Tokusatsus from around the world

[Dessa]

The Iron Giant is animated, unless they made another one that I haven't heard about.

 

[scikaiju]

A few more for Japan

Specterman
Iron King
Super Robot Red Baron

some movies
Gappa the Triphibian Monster

Toho
Frankenstein Conquers the World
War of the Gargantuas

and if we're not counting Godzilla as one giant all encompassing thing
Rodan
Mothra
Varan the Unbvelievable

 

[Grimmhelm]

A lot of these kinds of shows are considered to be toku in Japan, although they certainly weren't made to be a part of that genre.

Also, he credited Thunderbirds and Thomas the Tank as being American when they're both originally English. Though we'll let you Americans keep the awful Spy Kids-style Thunderbirds movie, as a reminder of what happens when you remake something while completely missing the point of the original.

id also point you to that crappy red dwarf pilot that america did a few years ago XD

 

[Allio]

what was that one toei show that had like 13 people, and their was a discussion of if that was "sentai?"

 

[Igadevil]

Ninja Captor?

 

[Shir]

Doyoubi Sentai Saturdayman
It's pretty awesome. A Belgian Sentai. (one of the few non-japanese sentai that aren't made cheaply)

 

[lazycoconut]

... Wait, Thomas the Tank Engine is tokusatsu? I knew there was a reason I love that little guy :anime:

 

[Allio]

The American Godzilla?(tokusatsu also counts as giant monster movies like godzilla)

yeah, but it is officially under the Japanese list of monsters, so yeah, it is still considered part of Japanese Toku (alot easier than having two different Godzillas)

 

[Glamador]

All live-action superhero stuff counts, right? So Arrow and the live-action Spiderman show from the 60s or 70s and even rubbish like Birds of Prey count too, correct? In the American category, naturally.

 

[Toku Prime]

1. I'm female
2. I know that there are American-made Thunderbirds and Thomas the Tank Engine productions, which is why they were listed there.
3. Wikipedia

Apologies for my assumptions

All live-action superhero stuff counts, right? So Arrow and the live-action Spiderman show from the 60s or 70s and even rubbish like Birds of Prey count too, correct? In the American category, naturally.

Well this raises a major issue with this - how do you define tokusatsu, as opposed to science fiction or fantasy? Is there a fundamental difference between Japanese Spiderman and the American live action Spiderman series that aired at the same time? Superman jumps into a phone booth and near-instantly changes into his costume - does that count as a henshin? Are the Superman movies a series of henshin-hero toku films?

What about the Japanese film 'Mutant Girl Squad' - the titular girls can switch on and off their physical mutations - so they do transform in a sense, the final bad guy is more or less a kaijin, it even stars three actresses well known to people on this forum from their roles in toku shows (Go-On Silver, Shinken Yellow, and Rinko from KR Wizard). But I've only ever heard it referred to as a comedy-horror film. What about the two 'Azumi' films? Both directed by men who've directed toku films (IIRC both have done Millenium-era Godzilla films), big action set pieces, special effects, but it usually gets called an action film based on a manga, rather than toku. What about 'Death Game Park', which features no monsters and I personally would just call sci-fi, but has practical effects, fighting, and stars the actors who played KR Decade and Shinken Red?

If we are counting Thunderbirds, surely we have to count the rest of the "Supermarionation" TV series (as in super-marionette-animation, not Nintendo's famous plumber)? 'Four Feather Falls', 'Supercar', 'Fireball XL-5', 'Stingray', 'Captain Scarlet', 'Joe 90' and 'The Secret Service'. All of those except the first and the last were pretty much confirmed as taking place in the same 'verse. Maybe even include 'Terrahawks', which was also a sci-fi puppet show made by the same people, but using a different method of puppetry. If we count 'Doctor Who', surely we have to count all it's spin-offs, and maybe even similar shows like 'Blake's 7'?

Regardless of where we draw the line, I'd like to suggest 'King Kong' (at least the original 30's version) and 'Beast From 20,000 Fathoms', which were both acknowledged as being big influences on Godzilla. Also, 'Taitei no Ken' and 'Rolling Bomber Special' for the Japanese section.