Little known fact about me, loyal readers: I happen to be a fan of Japanese pop culture. Specifically anime, manga, and without a doubt, Tokusatsu television shows. "Tokusatsu" is Japan's take on costumed superheroes with an easy example being Super Sentai, which was adapted into the American television series we know as Power Rangers. But did you know the existence of those teenagers with attitude was all thanks to Marvel's teenager with attitude? Sit down as I teach you about Spider-Man's Japanese television series.
In 1978, Marvel Comics made a deal with the Japanese production company Toei to allow borrowing of certain characters. Marvel wanted to use two of Toei's cartoon robots for a comic series called "Shogun Warriors" and Toei wanted to use Marvel's Spider-Man. Toei's Spider-Man show was actually going feature Spidey as a supporting character to the legendary prince of the Yamoto Dynasty, Yamoto Takeru. This was scrapped and Spider-Man was made the focus of this show. This version of Spider-Man was vastly different from the original, with Spidey's creator Stan Lee praising the show's originality and effects work. The show lasted 41 episodes and many of it's tropes-giant monsters, battle robots, catchphrases and action poses-were brought over to Toei's proceeding TV series like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.
This Spider-Man was a 22 year-old motorcycle racer named Takuya Yamashiro. He lived with his sister and little brother, and his girlfriend was a freelance photographer. Takuya's father was an astronomer and was killed by aliens. After finding a crashed spaceship, Takuya met a warrior named Garia from Planet Spider. Garia had failed to save his planet 400 years ago from the same aliens who killed Takuya's father and in his dying moments injected his blood into Takuya and gave him his ship, The Marveller. The alien blood gave Takuya super strength, wall clinging and precognition, but also spider-like weakness like vulnerability to cold temperatures. Takuya was also given The Spider Bracelet which spun webs, strings, his Spider-Protector suit and allowed him to control his machines. Machines like The cannon-bearing Marveller, the weaponed flying car Spider-Machine GP7 and Spider-Man's ultimate weapon, the giant robot Leopardon.
Like Peter Parker, Takuya had many issues revolving around his heroic responsibilities. He was often labelled a coward for running away from fights (only to return and fight as Spider-Man), he gained less income as his duties as Spider-Man would keep him from racing and he'd constantly struggle with the death of his father. His enemies included the alien organization known as The Iron Cross Army and their leader Professor Monster. The Iron Cross' other leader was Amazoness, a shapeshifting Amazon who attempted to discover Spider-Man's secret identity. Each episode would feature a monster created by Professor Monster and groups of Iron Cross foot soldiers.
This show was uploaded onto Marvel's official site in 2009 if you still want to check it out. It's defiantly a bizarre take on Spider-Man, but enjoyable in consideration of what this show did for Japanese television. Without this show, the genre of Tokusatsu wouldn't exist much like the superhero genre not existing without Superman's creation. It's nice to know that despite whatever dark history America has with Japan, stories like these convince us that people of all nations can unite under one concept. Good versus evil. And we have squinty-eyed Spider-Man to thank for that. That wasn't a racial joke, that Spider-Man costume literally has squinty eyes. Jeez, I'm classier than that kind of satire. Anyway, thanks for reading!
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