Friday, March 6, 2009

You Really Haven't Lived Until You Have Seen The Japanese Spider-Man TV Show



Writen By: Ken Hulsey
Source: Chicago Tribune

Okay, this is freakin awesome! Marvel Comics is streaming episodes of the 70s Japanese Spider-Man TV series!

In this series, Spider-Man isn't some geeky, science loving, newspaper photographer, named Peter Parker. Oh no, he is a bad ass motorcycle racer named Takuya Yamashiro.

In true Japanese fashion, this Spider-Man doesn't waste his time taking on light-weights like "The Vulture" or "Doctor Octopus." Japanese Spidey fights giant monsters with the aide of his "Voltron-like" robot from space.

I can only describe this one as being "Ultraman", "Wonder Woman" (Lynda Carter version), "Godzilla vs The Cosmic Monster", "Power Rangers", "Voltron" and....well that 70s Spider Man series made here in America, all thrown into a blender.

It really is "Spider-Man" done "Ultraman" style and it is something you really have to see to believe!

If you are a fan of the 70s Godzilla films, and Spider-Man, then you are going to love this! I do.

Here is some history from Wikipedia:

The Japanese tokusatsu version of Spider-Man was a television series produced by Toei Company in 1978, based on Marvel's superhero of the same name.

This version of the famous web-slinging hero was part of a deal that Marvel made with Toei, namely that for a four-year period, Toei could use Marvel's characters in any way they saw fit. So in 1978, a Spider-Man tokusatsu series was produced for Japanese television by Toei Company Ltd. While Spider-Man's costume was certainly based on the original, the storyline had nothing to do with the Marvel character. The series had a major impact on other Japanese live-action (tokusatsu) shows, and in particular the Super Sentai series, by popularizing the use of piloted giant robots to destroy giant monsters. This series also introduced the formula of featuring monster battles on two scales in the same episode.

Young motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro sees a UFO falling to earth, in fact a combat spacecraft named the "Marveller". Takuya's father Dr. Hiroshi Yamashiro, a space archaeologist, investigates the case. The incident also brings the attention of Professor Monster and his evil Iron Cross Army (Tetsu Jūji Dan), an alien group that plans to rule the universe.

See Also: Stan Lee To Be Quest Of Honor At Wizard World Los Angeles / Pusan International Film Festival Focuses On Asian Super Heroes / Tobey Maguire Reportedly Signing On For Spider-Man 4 And 5 / Marvel Is Turning Japanese I Really Think So / Stan Lee Teams Up Hiroyuki Takei To Create Ultimo
Posted by at
Reactions: 
Labels: , , , , , ,

1 comments:

  1. This is fantastic. Thanks for posting it.

    The shots of Spidey scaling the building are great.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Mission Statement

Monster Island News is dedicated to Sci Fi and Monster movie fans around the world. Inspired by the great pulp horror and monster movie magazines of the 1970s, like "Famous Monsters of Filmland" and "Starlog." MIN endeavors to continue the great lagacy they created. Monster Island News is for fans of Godzilla, Gamera, Ultraman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Mummy, Dracula, King Kong and all the other monsters that have given us all nightmares for generations. Don't forget that we also love Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and everything Doctor Who!

We here at Monster Island spend countless hours looking up info on all your favorite sci fi and monster movies both new and old to provide our readers with the best information accented with top quality photos. MIN is an all ages site. People will never have to worry about having younger readers exposed to nude photos, nude videos or other adult related material. That being said it should be pointed out that if someone we interview uses some colorful words in their response we will not censor it. It is important to preseve free speach, so do exercise some caution and take it with a grain of salt. We would not want to intentionally offend anyone.

Just remember Monster Island News was created for fans just like you. The kind of person who would stay up to midnight to watch Godzilla stomp a city flat, the kind of person who cried at the end of Return of the Jedi, the kind of person who wished they could seduce green slave girls like Captain Kirk, The kind of person who dreamed they could travel through time like The Doctor, and the kind of person who will always remain a child at heart. - Ken Hulsey (Founder of Monster Island News)