Last time I covered Japan’s attempt to adapt a western property but for most of the 90’s, the reverse was much more prevalent. Haim Saban’s adaptation of Super Sentai into the long-lasting Power Rangers franchise but, being the media mogul that he was, he didn’t stop there and others even attempted to steal the formula for themselves. This is going to be a brief history of the rise and fall of tokusatsu adaptations in the west.

Naturally, emboldened by the success of Power Rangers, Saban was quick to rush another series into production. Capitalising on the early 90’s fascination with the emerging VR technology (oh, how times have changed), Saban created a team of teenagers using footage from three separate Metal Hero shows to create VR Troopers.

The show proved successful at the time but pulling footage from Space Sheriff Shaider, Superhuman Machine Metalder and Dimensional Warrior Spielban proved exhaustive and soon they ran out of footage to use. VR Troopers ran for 92 episodes before going offline.

All was not lost on the toku-hero-in-cyberspace front though as Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was in development at the same time, a venture between Tsuburaya Productions (the studio behind Ultraman), Playmates Toys and DIC Entertainment to adapt Denkou Choujin Gridman for western audiences.

I’ll be honest; I never even heard of this show growing up, as my entire world was dominated by Saban’s shows, but from finding clips on YouTube I can see that this was a quick and cheap production. Clearly it was born out of the rapidly exploding toku adaptation genre and it only lasted 53 episodes.

The next show to appear spun directly out of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and was the truly atrocious Masked Rider. Masked Ri-DURR, an adaptation of Kamen Rider Black RX, appeared in the three-part MMPR Season 3 opener, ‘A Friend in Need’.

As soon as Arnold Rimmer look-a-like Prince Dex made the jump to his own show, however, no further mention of the Rangers are ever made and the show became a bumbling ‘comedic’ mess. Masked Rider ran for 40 episodes and left a legacy that is both depressing and uplifting as no one would attempt bringing another Kamen Rider show to our screens for another 14 years but most of Masked Rider’s background music was later used in Digimon Season 1-3 and Digimon: The Movie.

Once Masked Rider was done, Saban didn’t rest on his laurels for long and put out Big Bad Beetleborgs. Adapted from the Metal Hero series Juukou B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto, Beetleborgs was focused on a younger audience and was heavily merchandise-driven thanks to plot being about kids who becoming popular comic book characters.

Much like VR Troopers, Beetleborgs suffered thanks to a lack of footage and ended after 88 episodes. Out of all the non-PR shows Saban did, I think Beetleborgs was my favourite growing up, even if it was the silliest of the bunch — often having Batman ‘66 comic book effects to cover more violent scenes or having the Jay Leno-esque Flabber as the source of their powers.

After Beetleborgs had ended and with Power Rangers still the juggernaut franchise, Saban went a different route and produced a wholly original tokusatsu for the west based on Irish mythology but that’s a story for another time as it’s not an adaptation.

Earlier I said it would take 14 years for someone other than Saban to bring Kamen Rider to the west but in 2009, Adness Entertainmint adapted Kamen Rider Ryuki for the CW Network as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.

The reason why the team chose Ryuki was that the series had 13 Riders in total (one of which was the first female Kamen Rider in the franchise’s history) and had lots of marketability. However, due to the Bandai toyline’s failure and flagging ratings, the show was pulled before the final two episodes could air, though CW was nice enough to air them online.

Even though the show had critical success (even winning a Daytime Emmy in 2010) and seeing DVD releases in Europe, South America, Mexico and East Asia (even a Japanese Dub!); Adness did not release it in the US and the plans for a feature length movie, a second season or even an adaptation of another Kamen Rider series have not come to pass.

Hell, 7 years have passed since and Adness Entertainment are more interested in Kpop and Korean fashion if their website is any indication so more Kamen Rider from them is highly unlikely.

As of 2016, Power Rangers is still going strong after 22 years while all the others I’ve talked about above have faded into obscurity and nostalgia so what does that mean for tokusatsu adaptation in the west? Regrettably, it seems that we’re unlikely to see more adaptations in the future and that’s just sad in this humble reviewers opinion. Personally, I have a ton of ideas how some of the newer Heisei-era Kamen Rider shows could be adapted but in the current climate of television production; would they succeed?

A question for the comments, perhaps but for now, thank you for reading this little retrospective and I’ll catch you all next Toku Tuesday!

Yes, dear readers, your eyes do not deceive you! I’m covering Marvel’s friendly neighbourhood web-slinger in my article series about the wacky programs from Japan but why would I do that?

Well, gather round tomodachi because Sharp-O-dono is about to school you on the Iron Cross killer; the man who sheds tears for children without homes! The destroyer of mushrooms; a man moved by the dog whistle! The emissary of hell, himself — Spider-Man!

Yeaaaaaaaaah, buddy! We’re balls-deep in the late 70’s! It’s the Japanese Spider-Man! While Nicholas Hammond was playing Parker States-side, the Toei Company were creating their own adaptation of the wall-crawler thanks to a three-year licensing agreement with Marvel that allowed both to use each other’s properties in any way they wanted. Sadly, this did not result in Kamen Rider V3 punching Doctor Doom but what a world that would be!

Naturally, being adapted for a Japanese audience, the Spider-Man of this series is Japanese but stays faithful to the origin. Tell me if this sounds familiar…

Takuya Yamashiro, youthful motorcycle rider, witnesses the crash of the extraterrestrial warship ‘The Marveller’ and follows his father to the crash-site. After his father is murdered, Takuya discovers Garia: the last son of Planet Spider. Granted the powers of a spider thanks to a blood transfusion from Garia and given control of the Marveller via use of the Spider Bracelet, Takuya now defends Earth from Professor Monster and the Iron Cross army as… Spider-Man!

See? It’s the same, tired, old origin stor—what? Alright so it has nothing to do with the source material barring the same costume and an assortment of powers but let’s face it; this origin would make Spider-Man: Homecoming even more distinct from the previous movies.

But yes, Toei’s Spider-Man ran for 41 episodes and involved such wacky plots as Amazons being resurrected to uncover Spider-Man’s identity, becoming an Interpol agent, and getting his own Batusi; the Spider-Man Boogie.

The show was praised by Marvel for it’s effects and stunt work, despite initial reservation with the liberties taken. One such liberty was Spider-Man swapping his web-swinging for a slick set of wheels in the form of the Spider Machine GP7 and The Marveller’s alternate form — Leopardon!

Oh yeah, Spidey had a giant mecha! And you know what the ironic thing is? Due to the popularity of the show, Toei decided to include giant robots in their revived Super Sentai series. That’s right, Spider-Man is actually responsible for the trend of superheroes having giant robots in Japan. Marvel, unknowingly, created Power Rangers. Mind. Blown.

So what is the legacy for our favourite emissary of hell? Well, aside from influencing Super Sentai and leading to the creation of Battle Fever J, Takuya Yamashiro would sadly languish in obscurity, only rearing his head for a parody dub on YouTube and for meme material until March 2015.

In the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, during the Spider-Verse event, Takuya and Leopardon arrived to assist their fellow Spiders in what is quite possibly my favourite moment in comics last year. It came out of nowhere and yet was the perfect stage for Takuya to get the recognition he deserves. So-much-so that Marvel streamed episodes of Toei’s Spider-Man for a short time on their website.

And that’s the secret origin of Supaidaman! An utterly bonkers take on Marvel’s web-head and, surprisingly, a trend-setting cult favourite in retrospect. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all next Toku Tuesday when we dive into the West’s efforts in adapting tokusatsu as we get Lost in Adaptation.

The original Thunderbirds series was a huge success in Japan, garnering a huge following and the vehicles have been part of the modelling culture there for decades so when Thunderbirds Are Go hit the shores of Nippon, you just knew that they’d take this new show to heart.

And they did! As well as model kits and other merchandise; Tomica, a Hot Wheels/Matchbox style line of die-cast cars produced a number of vehicles for the show and, best of all, included vehicles we hadn’t gotten here in the West! Today’s spotlight is on one such entry – Tomica Thunderbirds 08 Jet Mogura aka The Mole!

Unlike the bubble card packaging we might be used to, The Mole comes this dinky little box that gives it a unique, almost premium, feel that is wholly unique to Japan.

Out of the box and this die-cast digger doesn’t disappoint! Its hefty for it’s size and the details and paint are just astounding. The plastic for the drill and treads along the pod’s shaft aren’t as shiny as the promo photos would lead you to believe but the rubber rolling treads on the bottom more than make up for that. If there was one downside, it would be the lack of a tilting hinge or the pod being detachable but I’m sure if there are any larger versions produced then we’ll see that implemented (Looking at you, R/C Mole)

Size-wise, when compared to the Thunderbird 4 included in the 4-pack of vehicles I reviewed before, The Mole seems massive. By rights, it should be but the new series has The Mole as just on of many modular modes for the pod vehicles

It scales well with Thunderbird 2 at least and can almost fit into the pod but is just a little too big.

Overall, I really dig this little vehicle and I highly recommend the rest of the Tomica Thunderbirds line since it’s the only place you’ll be getting models for Thunerbird 5, Lady’s Penelope’s car, The Mole and even the Thunderbird Shadow. Go digging online and you’ll no doubt unearth a bargain but for now, I’ll catch you guys next time on Mint in Box!

Hey, guys! Sharp-O here with some festive treats for you on Day 15 of the Advent Calender of DOOM!

I’m a huge fan of podcasts but one I find myself returning to time and again is the (sadly now defunct) Russell Howard and Jon Richardson podcast that came from BBC 6Music. I mention this because the OCD-ridden Swindonian, Jon Richardson, would often play this particular track around the festive season and became a cult hit thanks to the show and I now have it loaded onto my iPod every December! Now hear dis!

Following the trend of unusual Christmas music, how about a Japanese Ska band singing Jingle Bells? Yes its as kooky as it sounds.

And finally, how about a Christmas Power Ranger? From the astounding Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, I present Gokai Christmas! A combination of the Red and Green that comes once a year! The Christmas episode he debuted in wasn’t spectacular but this was definitely the highlight!

What’s more Christmas-y than Pirate-themed Power Rangers?

That’s all from me for now but come back tomorrow for more festive fun only on The Website of DOOM!