Living in Japan
By Spectre X

I was in Japan probably during the time that most Japanese superhero fans would envy. That is, during the time of Kamen Rider V3 and Kikaider 01. Kikaider was already in reruns during the after school period, everyday on NET (that's around 3 or 4pm, I believe.) Of course, Kikaider followed Kamen Rider, which was also being rerun. I must have seen the entire Kikaider and Kamen Rider sagas at least three times each. And I might add that a flip of a dial brought me the entire Ultraman through Ultraman Ace sagas, being repeated, same time slot, every week day , without interruptions (except for Saturdays and Sundays, of course).

I wanted to let you know what it was like to discover all these shows for the first time, and give a reason as to why classic heros are exactly what they are, and what they mean.

When I came to Japan V3 was midway through the series, being aired for the first time. So I got to see the Riderman saga, which was quite interesting. Anyway, having just had our televison installed, I wanted to check out the Japanese programming, to see what was on. It was a kid's dream, I guess you could say. I mean, having just departed from the US with the best that Saturday morning cartoons could offer - Scooby doobie dooo, and some long repeated Bugs Bunny episodes (they're not too bad, but I'd rather watch Gorenger than Bugs Bunny.) it was certainly a breath of fresh air. The only show that almost came close to the feel that Japanese shows could offer was the old Underdog show. I'll get into that a little later.

Just having turned on the TV around 7pm on a Saturday night, remarkably, the first thing I saw was a close-up of Kamen Rider V3. It was during the opening theme. And the first thought I had was "what's that?" And that's what my sister said. We stared almost in disbelief. "A superhero that had features of a bug?" But something about the design looked really inexplicably cool. After watching that half hour show, something else happened, unbelievable as it may seem. Kikaider 01 followed, on that very same channel! Now, after having seen these programs, I can tell you that I intended to bring this up at school on Monday. Who could believe that a kid's dream had come true. Great superhero shows with great music on prime time, when you wouldn't expect it. And so I couldn't wait to bring this up in class on Monday. But even before that would happen, I would discover Gatchaman and Mazinger Z Sunday night. If I'm not mistaken, Gatchman came on at around 6pm or 6:30, and Mazinger Z at 7pm, same channel. This was in Yokohama, Japan.

Let me tell you something, however. I went to an English speaking school where American military kids attended, in Japan. We lived on Naval bases and were housed in like communities. So school was no different than say in any school in the US. You'd think that you were still in the US if it weren't for the television and radio broadcasting. So anyway, I went to school and it was scary to be introduced to a new environment. But as soon as I got acquainted with some of the kids, I was surprised that they were the ones who asked me if I had seen this stuff. I told them what I saw, and they would say, "Oh, yes, that Kamen Rider V3." They would ask me if I had seen other shows like Kikaider, and I was bewildered and did't know what to say. But it was interesting to note that they were already excited about those shows.

After school, the next door neighbor kid, named Lenny (the guy who showed me how to get to school), came running out of his house. Lenny liked to read MAD magazine, and he had this book called "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions". He liked to read pages out of those books. I was a serious kid at that time and I didn't see the humor in those publications, however. But this time, instead of pulling out his book, he said:

"Hey, did you see Changee?"

Pause.

I thought, "Could he be talking about "Kikaider"? I said, in answer, "yes". I never did tell Lenny that Changee was not Kikaider's name. I suppose that one day Lenny would learn the truth, but so-long as he keeps typing in "Changee" in his Google searches, he's never going to find Changee.

But Lenny wasn't the only one who called Kikaider Changee. It seems that some of the other English speaking kids would also call Kikaider Changee and every time somebody called him Changee it would catch me off guard. The reason for this mistaken identy, I realized, was because the theme song of Kikaider ended saying:

"Changee, Changee, go, go, go,....go,go,go. "

But some of the more astute English speaking kids noted that everytime that Kikaider was spoken to, he was called Kikaider. And also, Jiro, always said "change" when he was going to transform. But the most common question that I've been asked regarding some of these shows, is "did you see Changee?" I always went along with it and just gave a blank look. I didn't know what to say, and certainly I did not want to embarrass anyone.

Being in hero-town Japan meant scouring the television channels looking for new super-hero shows. It was tricky as there weren't any television guides written in English. So one had to look frequently to find that hidden program that you're missing. To miss a first episode was, to put it mildly, awful. I missed the first episode of Acumaizer 3, for instance. My friends alerted me to the program, fortunately. The other trick is finding a way to watch your program without sister interference. At that time Japanese shows seemed to be an almost strict dichotomy. Meaning, you had shows that girls really liked and shows that mostly guys really liked. The girl shows were yucky to boys. Boys like me did not like the idea that Kamen Rider Stronger had a girl partner. I wished every cotton picken show that she was killed off. The one girl in Gorenger was tolerable, as there were more men than girls. We'll let Aphrodite A stay, as she was mostly background music. I guess the writers of Stronger tapped into the unseen feelings that I had, and got rid of Tackle. But it took long enough. Anyway, more about fighting over the television set later. Just say it got really vicious. And my sister wanted to watch Magic Megu, Sally, Heidi, and whatever Japanese girl show that was on.

Come Thursday, that first week of Japanese television, I found the wildest super hero yet. He had multicolored eyes, lightning unantenna, threw a scarf that turned into a huge chain, and there were cohorts that helped him out. And, funny thing, Jiro, called Guro, changed into this guy. What, indeed, was this guy? I couldn't wait until the next day to find out. And the next day, having described the guy to Anthony, a friend of mine, he immediately said, "Oh, that must be Inazuman." And so it was. I liked Inazuman, as the hero had two forms. Sanagiman, which was a cocoon form of Inazuman, and Inazuman, of course. Sanagiman's cocoon would explode revealing Inazuman inside. Of course, kinetic energy from the beating, that Sanagiman took from thevicious villians, provided the energy that activated Inazuman's henshin mechanism. Henshin means to change. The background feeling of the show was mild horror, as the villians were magical and liked to terrorize people. The second season of Inazuman got old to me. I felt that they got rid of the supporting actors to lower the budget, and some of the villians liked to stick around too much to save on budget or something or another. Also, they got rid of Sanagiman, and that was a real disapointment.

In the afternoons on NET, I also watch Giant Robo and Rainbow Man. Many American fans like Giant Robo as it had a brief exposure in the US during the late 70's. But I saw Giant Robo as second fiddle to Ultra Seven, Fireman, and Jumborg 9 (I liked 9 more than Ace). As to Rainbow Man, I liked the show in that there were many forms of the one called Rainbow Man. There was Rainbow dash one, dash two, through seven. I don't want to get too much into Rainbow Man, except to say that, like Inazuman, alll but one of Rainbow Man's forms were elimenated in the second season. Rainbow Man, and Giant Robo appeared on NET along with Kikaider, Kamen Rider, and the rest. An after school kid's delight.

After being in Japan a few days, I started venturing out into the surrounding community. Since the English speaking folks weren't fenced in, it was, for me, easy to walk in to nearby Japan town. Well, not exactly Japan town, but that's a good description. Since both of my parents worked, I had all the freedom in the world to go where I wanted. I started checking out the local toy stores, book stores and visiting the candy shops. For three cents I could purchase a crunchy rice-marshmellow cookie, just like the ones they sell in the states for around 50¢. And for 20 yen, I could purchase "coffee gunyu." Coffee milk, that is. It tasted like coffee mocha or something like that. I think I was having some great deals at that time, as yen was around 280 per one American dollar. I just know that I'd give my mother 3¢ and she'd give me 10 yen. So for 6 ¢ I would get a bottle of Japanese coffee mocha. If you want to know exactly what it tastes like, purchase a bottle of Starbucks bottled coffee mocha. You'd pay over a buck right now for that. And by the way, you get the same quantity and pretty much an identical bottle. Then one day I saw what I saw advertised on television. It was called, "Kamen Rider Choco-ball." It was the equilavent of our peanut M&M's except I thought it tasted better. It came in a small box, and had a sticker of whatever Kamen Rider happened to be on television. I have a mess of Kamen Rider X stickers.

How do you purchase things when you don't know Japanese? Well, I learned a little Japanese. "Kori-wa, ikura?" Means how much is this. Unfortunately, I hardly used the words as someone might say, "hakyu go-ju yen", and I'd look up real sorry and think, "I guess I'll go look for merchandise that is labeled with a price instead." It was really difficult to figure something out, sometimes.

Once I was downtown with a friend of mine, Michael Kelly. I purchased an Album of Yusha Raideen. When I was on my way home, I noticed that I no longer had my album. Boy was I shocked. Michael "Scooter" and I scooted back down to town and hit our last stop. I said to the lady, "Laideen record-o?" and motioned with my hands. She retrieved the album and said something. Couldn't understand it. She looked angry. My friend said "say it." I said "say what?" He said "say it." I said "say what?" She finally handed me the album and as we walked away, Scooter said, "you should of said it." "Say what?" "Thanks." That would have been "domo arigato." I guess after that shameful experience I would be much more considerate about situations like this. I never forgot it.

Another time I saw my sister and her friend talking to some Japanese boys and I hid behind a sign and threw a rock at them. They chased me down the street and I ran as hard as I could. Finally the five or so boys trapped me in a circle. They kept saying something which I didn't understand. And I said "shut up." I think one of them said "Are you American," or something of that sort. And I said "shut up." They laughed at me when ever I said it. And repeated my words and laughed. Finally an older man came out and told them to let me go and I ran, of course.

But aside from that, I began to purchase lots of Japanese superhero stuff. That meant Jobokins, TV guides, and record albums. You could purchase a set of five cards in a pack that had pictures of Japanese superheros. They also had rounds one. They were called "minkos" and you're supposed to lay one on the ground and throw the other in order to flip it. I forget what the American version of this was called, but the Japanese had them first by at least 15 or so years. Funny thing about these cards is that some of the kids at school taped huge wads of these cards together with masking tape, and used them to flip cards. One day, while at the stores, I found these ultra, small and thin minkos, and you could get a lot for very little yen. So I hid them in my pocket. I brought my box of real minkos and sat them on the ground for all eyes to see. I challenged this guy and layed my card on the ground. He flipped it and I pulled out of my pocket these cheap minkos and gave it to him as his reward. And he wasn't happy with that. But it was a good joke. For the most part I didn't participate in these games. After all, if you smacked your card on the ground, you'd ruin it, so that was a waste of money. I mean, there goes your Ultraman Leo card, full of pock marks.

There are several reasons as to why I liked Japanese superheros. The costume design was unusual. The major difference between American heros and Japanese ones would be the mask. The mask was solid and surrounded the entire head. One exception would be Riderman, or even Tackle. The second would be that the hero was someone that you could identify with. Of course Americans had a version of that hero, and that would be Spiderman. The third reason would be that the Japanese hero struggled to become better. Usually after having been licked and beaten around. Fourth, would be that the Japanese Hero presented himself as a sacrificial fighter. One who fights to the death. Lastly, Japanese superhero shows had a beginning and an end. There are few exceptions. There is usually a story about the heros origin, and a show about the utter destruction of the evil doers. Have you noticed that American heros like Spiderman and Incredible Hulk have origins but no endings? Oh yes, there is one last thing that I've neglected to point out. Japanese superhero shows had great music put to them. These songs were sold enmass on record albums.

Speaking of which, in school, in music class, the teacher would play Kamen Rider . The first day of my class attendance, she told us to line up. We did. Then she put the record on and told us to jump when the song said jump, and kick when the song said kick. So we jumped and kicked, not to mention spun our hands around to emulate the music. One day I brought my Kamen Rider V3 record and she made a copy of the song and played that in class. That was a hard one to do. She said that she had wanted a copy of Kikaider. Didn't have that at the time, however. Finally the day dawned upon me when my family had to return to the states. So-long Kikaider, and all the rest. Didn't get to see the ending of Acumaizer 3. Combatler V was just starting. Chodain was just beginning. Gaiking was in launch mode. Fortunately I've seen every episode of Gatchaman, Mazinger Z, Kamen Rider V3, X, Amazon, Kikaider, O1, Ultra Brothers (excepting Taro), and many others. Unfortunately, due to my sister arguing for television rights, I missed the final episode of Stronger, and the V3/ Stronger team-up episode. This was due to Gorenger having been on during the same time-slot as Stronger. I liked Kamen Rider better than Gorenger, and so it was an easy choice for me. But as to why NET dumped the Riders for Gorenger was beyond me, but it made me mad. I remember screaming at my sister. "The final episode is coming up. We'll miss that!" And sure enough, when it was my turn to watch Stronger, we turn the channel. My sister said, "where is it?" "I told you, it was ending." And that was the end of that.

Anyway, the final days of Japan meant my last few Jobokins. I bought one of Combatler and another of Chodain. When I got back to the states, I was back to Scooby Doobie Dooo. Now I got to watch the "Groovie Goolies," "Funky Phantom," and the Smurfs. Yippee. Note sarcasm. It was great boredom until Star Wars came out that is. I noticed also that my purchasing power got chopped in half. Now my 5 dollar record album was replaced by a 10 dollar one. Massive inflation, all at once. Let's go back to Japan.

Living in the states weren't all that bad. In the late 70's I went back to watching Creature Features with host Bob Wilkins on KTVU 2, in San Francisco. Back then, Channel 2 had a small town feeling about it, and it readily accomodated the likes of Bob Wilkins, the humorist who brought us Friday and Saturday night horror flicks. And, watching Godzilla during those times, was a plus. One day Bob started hosting Captain Cosmic, and all of a sudden I was watching Space Giants, Ultraman, Spectre Man, Giant Robo and Star Blazers. I could never get over the feeling that I was missing the really great Japanese shows, but at least they provided a better alternative to Scoobie doobie dooo. I've had enough of those Gilligan Island reruns. Meanwhile, August Regoni was doing his part to get these superhero shows popularized and I actually met August. August, made it possible for me to get some superhero books, and other stuff. I saw August on television with Bob Wilkins and started corresponding with him. I became the 100th member of his Godzilla Fan Club. August has more stuff than I ever had. He probably has more stuff than any Japanese hero collector that exists to this day. No kidding. I went to the San Diego comic convention where I stayed with him, Damon Foster, and a horde of other interested individuals in a rented hotel room. Outside our room the "runners" from Logan's Run were wreaking havoc and upsetting hotel furniture. One of our friends turned up his album of Yamato full blast and hotel security came to our room to check it out. That's was quite interesting. Through August, I was able to meet Fred Patton, of the then up and running Cartoon/Fantasy organization. Fred wrote an article in Starlog magazine that compared Marvel superheros with Toei superheros. Fred wrote that they should get together. And so I blame Fred Patton for creating the Japanese Spiderman. In fact, Fred compared Marvel's Spiderman with Kabuto Koji (Mazinger 's pilot). It's all Fred's fault. Anyway, those were my experiences. Nowadays life will never be the same.

Spectre X