Hey hey hey... Wow!

First, forget everything you know about the Amazing Spiderman. Forget Peter Parker. And Tobey Maguire, too.

Second, watch the mind-blowing opening of the 1978 Japanese live-action Spiderman television series.

Third, familiarize yourself with the new deliciously diecast Soul of Chogokin toy of the Japanese Spiderman's hot ride, Leopaldon. Or Leopardon. Leperdon. Whatever. Note how it looks exactly like the "real thing," insofar as the real thing was a skinny Japanese guy wearing a bunch of boxes.

Finally, you're ready to enter the Thirty-Sixth Chamber and read the uncredited, over-the-top "liner notes" contained with said toy, which I translate and quote verbatim here. Enjoy.

The year was 1978. Toei's live-action heroes stood at a crossroads. The Kamen Rider and Sentai ranger series had finally crossed over. The previous year, a total of four Toei productions were broadcast in Japan; now, however, all had finished their televised runs. It was at this fortuitous time that Toei began negotiating with American company Marvel Comics for the rights to several of its characters. Before long, Toei singled out Spiderman as the prime candidate for a new live-action television series and film. Judging from the circumstances, it was obvious that Spiderman wasn't intended to be one of their usual "henshin" (transforming) heroes, but rather a new hope for the next generation of hero characters.

Spiderman is particularly notable for its successful fusion of the distinctive "essences" of Marvel and Toei heroes. Marvel's portrayal of Spiderman's humanity and pathos proved an excellent match for the characterizations of the Toei Henshin Heroes series. Even though Toei added their own original elements -- such as Spiderman's powers originating from "Planet Spider" rather than a radioactive spider and the introduction of the "Iron Cross Army" as his sworn enemy -- they respected the original's portrayal of Spiderman as a less than perfect hero, as symbolized by the show's ending theme. There were also no shortage of episodes with a pessimistic mood. But Toei ensured a balance by putting a spectacular climax in every episode: the appearance of the giant robot Leopaldon. The catharsis of Spiderman's bug-eyed monster enemies getting blown into smithereens by Leopaldon's explosive attacks was, at times, a much-needed stress valve for viewers subjected to thirty minutes of somber and stressful drama.

In the end analysis, the Spiderman represented a much-needed shot in the arm for Toei's hero series. "Battle Fever J," another Marvel license, took to the airwaves the following year. The current format and lineup for Toei's shows first began to gel with Spiderman's success. The show's pioneering combination of transforming heroes and giant robots had (and continues to have) an incredible impact on merchandising of children's shows in Japan. Spiderman can truly be called the "man who saved Toei's heroes."

Comments

[Steve Harrison]

Great job as usual, Matt! It's a shame there are so many people out there (here in the US) that will buy Leopardon because it's collectable, or they're on track to buy every SoC, or whatever, and they'll not only never know the joy and power of the Japanese Spider-Man series, but they would choose to not even try to experence the magic. Because they choose to be ignorant of the context that exists around the toy.

Spider-man was prime Toei action. No Holds Barred and the bad guys died by the bucketful.

It's amazing, that pic of you and some poor guy in a Spider-man costume, how that 'spider sprayer' on his arm isn't really THAT much bigger then the huge silver bracelet in the show....

(context: some promotion at a Toys R Us or the like?)

I really wonder about those Toei/Marvel co-operations back in the '70s. Did Toei think that Marvel would work to bring the shows to the US? Or was it simply "Americomics are so unusual to Japan! if we import these elements it will be totally unexpected!" thinking?

I mean, there's got to be an entire BOOK behind the mutation of 'Captain Japan' into Battle Fever J...(more than was in the BF Robot liner notes, of course)

[hillsy]

"Change Leopardon!!"

Battle Fever also a Marvel license? So I wonder if there is something to what Steve-O said about Captain America originally planned as a member of the sentai group. I still wonder where he heard that...would have better than Reb Brown I bet.

[Matt]

That photo was taken in Spiderman's lair deep beneath Mt. Fuji.

It's my understanding that the Miss America character in Battle Fever J was loosely modeled after "Miss Marvel," but the connection to any specific Marvel property is a lot more obscure than Spiderman. Great show, though.

[hillsy]

I've only seen a few episodes of Battle Fever J...I'll have to dig up some more. As for Spiderman, I've got quite a few "raw Japanese" episodes on tapes from back in the day. I loved it. I was severely tempted by the DVD boxset from Yodobashi, even at around $400. The wife...not so much.

[Steve Harrison]

Didn't see that last photo first time around.

Damn.

"YES, Mr. Spider-Man! I'll buy DX Leopaldon! DON'T KILL ME! PLEASE!"

See, he can hold that styrofoam box like that because his super spider sticky hands allow...

Nevermind...

[Ginrai]

Battle Fever J began with Japanized versions of several Marvel characters. Captain America -> Captain Japan, Ms. Marvel -> Miss America and so on...

I love tokusatsu Spider-Man, Matt, but I think you are overselling its connection to the American version.

In America, Spider-Man is a spindly geek who can't girls, rides a goofy scooter, and is a science nerd who does photography in his part time.

In Japan, Spider-Man is the cool guy in the leather jacket who rides the bitchin' motorcycle with a hot reporter girlfriend. I'm seeing kind of an essential disconnect here.

Oh Japan, I love how you warp stuff.

[Steve Harrison]

Now see, this is where things get interesting, on Battle Fever J.

The story I recall is, it was like 'The Avengers', only each nation had it's own 'Captain', so Captain America was leader, with Captain Japan, Captain Africa, Captain France and Captain Russia.

Which sounds both interesting and very very lame, huh?

Of course, if you're making a series in Japan, you can't very well have Captain Japan be a secondary player...and I expect someone finally twigged that Africa wasn't one united country so they had to pick one...one could guess that if Marvel was somehow in the loop of the creation process they may have objected to Captain America being overshadowed and thus 'Miss America' (with none of the irony of the beauty pagent)..I guess 'Battle America' may have...urrrr...scanned wrong :)

[Ike]

Battle Fever was a Marvel license? Now that's an interesting trivia, never knew that.

The Soul of Chogokin toys are awesome. I have yet to pick up Voltes V :-)

[Matt]

>>>I was severely tempted by the DVD boxset from Yodobashi, even at around $400. The wife...not so much.<<<

DVD sets are a real racket in Japan. Take the "Memorial Box" of DVDs of the classic '80s anime "Votoms," which retailed for the equivalent of close to $1000 here. (The American version, which contained a few less discs and goodies but is essentially the same thing, retailed for $149.95.)

It'd be nice to think this is all because of a deep and abiding respect for the shows that started it all, but I suspect it's more a case of companies knowing when they've got fish in a barrel. And with so many otaku using Bit Torrent and the like these days, I wonder how many copies they actually sell of some of these things? (I think I just answered my own question....)

[Matt]

More info on the Battle Fever J licensing situation comes from (where else) Wikipedia. Apparently, BFJ wasn't based on "Ms. Marvel," but an even more obscure Golden Age comic character called "Miss America":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_America_%28Marvel_Comics%29

There's also, somewhat surprisingly, supposedly no connection to Captain America, according to this entry (scroll all the way down to the "Trivia" area):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Fever_J

For those of you who can read it, all of the above is also repeated on the Japanese Wikipedia page for the series:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/バトルフィーバーJ

Hey, you learn something new every day. (Now, as to the question of what practical real-world VALUE this newfound information has, I leave as an exercise for the reader... :)

[Steve Harrison]

Well, that's all interesting, but I would caution that Wikipedia is not the be-all and end-all authority on anything, and is often so flawed by bad data that I'm surprised anyone quotes it.

I mean, come on, Matt, 15 minutes in an old bookstore and I wager you could dig up any number of Japanese books that has the 'real deal', and if not, well, seems to me that there's a book that needs be written :)

[Marc Raley]

Battle Fever J a Marvel License? Wow, I wonder how much Stan milked 'em for on that one.

[Marcel Vinicius]

Someone wants to buy this?

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/3183/gp7qm5.jpg

The RC SpiderMachine GP-7 =)

[Tim Eldred]

I just watched the first episode on the Marvel site and was by turns angry and ecstatic. Angry because they waited until after I dropped my OWN $400 on the DVD box set. Ecstatic because, well, it's HERE! Does anyone know if there will be more? They've got close to 50 episodes to get through.

I will warn you up front that none of the later shows had the budget exhibited in the first 2 or 3, though. I think it quickly fell into a money-rut for some reason. There are midpoint episodes where the Spider Protector is just hanging together by spider-threads and it looks like the web lines are drawn on with a sharpie. Anyway, the stunt work is the real high point throughout--they were very good at doing a lot with a little.

As far as other Marvel licenses, the 'making of' book in the DVD set depicts development drawings of both Moon Knight and 3-D Man. I never realized how much 3-D Man looked like a Sentai hero...

[Tim Eldred]

Oh, and, a few early concepts were dropped as well. I don't think he ever used the Spider-sense again, and the subplot of Amazoness masquerading as a magazine editor was seldom repeated.

There, I think I've kicked enough of your marbles.

[Steve Harrison]

As I recall, the huge problem was someone stole the Leopardon costume, about midway in the production. This is a crime that I guess was never solved.

Of course, me being the the kind of person I am I can't help but wonder if the suit was REALLY stolen by outside people, or if another production has grabbed it thinking Spiderman was over and ripped and recast and otherwise reused it.

Or some Yakuza 'godfather' had a son or grandson who REALLY loved the show and made a phone call...

[Tim Eldred]

That's as may be, but if anything the lack of new Leopardon shoots should have freed up some cash for other things. There's a limited number of sets (we see the same locations constantly) and like I said before it's easy to see when wardrobe was hitting the skids.

I can see some bucks being spent on fight choreography and the Machine-Bem-of-the-week, but little else. It must have been a tough show to make. Hope we get to see more!

[MattAlt]

>someone stole the Leopardon costume

Back when I was doing a study abroad in college, around '94 or so, on a whim a friend and I went to the suburban area where the Toho studio lots are located. The lone guard on duty was asleep and we so just walked through open gates, marveling at the (totally empty) soundstages, the outdoor tank of water, and one (locked) SFX shed, through the window of which we could see all sorts of Godzilla minatures and props.

The security staff was pretty upset when they eventually found us. They relaxed when we explained we were just fans who wanted a look around and had just walked in through the front gate. As they escorted us off the lot, one of them mentioned that several suits, including the (presumably super huge) Mecha King Ghidora, had been stolen earlier in the year. I guess kaiju suit theft is a real problem over here....?

[Steve Harrison]

That's the part that's so strange. If these things happened in the U.S., there's lots of places, lots of houses one could keep such a huge thing (altho the smell of decaying latex would drive you mad after a bit), but in Japan?

Where is an Otaku living in a 4-mat apartment gonna put Mecha King Ghidora?

And what is the alternative? Sell it to someone in Hong Kong? How do you get it out of the country?