anyone consider star trek toku?

[wildwolf]

I remember having a discussion with some Japanese expatriates about American TV shows branded as tokusatsu when they aired in Japan.

These are some of the many shows we talked about:
Star Trek
Battlestar Galactica
Twilight Zone
Outer Limits
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
I Dream of Jeannie
Kolchak
Six Million Dollar Man
Bionic Woman
Land of the Giants
Spider-Man
V
MacGyver
Knight Rider
The A-Team
Airwolf
Incredible Hulk
Wonder Woman
Starman
Captain Power
Street Hawk
SeaQuest DSV
Robocop
X-Files
Viper
Babylon 5
Power Rangers
Roswell
Mutant X
Dark Angel
Seven Days
Stargate SG-1
Smallville
4400
Heroes

 

[Darkster]

Hi there, I've got a good friend of mine I'd like you to meet:

 

[Mr G]

:laugh:

Your friend is more awesome. I just finished watching Gamera on Blu-ray this past weekend. :thumbs:

Anyway, seeing as how Star Trek is full of special effects I can see how it is considered tokusatsu. I do admit that when I think of toku though I tend to think of henshin shows and kaiju to a much lesser extent. There's no denying that Trek would fall into the toku category though.

 

[MattComix]

And anime has plenty of henshin heroes, too! (Eightman, Gatchaman, Polymar, Guyver, etc.) It's just the "Japanese Superhero" (or J-Hero) genre, plain and simple. "Anime" and "tokusatsu" are the mediums into which the J-Hero genre fits.

Sad to say, the word "tokusatsu" has lost its meaning to confused post-1993 superhero fans in the US, who are simply looking for an exotic word to describe superheroes, when all the time, Japan always called them "Suupaahiiroo!" Duh!

The same thing befell the words "Showa" and "Heisei" when it came to American Godzilla fans. *shudder* Don't get me started on that one!

You have a point but I think the use of the term tokusatsu in the American fandom is really just to help distinguish in-conversation which kind of special effects film-making we're talking about and also that we're talking about the transforming super-hero that exists in Japanese popular culture whom most people access via tv shows and movies.

It's just an easy way to establish up-front we're not talking Star Wars or Spider-Man, we're talking Kamen Rider, Godzilla, etc.

Look at it this way, at least we've come a long way from the days when folks on these shores would refer to all of it as Sentai. :laugh:

 

[ryuuseipro]

You have a point but I think the use of the term tokusatsu in the American fandom is really just to help distinguish in-conversation which kind of special effects film-making we're talking about and also that we're talking about the transforming super-hero that exists in Japanese popular culture whom most people access via tv shows and movies.

It's just an easy way to establish up-front we're not talking Star Wars or Spider-Man, we're talking Kamen Rider, Godzilla, etc.

Look at it this way, at least we've come a long way from the days when folks on these shores would refer to all of it as Sentai. :laugh:

Point very well taken. :thumbs:

In all actuality, I always knew of "tokusatsu" as the word for "special effects" (which I used to call "the opposite of anime"), when I read about it in the first issue of Markalite (one of my holy bibles for Japanese sci-fi/fantasy) in the first week of 1991. At that moment, I found the word for my favorite medium, and my life changed forever. (It was much more refreshing than reading books and magazines that condescended everything, simply because they weren't up to Hollywood standards!)

Meanwhile, there were all sorts of terms thrown around that I was always okay with. While I was aware of the word "anime," we in fan circles called it "Japanimation!" And others used "Japantasy" to describe Japanese sci-fi/fantasy in general, particularly live-action. (I got that one from Damon Foster in 1994.)

And just as the US accepts "anime" (animation) and "manga" (comics), they'll accept "tokusatsu" (SPFX) yet. We've got a long way to go, but it's a start.