July Tokusatsu of the Month - Spider-Man

[Aoi Kurenai]

Yes, folks, it's the fabled tokusatsu version of Spider-Man! The series that Sentai draws a lot of inspiration from is our new TotM! The show is subbed in its entirety over at Marvel's video site, so it'll definitely make watching this series a bit easier.

STORY
Young motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro sees a UFO falling to earth, in fact a space warship named the "Marveller" from the planet "Spider". Takuya's father Dr. Hiroshi Yamashiro, a space archaeologist, investigates the case but is killed upon finding the spaceship. The incident also brings the attention of Professor Monster and his evil Iron Cross Army, an alien group that plans to rule the universe. Takuya follows his father to the Marveller and discovers the last survivor of Spider, who gives him a bracelet that gives him special spider-like powers and the ability to control the ship and transform it into a giant robot called "Leopardon" for battle. Using his powers, he fights Professor Monster's army and other threats to Earth under the name Spider-Man.


WHERE TO GET THE EPISODES
The entire series (movie included) is available subbed in English for free over at Marvel's site here.


VIEWING SCHEDULE

July 1st
1. The Time of Revenge Has Come! Beat Down Iron Cross!!
2. Mysterious World! The Man Lives for Fate
July 2nd
3. Mysterious Thief 001 VS Spider-Man
4. The Terrifying Half Merman! Calling the Miracle Silver Thread
July 3rd
5. Crash Machine GP-7! The Oath Siblings
6. Shuddering Laboratory! Devilish Professor Monster
July 4th
7. Fearful Hit Tune! Song Dancing Murder Rock
8. Once Upon a Time in the Mysteriousless World
July 5th
9. Motion Accessory is a Loveful Beetle Insect Spy
10. To the Flaming Hell: See the Tears of the Snake Woman
July 6th
11. Professor Monster's Ultra Poisoning
12. Becoming Splendid: To the Murderous Machine Transformation
July 7th
Episode Zero / Movie
July 8th
13. The Skull Group VS The Devilish Hearse
July 9th
14. Giving Father! Fight to the Song of the Hero
July 10th
15. The Life of Our Arrangement
July 11th
16. Fine Dog! Run to the Under of Father
July 12th
17. Pro Wrestler Samson's Tears
July 13th
18. In the Mother's Chest: Resurrect the Young Boys
July 14th
19. The Boy Phantom: To the Villageless Map
July 15th
20. Riddle: Calling the Riddle of My Secret Birth
21. Fall to the Great skies: Father's Love
July 16th
22. Shedding Tears to the Dark Fate: Father and Son
23. To the Love Academy of the Homeless Children
July 17th
24. Cockkroach Boy: Great War
25. Treasure, Dog, and the Double Grow Human
July 18th
26. To the Absolute Crisis: The Imitation Hero
27. Farewell War Buddy, Beloved German Shepherd
July 19th
28. The Front of the Alley
July 20th
29. Hurry, GP-7
July 21st
30. Good Luck, Beautiful Police Officer
July 22nd
31. There is No Child-Taking Detective
July 23rd
32. Sweet Whispering Echantress
July 24th
33. The Boy Teases the Horrible Wild Girl
July 25th
34. Surprising Camera: Murderous Event
July 26th
35. From the Unexplored Amazon
July 27th
36. The Onion Silver Mask and the Boys Detective School
July 28th
37. From the Secret Messenger of Hell: Great King Enma
38. The First Tin Plate Evening Star and the Boys Detective Group
July 29th
39. Sports World: One Great Meeting
July 30th
40. Farewell Zero Battle Tricks
July 31st
41. The Hero's Hot Shining Blood


Previous Tokusatsu of the Month
1. Akumaizer 3 - December 2010
2. Juukou B-Fighter - January 2011
3. Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya - February 2011
4. Chousei Kantai Sazer X - March 2011
5. Keitai Sousakan 7 - April 2011
6. Ninja Sentai Kakuranger - May 2011
7. B-Fighter Kabuto - June 2011

Future Tokusatsu of the Month
If you have a series you want to see as the tokusatsu of the month, PM me and I'll gladly toss it up on the next poll, two conditions apply. First, please make sure it is available in its entirety subbed or raw, second, think about whether or not it's a series that gets a lot of discussion, the goal of this activity is to get discussion going on shows that aren't too well known or talked about.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

And we're open for business!

 

[Mr. Rhythmic]

The first two episodes are fun, but pretty generic imo. The second episode's really weird, but it took almost 15 minutes for anything to really happen. The first episode's funny because it's this huge space war thing, but with Spidey who now has a giant robot.
All in all, not very good first two episodes, but they seemed to just want to get the exposition out of the way, so now it should just be pure action from here on.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

So, yea, those first two episodes were...interesting. This is basically Spiderman in name only and everything else is essentially tokusatsu tropes of the time, which I don't really mind. The first episode didn't do much for me, but I found myself loving the second one. Garia has a pretty cool history, though it's a shame that he was killed off, I'm hoping Takuya takes the whole revenge...thing, to heart.

Still too early to pick up on any deep personalities, but I enjoyed that they made mention of Takuya running off during the fight in the second episode. Going to hope that this is something that occurs again, maybe leading to someone else discovering his identity.

Visuals to the series are...a little more difficult to get used to than most from that time, at least the hero suit. The sort of mask they went with for Spidey isn't my favorite, the eyes bug out all over the place at times. Seemed like one of the episodes had Spidey with an incredulous expression for most of the battle because half of the mask was pulled up. Also not a fan of the wall climbing, or at least not the use of that same damn scene over and over again, it lingers too much!

But I look forward to the rest of the show, decent first episode, fun second episode, despite the action hitting a brick wall so Takuya could monologue.

Though something that does bug me, why is Takuya the only one showing any visible pain to his father's death?

 

[FlashNeko]

This is basically Spiderman in name only and everything else is essentially tokusatsu tropes of the time, which I don't really mind.

I'm not sure I completely agree with that.

While there's no arguing that a lot of it is done through the lens of 70s Toku tropes, there are elements of the actual Spider-Man mythos in there:

His father dies because he wants to go off and have fun instead of answering the call to be a hero the first time he hears it and his death is part of what drives him on. There's also the newspaper/freelance photographer angle (plus the boss who hates Spider-Man).

It's there but it's little things, sort of like how G-Gundam has Gundam elements buried between its Fighting Anime stuff.

Now... I enjoyed these episodes but some of the flaws they have are interesting to look at.

It's really interesting that the show is trying to replicate Spider-Man's fighting style of hopping all over the place, but since both the budget and the effects of the time are so limited, they try to show it by quickly editing all over the fight.

Also, due to the design of the Spider-Man suit, it seems like the practical reason the Leopardon element was added was that the Spidey suit can't really get down and dirty with the Machine Bem that much (and yet even then the Leopardon fights are mostly stock footage).

It's really interesting to see how this will shape up as the month goes on.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Heh, I wasn't really looking at it from that angle before, cool. I figured it was just the showing using the theme of the death of a loved one that was all over the place in tokusatsu of the 70s.

I've got to wonder, with so many liberties taken, and apparently the producer was told he could do whatever he wanted to make it "work" for a Japanese audience, why didn't they change the suit? The action would have stepped up if Spiderman himself had a helmet.

 

[FlashNeko]

Heh, I wasn't really looking at it from that angle before, cool. I figured it was just the showing using the theme of the death of a loved one that was all over the place in tokusatsu of the 70s.

"Death of a loved one" is a pretty major driving element for Spider-Man to begin with so it's not like the themes are incompatible.

I've got to wonder, with so many liberties taken, and apparently the producer was told he could do whatever he wanted to make it "work" for a Japanese audience, why didn't they change the suit? The action would have stepped up if Spiderman himself had a helmet.

I wonder if they were worried that if they changed the look TOO much the audience wouldn't really recognize it as Spidey anymore. If you do that then... what was the point of having the license if the character doesn't resemble what you're licensing?

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

what was the point of having the license if the character doesn't resemble what you're licensing?

This is actually what I thought when I first saw the episodes. Letting my opinions sit for a little while makes me see the potential it has to be Spiderman in a new light. That said, I dunno, I think you could make a reasonably familiar Spiderman with a helmet...though I am glad he doesn't have any headgear that looks like Garia's weird winged thing.

 

[Mr. Rhythmic]

Episode 3 - Again, really weird and wacky, but it does add to its entertainment value. The monster design was cool, but I don't know what to think about the giant robot fight. It was so freakishly clunky, and you could even see the guy in the Leopardo suit in one scene.
This show was obviously made on drugs, especially a lot of the camera work. The thief's reason (not to mention personality) was random but funny. Still, there isn't enough action and a bit too much talking for characters we'll never actually care too much about (besides Japanese Spidey, who is pretty beast). Better than the first two episodes, but still just ok.

Episode 4 - WOW! It's like the show somehow just read my thoughts, and improved on all of my complaints! This episode was fantastic! It really felt like the Japanese interpretation of "If This Be My Destiny" in some ways, especially with J. Spidey fighting his fate. The action was non-stop and really entertaining, and you could really feel the sense of hate between Professor Monster and JS, something I did not expect to see that much emotion for. The giant robot fight was really good this time around, and felt like an epic battle between good and evil. Mer-Man was a cool monster (definitely the best so far without question), and really upped the ante as far as opponents go. This is the breakout episode to me, and I hope that the future episodes stick to this level of zany awesomeness.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

I enjoyed the third episode just fine, nothing too strange in there and it was cool to see that apparently Spiderman's name had become will known sometime between this episode and the previous one.

Episode four is the one that really bugged me. The self fulfilling nightmare stuff was pretty neat and I liked how he found a way out of it thanks to that pseudo spiritual thing with Garia, though I hated that the show just sorta of said it had nothing to do with him. Cool idea in general with Takuya having those nightmares, but I just didn't like the execution at all on it. I hope this show won't waste any cool ideas like this often again.

But that's not what really bothered me in this episode. The fact that Takuya just seems so...disconnected from everything and everyone else is really odd. Yeah, I know the opening and ending songs are all about him giving up love and his normal life, but it doesn't really feel like a product of those themes, rather it feels like bad writing. (though I've thought it'd be interesting if he's just using his girlfriend for leads now because he did give up on love, but I don't see the show going there)

It's like all those other characters are in their own little show and Takuya is just randomly placed in there and never interacts with them at all. This is going to bother me a lot more if it ends up being a series-long trait. He feels like such a solitary character and that is not something I like in my tokusatsu when there are obviously other good characters to play off of and make scenes work better with.


...and is it just me or does the guy playing Takuya seriously look like a young Takeshi Kaga?