Time once again to look at something I love and, while maybe
not explain it, look at its quirks, flaws and strengths and examine why I find
it so interesting.
Today’s topic: superhero tokusatsu!
But first, some background and explanation. The word “tokusatsu” is a general term in
Japan that means “special effects”. Any
TV show that uses special effects in Japan would be considered a “tokusatsu”
program. Here in the USA though, it
means a very special brand of Japanese effects programs. I think you know the kinds of effects. Giant rubber suit monsters and robots. Acrobatic fight scenes. Conveniently placed pyrotechnics. Transformation sequences. If the phrase “Power Rangers” is coming to
mind right now, you’re close but not quite right. I’ll explain a little further on.
Now, the programs I’m talking about are specifically certain
superhero shows designed for children.
There are a great number of these including Ultraman and the various
Metal Heroes shows.
However, the ones I
know best are Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.
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| There was even a Spider-Man tokusatsu show. |
Now, while these sorts of shows have only been known here in
the West since the 1990s (at least as a popular, mainstream thing), they’ve
existed in their home country of Japan since 1966 with the original version of
Ultraman. The tokusatsu hero scene would
expand in the early 1970s with Kamen Rider and a little later with Himitsu Sentai Goranger, both of
which were created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. Both of these shows would create a long
lineage. You see, the way these shows
work is that a single incarnation will exist for about 50 episodes or so before
wrapping up the story. Then, the next
year, a new version with a new theme or motif will be released. And the motifs can run the gamut. For example, one season of Kamen Rider like
Kamen Rider Fourze can be themed around things like space travel and high
school while another like Kamen Rider Kiva is based around gothic horror and
classical music. The same goes for Super
Sentai. The series Gosei Sentai Dairanger is based on Chinese mythology and martial arts, while GouGou SentaiBoukenger is themed around pulp adventure and treasure hunting. It’s not to say that the shows are all over
the place. There is a basic
structure. Kamen Rider, by and large is
about a solo hero fighting for human freedom against an enemy that seeks to
corrupt or transform humanity. Kamen
Rider antagonists tend to transform regular people into monsters. Occasionally the main character will team up
with other Kamen Riders who are either working at cross purposes or regard the
main character as a rival. There are
also certain other things that carry over like motorcycles, large eyes on the
Kamen Rider suit and the famous “Rider Kick” attack. Super Sentai is generally about a team of
multicolored heroes fighting against an inhuman foe that wants to destroy
humanity and take over everything. Some
common things in Super Sentai are weapons that join together to make a bigger,
more powerful weapon, monsters becoming giants at the end of every fight and
giant combining robots.
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| The original Kamen Rider |
Now, most people here in the US only know this stuff through
Power Rangers. Now, here’s the thing
about Power Rangers: it’s a weird sort of hybrid thing. What they do is take footage from Super
Sentai, dub English-speaking voices over it and splice it together with new
footage. Generally speaking, all the
action footage is Japanese, while the out of costume scenes are
American-made. That’s why whatever
made-up city this year’s Power Rangers are in, be it Angel Grove, Mariner Bay,
Blue Bay Harbor or even the space colony of Terra Venture, they all look an
awful lot like Tokyo once the action starts.
Now, I’m not here to throw shade at Power Rangers. They have had amazing success as a franchise,
beyond what a lot of people thought they were going to have. Twenty years later, the show is still
going. However, there’s something to be
said for seeing the action footage in the context it was originally meant for
rather than linked up with whatever story and characters the writers for Power
Rangers came up with.
Now here’s the question: why do I like this stuff so
much? I mean, these are basically kids’
shows with what most people would think of as cheap special effects.
Well, most adult fans here in the U.S. would say that Super
Sentai and Kamen Rider are more grown-up in comparison to Power Rangers. This is true, but just by the barest of
margins. Due to cultural differences
between the U.S. and Japan, Super Sentai seems a bit more grown-up and Kamen
Rider seems more grown-up than that.
Compared to their American counterparts, these shows are more inclined
to get into the more complicated aspects of subjects like love, family and
sacrifice. However, that’s mainly
because the Japanese have different standards for what they think kids can
handle and understand. There are other
parts of these shows that are in fact still juvenile. They also tend to repeat a lot of motifs (dinosaurs, ninja, cars and animals, notably). But that's something their target audience of young kids won't notice.
Well, I think it’s a lot of things. The themes can be a bit grown-up while the
shows are still unabashedly for kids.
And this is actually a nice thing.
Too often in the American superhero scene, things get too taken over by
adult fans that insist the heroes grow up with them. Kamen Rider and Super Sentai both work within
formulas (as many pop culture properties do, if we’re being honest), but they
own their formulas and do what they can to push boundaries, flex their muscles
and explore new motifs within the formula.
As for the “bad” special effects, those become part of the charm. After a while, it starts to feel less like a
limitation and more like an aesthetic.
Superhero tokusatsu shows really wouldn’t feel quite so much like
superhero tokusatsu shows if the effects were super realistic. While the rubber suits for the various
monsters and villains aren’t really believable, they are often heavily detailed
and visually interesting. The designs of
the weapons and mecha are interesting in their own “designed to be a toy” way. But perhaps the greatest thing about
superhero tokusatsu’s relationship with its special effects is that the show’s
creators don’t seem to feel hampered by them.
From what I’ve seen, they don’t seem to shy away from anything just
because they can’t make it seem completely believable. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be any “top”
in Super Sentai or Kamen Rider. By this
I mean you can’t go “over the top” when there is no “top”.
No show is perfect, though.
I do have some criticisms of them.
It’s the same criticism that’s leveled against a lot of action shows
aimed at young boys. They avoid or
downplay female characters in heroic roles.
Female Kamen Riders are usually introduced in the back half of a series
as antagonists. Super Sentai teams usually
only have one or two female members at most.
Right now, there’s a Super Sentai team, Uchuu Sentai Kyuuranger, that has its biggest roster
yet. It started with nine members and
then expanded to twelve. You’d think
that would allow for some room to introduce a third woman onto the team. Nope.
There are ten male members of the team and only two female. A lot of this comes down to not only
marketing and merchandising reasons but also cultural factors within
Japan. It’s still unfortunate, though.
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| The current Super Sentai: Uchuu Sentai Kyuuranger |
The biggest problem with being a tokusatsu fan here in the
U.S. is that it’s usually pretty hard to get your hands on any to watch. Usually, the only way to get them is to
download pirated versions that have been fansubbed (note: that means fans have
translated the show and added subtitles).
Fansubbers are an odd bunch. They
tend to pirate material and subtitle it purely because they love the stuff and
want other people to see it. Then once
an official release becomes available they take their fansubs down and actively
encourage people to buy the official release.
This seems like a topic unto itself but I’d rather not discuss whether
there’s honor among content thieves right now.
One good thing is that Shout! Factory, the same company that makes DVDs
of Power Rangers has been making DVDs of the seasons of Super Sentai that were
turned into Power Rangers for a few years now. Right now, they're up to Megaranger which was turned into Power Rangers in Space. It’s not perfect. Odds are we’ll
never see DVD releases of the seasons that became Power Rangers, but it is
something.
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| Super Sentai shows released by Shout! Factory |
So, that’s pretty much it.
Why superhero tokusatsu has appeal outside its demographic. These shows aren’t for everyone, but I like
them.
