Last week I made my list of anticipated movies for this year and include amongst those number the upcoming Japanese film: Shin Kamen Rider. Kamen Rider (Kamen meaning mask or masked) is a popular series in Japan that is an example of “tokusatsu”, a term used to refer to live action special effects shows.

We’ve discussed tokusatsu to several degrees in the past, usually in passing. So today, I thought I might share some of the background and history of this type of entertainment.

Tokusatsu (sometimes called toku for short by fans) can trace its origins to two types of Japanese live theater: kabuki and bunraku. Kabuki has its origins in the early Edo period (1603 to 1867) when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. To paint with a broad brush (and to not make this column longer than it already is), kabuki is noted for heavily-stylized performances and elaborate costumes and makeup.

Bunraku emerged in Osaka in the 17th century utilized puppets and music in their performances.

These two distinct styles have a commonality in their use of some of the earliest forms of what we’d now call special effects (specifically practical effects).

The father of toku is arguably special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya. During war time in Japan (the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II), Tsuburaya made military propaganda films depicting battles with the use of miniature special effects. One of the these films, The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya, was apparently so convincing in its special effects that it was confiscated by Supreme Command Allied Powers after the war, who mistook it as genuine news footage of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Years later in the early 1950s, Tsuburaya would work on the special effects for one of the most famous movie monsters of all time…Godzilla.

Tsuburaya had initially wanted to portray Godzilla through the use of stop motion animation, since the original 1933 King Kong was a huge inspiration for him, but this would take years to complete and necessitated the invention of a new technique.

This new technique would become known as “suitmation”, which utilized miniature buildings and an actor in a suit shot at a higher frame rate and at lower angles to make the monsters appear larger and moving slower.

Godzilla was a huge success for parent company Toho and let to even more monsters appearing in their stable such as Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah and Varan in films within what would be called the Daikaiju-Eiga.

The kaiju genre’s golden age was in the 1960s, with many classic movies produced by Toho Studios as well as monster movies released by rival companies, most famously Daiei Film’s creation: Gamera, a giant, fire breathing, rocket powered turtle.

In 1963, Tsuburaya had visited Hollywood to see the special effects work of American studios and founded his own independent company called Tsuburaya Productions. This company would launch their own television series made in the same style as American series like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits called Ultra Q.

Ultra Q ran for a total of 28 episodes in 1966 and was followed two weeks later by the most important player in our retrospective.

Ultraman debuted on Japanese televisions on July 17, 1966 and was a massive hit.

The series focused on a team called the Science Patrol that would respond to various giant monster attacks. One of the members of this team, Shin Hayata, is killed in action during a battle between a monster called Bemular and the alien Ultraman. Feeling guilty about Hayata’s death, Ultraman merges his lifeforce with Hayata to return the man to life. Hayata, now utilizes a device called the Beta Capsule to transform into Ultraman to fight monsters.

Ultraman’s transforming gimmick would wind up becoming a staple of what is referred to as a “henshin hero”, with “henshin” meaning transformation.

This leads us to the next major player… Kamen Rider. Debuting in 1971, Kamen Rider tells the story of Takeshi Hongo, who is kidnapped and turned into a cyborg by terrorist organization Shocker. Before the final step of brainwashing occurs, Hongo escapes and transforms into a grasshopper-themed cyborg hero riding a motorcycle to wage a one man war against Shocker.

Kamen Rider lauched what became known as the “Henshin Boom” in the early 1970s and greatly influenced the direction of superhero and actionadventure programing in Japan. The transformation sequences would influence not only later tokusatsu projects, but also other genres such as the magical girl genre of anime (think Sailor Moon).

Another popular series to emerge in the 70s was Super Sentai. The first two Sentai projects were created by Shotaro Ishinomori, who also created Kamen Rider and the popular manga Cyborg 009.

Super Sentai series would feature a group of people in color-coded uniforms that would transform into superheroes with wrist-worn or handheld devices to fight a monster of the week. The first of these series was called Himitsu Sentai Gorenger in 1975.

Super Sentai would debut a different team with different powers every year with footage from the sixteenth series being used for the production of the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993. We’ll get back to Power Rangers, but first we need to talk about another series that had a massive influence upon Sentai…Spider-Man.

Toei Company had a deal with Marvel Comics to produce media using Marvel characters. Initially, the plan was to have Spider-Man appear as a supporting character in a series about a fictionalized version of Yamato Takeru, but it was decided to make the series about Spider-Man instead.

This Spider-Man was very different compared to the one Western audiences are familiar with. For starters, this one is Takuya Yamashiro, a 22-year old motocross racer who receives his powers from an alien from Planet Spider. He suits up with a bracelet that also shoot web-lines and controls the Marveller space ship which converts into a giant robot called Leopardon.

Yamashiro used these abilities to battle the evil Professor Monster and his Iron Cross Army. Professor Monster utilized monsters called Machine Bems which would change to giant size and would require Leopardon to defeat them.

This giant robot approach would be adopted with the third Sentai series Battle Fever J.

The Henshin Hero genre would continue well into the 80s with the Metal Heroes series that focused on space, military and police-themed characters using metallic suits. The first of these was Space Sheriff Gavan in 1982, and subsequent series that would find footage used in later Saban productions.

Thus leads us straight into the 90s and the advent of the Power Rangers.

Producer Haim Saban, while on a business trip to Japan, caught a broadcast of the eighth Super Sentai series titled Choudenshi Bioman. After learning that a French dub of the series proved popular outside Japan, Saban sought to bring this style of programming to American audiences.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was made combining scenes filmed with American actors, while utilizing the footage from the sixteenth series: Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger.

The success of Power Rangers would lead Saban Entertainment to use footage from several Metal Hero series for new shows including VR Troopers and Big Bad Beetleborgs. Saban would also adapt Kamen Rider via the series called Masked Rider and a backdoor pilot in the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Now I should note that much like the term “anime”, tokusatsu has a very broad definition in Japan. Basically, any show that utilizes special effects is considered tokusatusu in Japan, so everything from Stargate SG-1 to Knight Rider qualifies as toku.

Now is a better time than ever to dive into this genre as the internet and companies like Shout Factory have made it far easier to watch any of these series. All the aforementioned toku series are still ongoing in Japan, and here in the US, Power Rangers continues with the franchise celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Next week sees the US release of Shin Ultraman (yes, there will be a review), and Shin Kamen Rider will make its debut in Japan sometime in March.

Hopefully this deep dive has been insightful about a style of entertainment I really enjoy, and maybe you’ll enjoy it as well.