What draws you to Toku?

[MattComix]

Personally? Mattcomics.

Heh, it has been really fun seeing you get more and more into it. :anime:

In general, though, tokusatsu was the first live-action Japanese entertainment I watched (unedited-- like everyone else, I'd seen Power Rangers). I found the force and boldness of the writing captivating. This was not a genre afraid of looking silly or being weird, it simply was what it was and screw you if you didn't like it.

Tokusatsu focused on trying to constantly entertain where similar American media becomes self-conscious and hopelessly metatextual. A good tokusatsu will try to entertain you in every minute of every episode using every trick imaginable-- costumes, fight choreography, music, acting, effects, gimmicks, rituals, setpieces, comedy, melodrama, action.

Enthusiasm is to me what separates vital and living art from the pretentious, sterile world of "high" art. Tokusatsu lives and breathes as few other genres ever have or ever will.

Hell even some of the bad ones I can at least have some respect for making a genuine attempt to entertain even if it falls flat.

I don't find it all that different from American comics

**** at this point, an American comicbook would have had a 12 part navel gazing saga about why Phillip doesn't use the Planet Bookshelves to look up a cure for cancer. Or they would gut Queen and Elizabeth on-camera for pure shock value depending on how the editor was feeling that week.

 

[Keith Justice]

First and foremost the sincerity of its unapologetically bold and heroic spirit.

Fantastic, colorful, and comicbooky in some of the best ways. Ways most American comics are too ashamed to do because they've decided to disappear up Watchmens ass.

Wooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd.

Another thing is looking at the Japanese culture and how different they are. I absolutely love seeing how people live in a society that, while has some Western influence is soooo their own and different kind of people.

You just don't get this kind of perfectly stated "bold and unapologetic" imagination and execution of wild ideas in the states without it being ironic or embarassing.

 

[MrMonk]

**** at this point, an American comicbook would have had a 12 part navel gazing saga about why Phillip doesn't use the Planet Bookshelves to look up a cure for cancer. Or they would gut Queen and Elizabeth on-camera for pure shock value depending on how the editor was feeling that week.

That's mostly dependent on 'American comics' meaning "the Big Two' though. And even then, they get random spurts of worth.

 

[MattComix]

That's mostly dependent on 'American comics' meaning "the Big Two' though. And even then, they get random spurts of worth.

True I could have specified American mainstream superhero comics but I thought that went without saying really. ..and those random spurts of worth have never been fewer and more far between.

Wooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd.

Another thing is looking at the Japanese culture and how different they are. I absolutely love seeing how people live in a society that, while has some Western influence is soooo their own and different kind of people.

Toku is a really interesting little window into Japan in general. Also, Japanese pop-culture not only has it's own outlook on the idea of the superhero but they seem to be more willing to celebrate it.

You just don't get this kind of perfectly stated "bold and unapologetic" imagination and execution of wild ideas in the states without it being ironic or embarassing.

Indeed. Or gratuitously over-analyzed in a way that sucks every last ounce joy and life out of the damn thing.