um OVA de 45 min pela Toei Animation em 1987,um ano antes desta série de Drama.E o fato curioso aqui é que este mangá apesar de protagonizado por uma Sukeban que usa uma arma incomum,ele não se parece nada com Sukeban Deka que mais parecia um mangá Shonen publicado numa revista Shoujo.E como vocês devem saber um mangá Shonen ou que se parece com um tem muitos elementos narrativos em comum com o Tokusatsu e a Toei quando fez sua adaptação em Drama ela colocou muitos dos elementos narrativos e características de um Tokusatsu nele,e embora sejam diferentes não ficam muito distantes. Asuka-gumi tanto em mangá quanto em anime é uma obra sobre Sukeban porém ela tem um estilo ais sério e boêmio,é um pouco mais ´pé no chão e soturno.então a Toei teve que modificar completamente o conceito da obra original mantendo o nome,os personagens,alguns conceitos mas fazendo algo muito mais próximo do estilo de Drama com elementos de Tokusatsu de Sukeban Deka e o resultado é a série mais insana já feita do estilo e não estou brincando.Na obra original temos brigas de gangues por dominio mas é algo mais próximo do real por assim dizer,tem sim,uns exagerinhos mas nada fora do comum.O Drama já faz algo completamente louco onde nesse mundo de Hana no asuka-gumi temos uma escola chamada Zanchuura dominada por Sukebans e essa quer dominar as outras escolas.Essa escola é liderada por uma garota calada que se veste de lolita e tem uma boneca nas mãos chamada Hibari,tal qual o mangá,porém aqui ela tem um estilo que mistura conceitos do Sengoku Jidai(a era Sengoku do japão Feudal) com Sukeban pois as suas generais usam acessórios em seus uniformes qe são partes de endumentárias que os generais samurai usavam no Japão Feudal.E como se isso não fosse o bastante,uma delas,chamada Kurenai veste uma armadura montada em um cavalo e anda em plena cidade como se fosse a coisa mais normal do mundo(na versão original ela é uma garota mascarada que comanda corvos é praticamente outra personagem),e a Hibari tenta dar uma de Oda Nobunaga tentando unificar s escolas e tendo controle total do Japão,pelo menos entre as gangues de Sukeban,o que é insano e maravilhoso do jeito que nós principalmente fãs de Tokusatsu gostamos,com aquele exagero,diálogos grandiloquentes e colegiais usando armas incomuns e estranhas que muitas vezes são coisa inofensivas que viram armas letais nas mãos delas. Aí você deve estar se perguntando:mas como elas fazem tudo isso?e a policia?e os professores e adultos?bom,temos uns professores aparecendo aqui e ali,mas vamos ser sinceros,quem é que teria coragem de encarar uma garota colegial capaz de saltar mais de 5 metros e mandar um Rider Kick em você?ninguém em sã consciência ia se meter,elas que se virem nesse mundo louco e maravilhoso de Asuka-gumi! a mãe da Asuka tem uma personalidade bem infantil e acha que ela um anjo que não está metida em brigas,sempre querendo que ela use roupas fofas,é um barato.

Antes de falar da trama um aviso importante: Asuka-gumi não tem legendas em qualquer idioma então os detalhes da história podem ser um pouco diferentes então vou explicar mais ou menos o que dá pra entender dela.A trma começa quando Asuka e sua amiga estavam indo a escola até que Kurenai chega montada em seu cavalo exigindo que a escola fique sobre domínio da Zanchura. Todos tentam resistir porque a escola está livre do domínio de Sukeban porém obviamente a resistência não é uma opção. Asuka e sua amiga são hostilizadas pelos demais por serem responsáveis por resistirem e Asuka caba ficando em coma por conta disso,ela é achada desacordada em casa.Aí aparece seu avô no hospital e diz que Asuka não pode tombar ali e ela precisa despertar seu espirito de guerreira e almejar coisas maiores então ela ergue seu punho e acorda uma pessoa completamente diferente,mais forte  e durona,uma quase Samurai.No entanto sua amiga foi morta pelo Zanchura deixando pra trás sua moeda de ouro que agora vai se tornar na arma incomum mais letal de todos os tempos nas mãos de Asuka que agora vai libertar as outras escolas do controle de Zanchura e ter sua vingança. Curiosamente é algo meio parecido com o mangá Otoko Zaka do Masami Kurumada que foi publicado nos anos 80 e que não deu certo naquela época. Junto dela estão Miko,uma garota de outra escola que se interessa por Asuka,parece um clichê de séries do tipo, ela luta com aquelas bolsas de corda e Harumi a presidente do conselho estudantil que é bem inteligente e sempre tem uns planos meio malucos pra tentar atrapalhar Zachura. E Asuka tem várias adversárias ,cada uma com um m��todo mais louco de combate como uma que luta com Pernas de Pau. Realmente não sei como ela faz isso mas faz.Mas a coisa mais doida é quando uma Asuka que veio do futuro perseguindo uma andróide surge na série tentando linkar com o filme de Asuka-gumi que falarei mais adiante mas que se passa num futuro mais a frente e é totalmente diferente da série. Algumas vilãs como as Shitennou da Hibari(uma delas é a atriz Mika Chiba,a Tomoko do Cybercop) acabam simpatizando com Asuka e mudam de lado.No final Asuka vai libertando os territórios controlado pela Zanchura um a um até a batalha final onde elas atacam a escola e caem num armadilha onde tudo explode e Harumi é raptada fazendo Asuka recuar pelo acontecimento com sua amiga que morreu,fazendo ela não ir ao resgate dela(o esquisito é onde estão os pais da garota que nem aparecem procurando a filha,apesar de Hibari parecer ser bem rica e poderosa podendo encobrir suas ações é bem estranho) até que ela finalmente reune coragem pra resgata-la e cara a cara com Hibari ela quebra sua boneca e diz que as pessoas não são bonecos que ela pode manipular a seu bel prazer,eles tem coração e essa foi a bandeira do lema da Asuka-gumi desde o começo,fazendo a vilã ficar em choque e tudo termina com o mundo das Sukeban livres da Zachuura.

Asuka-gumi por ter toda aquelas loucuras quase Tokusatsu já é muito melhor que Izumi,e ainda tem o carisma das personagens e a relação delas,que geram muitas cenas cômicas,porém todo aquele impressionante início não segue por toda a série e ela acaba não crescendo e vai se sustentando apenas com o carisma delas,faltando ter uma trama bem elaborada como Sukeban Deka. Não sei se eles planejavam fazer uma série longa mas ela acabou com 23 episódios e fez algum sucesso,Megumi Osaka inclusive começou a fazer os filmes da era Heisei do Godzilla e tendo um sucesso na carreira musical. Mas a sensação que a série poderia ter feito mais fica.

O filme

Lembram que eu falei de uma outra Asuka que surge num episódio vindo do futuro no melhor estilo Exterminador do Futuro impedir que uma andróide mate a Asuka do passado?pois bem na série é dito que é uma outra dimensão e durante o flashback é mostrada imagens com tarjas de cinema,essas são imagens do filme e esse episódio foi uma espécie de meio de promove-lo bem antes dos filmes crossover de Tokusatsu. Porém eu imaginei que era um futuro louco meio Cyberpunk estilo Exterminador mesmo porém quando fui conferir esse filme lançado em setembro de 1988 eu tive uma surpresa chocante: esse filme não tem absolutamente NADA  a ver nem com a série e nem com a própria participação das personagens do filme na série,é algo completamente diferente.Esqueça qualquer coisa de Sukeban Show,de estilo Tokusatsu,esse filme é pesado,violento,REALISTA,e ele mostra pessoas usando drogas explicitamente e nenhuma loucura dos shows de TV,é como aqueles filmes de gangues pesados e violentos como o Go For Broke,um filme japonês de 1985.só pra se ter uma idéia nem o mangá ou os OVAs que tem um estilo bem mais sério são como esse filme e fiquei imaginando porque raios a Toei fez uma propaganda do filme na série sendo que o público alvo é totalmente diferente?imagina uma adolescente fã da série indo no cinema e vendo esse filme com cenas de pessoas usando drogas,armas de fogo,sangue e gente morta,prostituição rolando solta?ficaria traumatizada. E quando você vê na série pensa que vai ser algo parecido com aquilo e tem essa surpresa. Na história temo temos Asuka,Miko e Hibari mas não são as mesmas personagens e nem as mesmas atrizes que interpretam os papéis.No ano de 199X Hibari comanda gangues no Japão que se tornou um aquase completa anarquia e nem a policia consegue ser páreo pras inúmeras gangues e pra resistir a isso temos a Asuka,aqui não tem moeda dourada,ela apenas usa sua bravura pra espancar gangues reais por aí.Outra personagem nova é Yoko a irmã menor de Miko que mergulha nesse mundo de gangues e drogas diferente da irmã que luta contra isso. Hibari é bem mais sinistra,ela usa um aparelho pra aumentar a voz,já que e ela não consegue falar alto.O filme possui momentos trágicos e pesados.Se você é fã dos Sukeban Showa como eu e queria ver um filme estilo dos de Sukeban Deka que preservam a estética narrativa e continuidade da série o melhor é ignorar esse filme,ao menos ele mostra a diferença entre um ponto de vista realista e um fantástico. 

Hana no Asuka-gumi! Neo! (2009)

Existe um mangá com esse nome mas nãos sei dizer se ele é baseado nesse mangá,já que poucas e escassas informações sobre eles são encontradas,só sei que ele é um reboot da série e não uma sequencia como foi com Sukeban Deka Codename Saki Asamiya de 2005 e na história Asuka aqui interpretada ela Yuko Takayama(a Rinko de Kamen Rider Wizard) que acaba envolvida numa briga de gangues com uma garota chamada Yohko Kijima e ela se torna a Sukeban mais forte da cidade se envolvendo com Hibari e sua gangue Zanchuura assim como nas outras encarnações.Então ela se junta a gangue Omoteban pra enfrentar a Zanchuura. Esse filme não tem pra assistir em lugar nenhum e a maioria dos sites tem links bugados ou cadastros bugados então infelizmente é tudo que se tem pra falar sobre ele.

E com isso chegou o fim a era das Sukeban Series. O movimento das Sukeban foi desaparecendo da sociedade no fim dos naos 80 e nos 90 então não era chamativo fazer mais séries do tipo.No entanto a Toei importou a idéia de usar Idols em ascensão estrelando séries com sua Fushigi Comedy Series dessa vez usando outro boom dos anos 80 que eram os animes de Mahou Shoujo então ter Idols interpretando Mahou Shoujos poderia ser lucrativo e assim surgiram séries como Paipai,Ipanema,Poitrine e Thutmose. Essas séries chegaram ao fim com Yuugen Jikkou Sister Shushutorian que mais tarde foi homenageada em Kakuranger com as atrizes do show participando, reprisando as personagens porém com uniforme escolar como referencia a quem começou essa onda de séries de Idol,as séries Sukeban. Como Sailor moon era mais lucrativo a Toei decidiu encerrar a franquia. Ao longo doa naos essa pratica perdurou com séries adultas com muito fanservice exibiidas na madrugada como Kamen Tenshin Rosetta e Jikuu Keisatsu Wecker e as séries Mahou Shoujo renasceram como Girls X Heroines pela Takara Tommy feitas pro público infantil e com grupos de Idols formado pelas atrizes da série.Porém as Sukeban seriam revividas nos anos 2010 pelas AKB48,vários filmes com o tema ressurgiram e até o anime Kill La Kill inspirado nesse gênero foi produzido,mas isso é assunto pra um próximo post.Aguarde.

Finalizando Asuka-gumi a série de TV é muito boa,melhor que Hangyaku Doumei e Izumi porém é bem inferior a Sukeban Deka mas garante boa diversão e loucuras. Megumi Osaka ficou famosa por ter feitos vários filmes de Godzilla na era Heisei e tem várias boas músicas dela na série e facilmente encontrada por aí.

[shewasanamericangirl]

kamen rider super-1 review

i’m sure you’ve all heard of the “joe odagiri effect”, named for the protagonist of 2000′s kamen rider kuuga. well, just because the term got its name from a heisei rider doesn’t mean it wasn’t something toei was well aware of and banking on as early as 20 years before.

not only did super-1′s face actor shunsuke takasugi get plenty of fanservicey footage and female attention, he achieved infamy in 2013 for scamming his fangirls out of millions of yen under false pretenses. that right there is the power of kamen rider sex appeal--as well as a truly disgusting case of a tokusatsu hero who failed to learn the moral lessons of tokusatsu, and indeed, who lived long enough to become a real-life villain.

now that the ugly part is out of the way, let’s talk about the show itself.

i really want to be positive about this but man, super-1 didn’t age well. obviously 1980 didn’t have anything like the super shiny visual effects we’re spoiled with by modern tokusatsu series, but super-1 was pretty recognizably low-budget and not all that well written either.

plot: the premise, while kind of goofy, endearingly brings to mind the kind of story idea an excited small child would come up with (not a bad thing!). kazuya oki, an orphan brought up in a high-tech american science lab, volunteers to be the test subject for their project to develop a cyborg kamen rider specialized for space exploration. not long after his body is remodeled, however, a monster and a bunch of androids attack and destroy the lab. unable to transform into his rider form without the help of the lab’s equipment, kazuya does the logical thing and travels to japan to spend six months training as a shaolin monk. but hey, it works! then kazuya goes to hang out at a motorcycle shop run by tani, a man who apparently knew his parents. i found it interesting that kazuya volunteered to receive his abilities, and that he had to train to develop the ability to transform.

...and from then on out, it’s monster of the week. the first half of super-1 has a special focus on martial arts, while the second goes more into introducing new ally characters who do detective work to help out super-1. a couple times the first half attempts heartfelt plotlines and relatable villains, but they all end the same way: with the obligatory flying kick and explosion. episode 22 stood out as having a decent emotional plot, at least. the second half of the series, on the other hand, distinguishes itself more with its absurd monsters and inter-villain drama, and its most memorable episodes are the ones featuring monsters and gambits too silly to forget.

characters: yknow, in the first half of super-1, i actually got attached to the silly-looking robot mooks more than anything else; i liked the bwooping noises the dogma fighters made, and the hilariously casual robot gore and dummy-based violence they suffered each episode.

however, that’s, um...in absence of any really engaging characters. kazuya’s bland. his monk buddies are generic. the rest are either comic relief or just more blandness. in the second half, the junior rider squad (an amateur detective club of super-1 fans) forms, and super-1 faces off against the new villainous group, jin dogma...which has nothing to do with the original dogma other than having reprogrammed their mooks. jin dogma has a bit of saucy infighting that reminded me of the vyram from choujin sentai jetman, but if you want fun villains with drama, jetman and toQger do it better.

honestly, masaru from the junior rider squad is the only motherfucker on this whole show who can handle me. poor little dude is smarter than he looks, but generally just gets picked on by the rest of the kids. can be hilariously deadpan at times. i’m tickled by the thought that this widdle baby here must be like in his mid-40′s by now.

music: the opening theme is a catchy and fun earworm. the ending themes are okay. insert songs, no big deal. incidentals, hit and miss.

choreography: some of it’s good, some of it’s awful. the more realistic martial arts techniques are cool, and some of the goofy weapons used in the second half are fun. (the episode where most of the fighting involves ladders was awesome!) super-1′s bouncing and midair twirling before he kicks...rule of cool i guess? most lulzily awkward is the many instances of obvious dolls getting the shit beaten out of them. super-1 does not look strong for beating up what’s effectively a man-sized sock monkey...more suit actors/stuntmen must’ve been outside budget constraints.

visuals: the main reason i chose super-1 to watch was that his suit looked cool. it does! but most other costumes are pretty miserable--especially with the preponderance of dogma/jin dogma monsters who only have distinguishing features on the top half of their bodies and just wear plain tights and boots on the bottom half. at least harumi and masako, the designated cute girls of the series, get some cute clothing to wear, and the fit of kazuya’s pants tends to be, um, flattering.

visual effects are pretty lame. i really don’t know enough about this stuff to tell how much of that is because it was 1980 and how much is because this show was made on the cheap.

all told, i’m not recommending super-1. i’m sure it was great to watch way back when as a japanese kid in 1980 with not much else on tv, but anyone watching it now is going to have a wide selection of past tokusatsu series to choose from, and super-1 just doesn’t have anything that other series haven’t done better. i’m glad i watched, though, because i really wanted (and still want) to learn more of what showa rider series were like.

if i pick up another showa rider series, i’m thinking of stronger or x, since they look like they have some awesome monsters. but for now, the next series i plan to watch is OOO! it looks like another fun and colorful series, and i was psyched to find out that the lead writer is yasuko kobayashi of ryuki and toQger, both series i loved to bits!

[tokuherosuits]

Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black Sun.

[aion-rsa]

Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and the Legacy of Ninja Movies

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This article contains Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins spoilers.

It’s been a long time since we’ve been to the movies and an even longer time since we’ve seen a ninja flick on the big screen. Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins is a dazzling return to the underrated ninja genre – a breakout premiere in the shadow of the pandemic. 

Ninja films rarely earn a theatrical showing anymore. They are pigeon-holed as B-grade movie fodder, and justifiably so. Back in the 1980, ninja films proliferated when second and third-run movie theaters ruled. Campy, low budget ninja pictures were popular fare there back then, right alongside slasher films and teen sex comedies. But with the advent of home entertainment, those cheap flea-ridden theater seats atop soda-sticky floors are long gone. Nowadays, most new ninja films go straight to streaming so to see one on the big screen is quite a treat for fans of the genre.

Above and beyond the G.I. Joe franchise, Snake Eyes rides on the cloak tails of a massive colorful genre (even if that color is mostly black splattered with sanguineous red). In Japan, ninja films are part of their venerated cinematic category known as Jidai-geki, or “period dramas.” Silent Japanese movies about ninjas can be found as early as the 1910s – silent like Snake Eyes himself. 

Ninjas still proliferate Japanese cinema, especially in anime. Who can deny the impact of Naruto? And as anyone who has seen it knows – Batman Ninja is an uncommon treat of an anime mash-up. There are literally hundreds of Japanese ninja films – anime, classic historical, modern depictions, tokusatsu stories, even a whole sub-genre of erotic ninja films. 

And ninja movies are still popular in Japan. In 2019, director Yoshitaka Yamaguchi delivered his highly regarded dual ninja films, Last Ninja: Red Shadow and Last Ninja: Blue Shadow. Like Snake Eyes, that was a creation story circling around a ninja rivalry. 

Early Hollywood Ninja Movies

The immigration of ninjas to Hollywood goes back to none other than James Bond. In 1967, You Only Live Twice introduced Bond (Sean Connery in his final appearance as 007 in an Eon Production) to a clan of ninja accomplices. The film marked a significant departure from Ian Fleming’s original novel. You Only Live Twice was the conclusion of Fleming’s “Blofeld trilogy” where Bond finally gets revenge on his arch nemesis and murderer of his bride. Bond finally tracks down Blofeld in Japan, hiding in his “Garden of Death,” a restored castle surrounded by poisonous plants, and dispatches him in a brutal sword fight. 

The movie script was written by children’s book author Roald Dahl, who pirated the plot of the second book of the Blofeld trilogy, Thunderball, in which SPECTRE steals a missile, but instead of atomic bombs, it’s a manned spacecraft. In retrospect, it felt right to have Her Majesty’s top assassin introduce Japan’s elite killers to Western audiences. 

In 1975, celebrated action director Sam Peckinpah reintroduced Western audiences to ninjas in Killer Elite. James Caan and Robert Duvall play former covert operative partners, Mike Locken and George Hansen. Again akin to Snake Eyes, Locken and Hansen are split by a vengeance-filled rivalry. Hansen is in cahoots with a ninja clan, led by Negato Toku, played by renowned real-life Karate master Takayuki Kubota. Kubota invented a popular self-defense keychain that he dubbed Kubotan and instructed many celebrities, notably Martin Kove who plays Kreese in Cobra Kai. Sadly, Peckinpah succumbed to cocaine during production and Killer Elite is regarded by many critics as his worst film. 

The 1980s: The Golden Age of Ninja Movies

The addition of Snake Eyes into the G.I. Joe universe came as a reboot of the toys that reflected the times. Originally G.I. Joe dolls were 12” military figures that were introduced in the 1960s. These were reality-based figures, each emulating the authentic uniforms and gear of U.S. armed forces. In 1982, the toy line was rebooted at 3 ¼” scale, the same size as the popular Star Wars figures introduced in the late 70s. 

These new G.I. Joe came out with an accompanying marketing plan that included a simultaneous comic series from Marvel that revealed the rivalry between the “Real American Hero” G.I. Joe team and the villainous terrorist organization known as Cobra. The campaign was so successful that the first animated G.I. Joe TV show came out the following year. 

And at the movies, the great ninja wave began with Chuck Norris’ 1980 flick The Octagon. Regarded as one of his stronger films, Norris played Scott James, a retired Karate champion, who has to face his rival half-brother, the ninja terrorist Seikura, played by another renowned Karate master, Tadashi Yamashita. Yamashita is credited as the man who taught Bruce Lee how to use his signature nunchaku. Norris opened the door for the ninja invasion of the ‘80s with The Octagon, as well as inspired the UFC’s trademarked octagonal ring, The Octagon, which has become a hallmark of the brand.

Following Norris’ lead, Sho Kosugi emerged as the leading ninja in grindhouse cinema. He starred in a series of ninja films beginning in 1981 with his preposterous yet entertaining “Ninja Trilogy,”  Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and my personal favorite, Ninja III: The Domination (although most feel his 1985 film Pray for Death which falls outside the trilogy was his ninja masterpiece). 

The other leading ninja franchise of the eighties was the American Ninja pentalogy. Michael Dudikoff played Private Joe Armstrong in a franchise which echoed the paramilitary ninja connection from G.I. Joe. In the first film, Armstrong faced the Black Star Ninja, seeing Tadashi Yamashita once again playing a ninja baddie. 

Dudikoff was an exception to the rule that ninja film leads must have a martial arts background. However he was athletic and a quick study, and became a dedicated practitioner from his involvement with the franchise. Dudikoff starred in three of American Ninja films. He skipped American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt because he didn’t want to get typecast as a martial arts actor and was anti-apartheid (it was filmed in South Africa). He returned for American Ninja 4: The Annihilation but didn’t appear in American Ninja V. Both Kosugi’s films and American Ninja franchise were produced by that goliath grindhouse of the eighties, Cannon Films. They made ample bank slinging ninja films back then.

The ‘80s ninja craze helped inspire G.I. Joe’s Snake Eyes, and he quickly rose to become a favorite character. The pivotal G.I. Joe comic issue #21, “Silent Interlude,” was published in 1984 (coincidentally the same year the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was released). This was one of the first modern comics to be told entirely without word bubbles. It helped set the tone of silence for Snake Eyes’ character. That issue also marked the first appearance of Storm Shadow. 

As with all comic-to-cinema characters, Snake Eyes has several incarnations, depending upon which story you follow. In the comic canon, Snake Eyes suffers a horrible helicopter crash while saving Scarlett’s life. His face is burned and he loses his voice, something very different than what we see on screen in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. 

Meanwhile, Hong Kong was getting into the action by infusing Kung Fu movies with ninjas. Leading the charge was the ultimate martial arts rivalry between China and Japan, 1978’s Challenge of the Ninja (a.k.a. Heroes of the East) in 1978, Veteran Kung Fu star Gordon Liu played Ho Tao, who must match his skills against his Japanese bride’s family. Got ninjas? According to Liu, the solution is scattering your yard with peanut shells! 

In a savvy move for those times, Challenge of the Ninja depicts the Japanese respectfully instead of as caricatured villains, with the exception of the ninja who Ho declares to be dishonorable. Challenge of the Ninja is widely considered as one of the all-time best Kung Fu films and in its wake, dozens more ninja films came out in Hong Kong and Taiwan.  

In 1982, the legendary Kung Fu grindhouse Shaw Brothers studios delivered the outrageously imaginative Five Elements Ninjas, directed by the legendary Chang Cheh who dominated the Kung Fu film genre with his gloriously bloody epics. 

The last major ninja film that was released theatrically in the United States was Ninja Assassin in 2009 (coincidentally the same year that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra came out). It was James McTeigue’s second directorial effort following V for Vendetta, and starred K-pop singer and dancer, Rain. For ninja fans, it had a fitting homage by casting Sho Kosugi as the villain. Ninja Assassin was Kosugi’s final theatrical film role to date. The film hoped to continue as a new ninja franchise, and although it was profitable, it failed to attract enough of a following to warrant a sequel. 

The Rise of Snake Eyes

It’s a bold move for Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins to premiere exclusively in theaters. Not even Black Widow was so daring with the Delta variant looming. As theaters reopen, it seems telling that several of the first theatrical films coming out are about stealthy martial arts masters. 

You could argue that Natasha Romanoff is an MCU ninja (Elektra is the real Marvel ninja but Jennifer Garner’s film doesn’t count in the MCU “sacred timeline”). You could also argue that Mortal Kombat is a ninja movie. Both have black clad assassins wielding martial arts weapons. 

However Snake Eyes is a pure ninja film, unabashed and unapologetic in its style and gratuitousness. Regardless of its G.I. Joe origins, the Joes are peripheral. Snake Eyes evades that with a glorious reboot, shifting away from the canon established in the previous two live-action G.I. Joe films and forging its own path.

Snake Eyes is Hasbro’s Batman Begins. It’s a completely novel creation story for the characters that defies what the film franchise has already established. The origin story of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow was already told in the first film, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. While not the central tale, it was a significant story arc that forecasted how the ninjas would eventually eclipse the Joe’s paramilitary characters in popularity. 

In Paramount’s previous G.I. Joe films, Wushu champion Ray Park played the silent Snake Eyes, and taekwondo practitioner Lee Byung-hun was Storm Shadow. Byung-hun is constantly twirling a shuriken like a fidget-spinner, predating the 2017 fad by eight years. Park never speaks or shows his face, in character with the Snake Eyes of the comics. Their teacher the Hard Master is played by another real life martial arts master Gerald Okamura. 

The sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation added another ninja, Kim Arashikage, a.k.a. Jinx, played by Elodie Yung, a black belt in Karate. Yung went on to play Elektra in Netflix’s Daredevil. The standout act was a thrilling ninja battle while rappelling down a Himalayan cliffside. That show-stopping scene put the sequel above the original film, especially if you saw it in 3D IMAX. In a sneaky way, the ninja story arc creeps up on the G.I. Joe films from behind, and now it’s all about those ninjas. 

Bringing Ninjas Back

Compared to the CGI bombast of the earlier two films, Snake Eyes has cool cinematic style, bathed in Tokyo neon and split with flashing katana blades. And when it comes to action, it cuts quickly to the chase. Like any good ninja flick, there’s just enough plot to get to the next sword fight, no more, no less. And in contrast to previous outings, Snake Eyes tells a completely different origin story for the mysterious Snake Eyes. 

In this reboot, Snake Eyes (Henry Golding) and Thomas Arashikage (Andrew Koji) meet as adults, not as children. The Hard Master is played by Iko Uwais, a genuine master of the Indonesian martial art of Silat. A practitioner of Taekwondo and Shaolin Kung Fu, Koji best known as Ah Sahm, the lead role in the Bruce Lee inspired Cinemax series Warrior. 

Like Dudikoff decades ago, Golding had no martial arts background prior to accepting the role. Once he landed it, the Crazy Rich Asians star spent four hours a day training with the stunt team in preparation. 

With the exception of Golding, the casting of genuine martial arts practitioners underscores a critical element in ninja films. Ninja films are about martial arts fights. No matter how good the story and acting might be, a ninja film fails if it doesn’t bring great action. Consequently for a ninja film to work, it needs a cast with a genuine martial arts background. 

Golding makes up for his lack of skills with his smoldering screen presence, but much credit must be given to the film’s fight coordinator, Kenji Tanigaki. Tanigaki is one of Asia’s top choreographers who has been in the business since the mid ‘90s. Just prior to Snake Eyes, he oversaw the action on Donnie Yen’s last two films, Enter the Fat Dragon and Big Brother, and completed two more installments of the five-part samurai manga-turned-movie series Rurouni Kenshin. 

Snake Eyes is poised to spin off into its own franchise. The end credits scene with Storm Shadow declaring his new identity to the Baroness (Úrsula Corberó) was hardly a surprise to anyone, but it teased the possibility of a sequel. Back in May 2020, Paramount and Hasbro were in negotiations with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse to write the script, but then the world plunged into the pandemic and no more developments have been announced at this writing. Will the sequel be Snake Eyes’ The Dark Knight? For ninja fans all over the world, we can only hope. 

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Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins is now playing in theaters.

The post Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and the Legacy of Ninja Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Addendum 1: Assemble the Forces!

Welcome to the first addendum to An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Today, we'll be looking at some of the media that came out in the 70's and before. A lot of the shows covered here are ones that were fairly big in their own right, especially when compared to the juggernauts of the era like Ultraman, Mazinger Z, and Getter Robo. What should also not surprise anyone with a lot of the shows listed here is that a bunch of the shows listed here have one Go Nagai and Dynamic Planning attached to them in some manner.

Because of course he is.

And I should note: unlike in An Abbreviated History of Mecha proper, the addendums will not be listing these entries in chronological order. This primarily because a) I need to get back into the groove of writing one-off posts (especially after The Devil That is Capitalism), and b) there are a lot of things that slipped out of the cracks, and I treasure my sanity.

Anyways, let's get down to brass tacks.

Daiku Maryu Gaiking (1976) and Gaiking: The Legend of Daiku Maryu (2005)

Daiku Maryu Gaiking (or Dino Mech Gaiking) is a 1976 giant robot series known for having plots take place in real world locations outside of Japan and also for featuring the first ever use of a carrier ship for the titular giant robot Gaiking. Gaiking is also somewhat infamous due to Toei trying their absolute hardest not to pay Go Nagai since he and Dynamic Planning created the series.

Toei would revisit Gaiking in 2005 with the release of Gaiking: the Legend of Daiku Maryu, which would feature a largely unchanged Gaiking and Daiku Maryu but feature a completely different main character.

Kotetsu Jeeg/Steel Jeeg (1975) and Kotetsushin Jeeg (2007)

Created by Go Nagai immediately following the success of Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger, Kotetsu Jeeg alongside its sibling series UFO Robot Grendizer would help to cement Nagai's legacy as one of the big mecha creators in the canon. Kotetsu Jeeg would receive a sequel in 2007, Kotetsushin Jeeg. The sequel was directed by Jun Kawagoe of Getter Robo Armageddon and Mazinkaiser SKL fame and features JAM Project performing the OP Stormbringer.

In other words, Kotetsu Jeeg beat Mazinger Z to the punch with the distant sequel. Or I guess you could say it beat Mazinger Z to the rocket punch?

Eh? Get it? No? Okay...

Planetary Robot Danguard Ace (1977)

Danguard Ace is one of the many mecha shows that came out in the wake of giants like Mazinger Z and Getter Robo. This series is noteworthy for being Leiji Matsumoto's first and only foray into the giant robot genre of mecha.

And hey, guess who's currently the owner of the Danguard Ace property?

It's Go Nagai and Dynamic Planning.

Abassador Magma (1965)

Ambassador Magma is a manga series created by Osamu Tezuka. It would also receive a tokusatsu series shortly after, with one of its big accomplishments being that it would be the first tokusatsu series aired in color. Specifically, it would beat honorary mecha show Ultraman to the punch by about six days.

Invincible Robot Trider G7 (1980)

Something to always keep in mind with the history of mecha is that Mobile Suit Gundam was not initially a hit. Invincible Robot Trider G7 serves as a good reminder of this, as it was an anime series produced by Sotsu (as in the very same Sotsu that also produced the original Gundam alongside Sunrise). Airing at around the same time as Space Runaway Ideon, Trider G7 would mark the beginning of giant robots being used in the deep recesses of space alongside Ideon.

Future Robot Daltanious (1979)

I couldn't find a good gif for Daltanious without watching the series myself, so we'll have to make do with this promotional image instead.

Future Robot Daltanious is a 1979 anime series that had Tadao Nagahama as its original director for its first couple of episodes before he left to direct the seminal Shoujo series The Rose of Versailles (a series that really should be treated as an honorary mecha series due to its influence on anime and manga as a whole). Even though he only worked on the series for about thirteen episodes and passed away before he could come back to work on it, Daltanious is still treated as one of his shows alongside Combattler V, Voltes V, and Daimos.

Daltanious is also an important series for those familiar with the Brave franchise, as Daltanious is the design inspiration for both Exkaiser and GaoGaiGar.

Super Robot Red Baron (1973) and Super Robot Mach Baron (1974)

Super Robot Red Baron would come onto the scene in 1973 as the giant robot tokusatsu shows would wane in abundance due to their expensive natures. Red Baron, and later its sequel series Mach Baron, would serve as a sort of swan song as it would also have to compete with one Mazinger Z for the hearts of children all across Japan. Giant robot tokusatsu wouldn't go away altogether though, and we'd see this with the next and arguably one of the weirdest entries both here and in the canon of comic book history.

Toei Spider-Man (1978)

In cooperation with Marvel Comics (yes really), Toei would put out their own version of Spider-Man towards the end of the 70's. Note that this is specifically in a post-Kamen Rider/Super Sentai world, so Spider-Man in this series is less "quippy teenager living up to his uncles words about great power and great responsibility" and more "the warrior of hell fighting aliens" (although, I'm pretty sure either Peter Parker or Miles Morales have fought the forces of hell at this point).

Also Spider-Man in the Toei series pilots a giant robot named Leopardon to fight giant alien monsters. This may be funny, but Leopardon is important because it is what inspires Super Sentai to include giant robots in all of their future shows.

Also, to the folks at Marvel. Sony and the production crew behind the Spiderverse films: when are we going to get Toei Spider-Man in the Spiderverse films?

Jumbo Machinder/Shogun Warriors

Image source: Shogun Warriors unofficial website

Finally, to round out today's post, how could I not mention the Jumbo Machinder line of toys. All jumbo machinder was was a line of toys based off of popular giant robot shows like Mazinger Z, Gettero Robo G, Brave Raideen, Gaiking, and many more (also Godzilla and Rodan had their own machinder toys). The toys all came with spring-loaded projectiles and were immensely popular with kids back in the day.

Mattel would eventually get the distribution rights to these toys, bringing them over to the US as the Shogun Warriors. Mattel would also ask Marvel Comics to write a comic series for the Shogun Warriors that would explain why all of these largely unrelated giant robots were working together.

Thank you for reading this addendum to An Abbreviated History of Mecha. Normally, I'd do a conclusion section, but I feel like I'd have to follow up with another Addendum post.

[yojimbo965]

TOKUSATSU TREASURES-07 MIRRORMAN (1971) “If Ultraman is the sun, Mirrorman is the moon, shining in the dark of night...” After successfully restarting the Ultra series with Return Of Ultraman and Ultraman Ace, for their next trick Tsuburaya Productions tried a different kind of Kyodai hero: Mirrorman! A first glance there are a lot of similarities between the Ultra shows and this new Giant of justice, however, there were some differences, mostly in tone, at first. At some point in the 1980’s, Earth is under attack from a race of extraterrestrials known only as the Invaders, who dress in black and wear sunglasses, while commanding a variety of kaiju. Against these alien foes, stands the SGM (Science Guard Members) lead by the impressively sideburned Dr. Mitarai. To aid in this struggle, he informs his foster son, Kyotaro Kagami (Kagami = mirror), of his true nature as the son of a human mother and the original Mirrorman, an alien from a 2-D world. After coming to terms with his alien heritage, Kyotaro uses his father’s Mirror Pendant and with the words “Mirror Flash!” fights for the Earth as the new Mirrorman. This series was darker than the earlier Ultra shows. Kyotaro is a more reluctant hero, feeling alienated by the secret of his heritage. The Invaders are mysterious and scary. The stakes seem both higher and more grounded than a lot of other shows. At least for the first half of the 51 episodes. Sponsor/network demands resulted in changes to more closely align with the Ultra shows, including, a lightening of the tone and the addition of a Power Timer to Mirrorman. Even with those mandated changes, this is still a really fun show. Mostly because of lead actor Noboyuki Ishida. He gives Kyotaro both an optimism and realism that makes him extremely relatable. This is a really fun series. It has ties to Jumborg Ace, with three SGM members appearing there, and Ultraman Zero, as the inspiration for Mirror Knight. For those interested, the entire series can be streamed from the TOKU site - LEGALLY! I need to decide on the subject for my next piece. Help me choose between Toei’s Spider-man, Kikaider or Akumaizer 3. #mirror-man #inktober2021 (at Fields Family Funhouse) https://www.instagram.com/p/CO9b17vJK-l/?igshid=hfpv3v1vflry

[animedatabase1]

Captain Ultra (キャプテンウルトラ Kyaputen Urutora) is the titular intergalactic hero of a pulp-style tokusatsu science fiction space adventure television series titled Space Tokusatsu Series: Captain Ultra (宇宙特撮シリーズ キャプテンウルトラ Uchū Tokusatsu Shirīzu: Kyaputen Urutora). Produced by Toei Company Ltd., the series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) from April 16 to September 24, 1967, with a total of 24 episodes.

This series is based very loosely on Captain Future, the pulp science fiction saga created by the influential Edmond Hamilton. This was not the only time his work was adapted in Japan: Captain Future was officially adapted into an anime series by Toei Doga in 1978, and that same year, Tsuburaya Productions adapted his Starwolf novels into a tokusatsu sci-fi action series of the same title.

Originally, this series was aired by Tokyo Broadcasting System right after the end of the original Ultraman show to serve as a filler series to while Tsuburaya Productions geared up for the production of Ultra Seven. So only 24 episodes of Captain Ultra were ordered by the network. So, the week following the conclusion of Captain Ultra, Ultra Seven premiered on TBS. Still, while short-lived, the series has been released in Japan on all of the major home video formats since the 1980s: VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD, and in 2005, a tankōbon of the original serialized manga、illustrated by Shunji Obata, was published by Manga Shop.

Captain Ultra is among the more memorable tokusatsu series from the 1960s, and was one of the three cornerstones of Toei's programs of 1967, including Akakage and Giant Robo (better known in the US as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot. Some Japanese fans also compare the looks of Captain Ultra to that of Captain Scarlet, the title hero of Sylvia and Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (which had been shown in Japan around the same time and was very popular).

[himitsusentaiblog]

I'm currently in the middle of Bioman and really enjoying it I've also seen Liveman. What other sentai from that era do you recommend and why?

The 1980s, in my opinion, really were the Golden Age of Super Sentai.  For most of the decade (from 1982-1990) one man named Hirohisa Soda was the head writer for every series.  He wanted to play around with new concepts and ideas for each series from Dai Sentai Goggle-V all the way through Chikyu Sentai Fiveman (even if he started to run out of idea near the turn of the decade). His creativity and guiding hand made Sentai the biggest tokusatsu franchise of the 1980s.  So, I really don’t think there is a bad series in that mix.

That said, there are some truly standout shows from that period and fortunately, you’ve already seen one of them and are watching another.  So, those two great examples out of the way, let me recommend two more.

The first is 1983′s Kagaku Sentai Dynaman!

This series can be summed up one word, FUN!  It’s not as serious in tone as it’s successor, Bioman or the amazing Liveman but it is often laugh out loud hilarious.  It’s brimming with character, creativity and a sense of anything goes storytelling from top to bottom.  It also has my favorite heroine/villainess rivalry in the form of DynaPink/Rei Tachibana (the amazing Sayoko Hagiwara) and Princess Chimera (Mari Kuono).  

Episode 29 (Chimera’s Cursed Clothes) is one of my favorites in the entire series and revolves around these two.

Another series I would highly recommend is 1987′s Hikari Sentai Maskman.

Though this show kind of put me off at first with its emphasis on mystical powers, it won me over with the characters and plot.  This is a good show about the dangers of blind loyalty to authority, the trap of destiny and what it means to be a good person in a society twisted to evil and that’s just the villain storyline! 

By the time you get to 1987, Soda was at the height of his writing and Maskman is a great example of this.  Every character has an interesting story and is integral to the plot of the series.  No one feels left out or secondary and even minor characters get fascinating tales woven around them.  If you want something closer to Liveman in tone and story, this is the show for you! I could go on and on about this era and recommend a few others like 1985′s Dengeki Sentai Changeman or even go back before Soda to 1981′s Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan but I will end here.  The two shows above are perfect examples of what made 1980s era Super Sentai so great.Happy Viewing!