Tokusatsu
Encyclopedia
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es and makes considerable use of special effect
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s (tokusatsu literally translates as "special filming" in Japanese).
Tokusatsu entertainment often deals with science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
or horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, but movies and television shows in other genres can sometimes count as tokusatsu as well. The most popular types of tokusatsu include kaiju
Kaiju
is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....
monster movies like the Godzilla
Godzilla (film series)
Original movie poster for [[Godzilla |Godzilla]].|thumb is a popular series of giant monster films featuring the character Godzilla. Starting in 1954, the Godzilla series has become one of the longest running film series in movie history....
and Gamera
Gamera
is a giant, flying turtle from a popular series of kaiju films produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company in Japan. Created in 1965 to rival the success of Toho Studios' Godzilla during the daikaiju boom of the mid-to-late 1960s, Gamera has gained fame and notoriety as a Japanese icon in his own...
film series; superhero TV serials such as the Kamen Rider
Kamen Rider Series
The is a metaseries of manga and tokusatsu television programs and films created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. The various Kamen Rider media generally feature a motorcycle-riding superhero with an insect motif who fights supervillains often referred to as...
and Metal Hero series; and mecha
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
dramas like Giant Robo
Giant Robo (tokusatsu)
, is a manga and tokusatsu series created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. It is similar to his famous Tetsujin 28-go , though Giant Robo has more fantastic elements....
. Some tokusatsu television programs combine several of these subgenres, for example the Ultraman
Ultra Series
The is the collective name for all the shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad Ultra Monsters. The Ultra Series is one of the prominent tokusatsu superhero genre productions from Japan, along with Toei produced series Kamen Rider, Super...
and Super Sentai
Super Sentai
The is the name given to the long-running Japanese superhero team genre of shows produced by Toei Co., Ltd., Toei Agency and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi...
series. Tokusatsu is one of the most popular forms of Japanese entertainment, but most tokusatsu movies and television programs are not widely known outside Asia.
Etymology
The term tokusatsu originated as a portmanteau of the Japanese phrase . In production, a special-effects director bears the title of or .History
Tokusatsu has origins in early Japanese theater, specifically kabukiKabuki
is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...
(with its action- and fight-scenes) and bunraku
Bunraku
, also known as Ningyō jōruri , is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theater, founded in Osaka in 1684.Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance:* Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai—puppeteers* Tayū—the chanters* Shamisen players...
which utilized some of the earliest forms of special effects, specifically puppetry
Puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...
. Modern tokusatsu, however, did not begin to take shape until the early 1950s, with the conceptual and creative birth of Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
, one of the most famous monsters (kaiju) of all time.
The special-effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya
Eiji Tsuburaya
was the Japanese special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction movies, including the Godzilla series...
and the director Ishirō Honda
Ishiro Honda
Ishirō Honda , sometimes miscredited in foreign releases as "Inoshiro Honda", was a Japanese film director...
became the driving forces behind 1954's Godzilla
Godzilla (1954 film)
is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura. The film tells the story of Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation, who ravages Japan, bringing back the...
. Tsuburaya, inspired by the American film King Kong
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
, formulated many of the techniques that would become staples of the genre, such as so-called suitmation
Suitmation
is a term originally used in Japan for a tokusatsu technique to portray a daikaiju using a suit actor in a monster suit.The term can be used when puppet does not apply, since the puppet is being worn by an actor, and when costume does not apply, since the costume is also being controlled by a...
—the use of a human actor in a costume to play a giant monster—combined with the use of miniatures and scaled-down city sets. Godzilla forever changed the landscape of Japanese science fiction, fantasy, and cinema by creating a uniquely Japanese vision in a genre typically dominated by American cinema.
King Ghidorah
is a kaiju, a fictional Japanese monster featured in several of Toho Studios' Godzilla films...
leading the market. However, in 1957 Shintōhō
Shintoho
was a Japanese movie studio. It was one of the big-6 film studios during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. It was founded by defectors from the original Tōhō Company...
produced the first film serial featuring the superhero character Super Giant
Super Giant
is a fictional Japanese superhero featured in a successful series of serial-like tokusatsu short feature films produced by Shintoho Company, Ltd....
, signaling a shift in popularity that favored masked heroes over giant monsters. Along with the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
Astro Boy, the Super Giant serials had a profound effect on the world of tokusatsu. The following year, Moonlight Mask
Moonlight Mask
is a fictional superhero that has appeared in Japanese tokusatsu and anime television shows and movies since his TV debut in 1958. Created by writer Kōhan Kawauchi, Moonlight Mask is best described as Japan's answer to The Lone Ranger and Batman....
premiered, the first of numerous televised superhero dramas that would make up one of the most popular tokusatsu subgenres.
These original productions preceded the first color television tokusatsu series, Ambassador Magma
Ambassador Magma
is the title and protagonist of a manga and tokusatsu TV series created by Osamu Tezuka. The TV series, produced by P Productions, aired on Fuji TV from July 4, 1966 to September 25, 1967, with a total of 52 episodes. It is the first color tokusatsu TV series in Japan, beating Ultraman to the...
and Ultraman, which heralded the Kyodai Hero
Kyodai Hero
A is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero who is able to grow to immense heights to fight giant monsters. Such heroes include Osamu Tezuka's Ambassador Magma and Eiji Tsuburaya's Ultraman and other heroes of the Ultra Series.-Heroes:...
genre, wherein a regular-sized protagonist grows to larger proportions to fight equally large monsters.
Suitmation technology
in Japanese identifies the process in tokusatsu movies and television programs used to portray a monster using suit acting. The exact origin of the term remains unknown. At the least, it was used to promote the Godzilla suit from The Return of GodzillaThe Return of Godzilla
The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla The Return of Godzilla (released as in Japan and as Godzilla 1985 in North America, is a 1984 Science Fiction Kaiju film. The sixteenth film in Toho's Godzilla series, it was produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and directed by Koji Hashimoto with special...
.
Franchises and productions
The many productions of tokusatsu series have general themes common throughout different groups.Kaiju
productions primarily feature monsters, or . Such series include Ultra QUltra Q
is a tokusatsu SF/kaiju series made in the tradition of Toho's many tokusatsu sci-fi/horror films.Produced in black and white by Tokyo Broadcasting System/Tsuburaya Productions, this is actually the first of the long-running Ultra Series, and was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System from January...
, the Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
film series, the Gamera
Gamera
is a giant, flying turtle from a popular series of kaiju films produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company in Japan. Created in 1965 to rival the success of Toho Studios' Godzilla during the daikaiju boom of the mid-to-late 1960s, Gamera has gained fame and notoriety as a Japanese icon in his own...
series, the Daimajin
Daimajin
The is a daikaiju from the Daimajin trilogy created by Daiei. All three movies in the trilogy — Daimajin, Return of Daimajin , and Wrath of Daimajin — were made in 1966, and were released months apart. Daimajin Kanon a new television drama based on the films premiered in Japan in 2010...
series, and films such as Frankenstein Conquers the World
Frankenstein Conquers the World
Frankenstein Conquers the World, released in Japan as , with Toho's official English title being Frankenstein vs. Baragon, is a kaiju film produced in 1965 by Toho Company Ltd...
, War of the Gargantuas
War of the Gargantuas
The War of the Gargantuas, released in Japan as , is a 1966 Kaiju film, sequel to Frankenstein vs. Baragon.It introduces two giant, hairy humanoids called Gargantuas, which spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster from the previous film and are described as brothers...
, and .
Kaijin
productions primarily feature a supervillainSupervillain
A supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various media.They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes...
as their central character. This category includes films such as The Secret of the Telegian, The Human Vapor
The Human Vapor
The Human Vapor, known in Japan as , is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho Studios in 1960. The film was made by Toho's legendary Godzilla directing/special effects/producing team of Ishirō Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Tomoyuki Tanaka...
, The H-Man
The H-Man
The H-Man, known in Japan as , is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho Studios in 1958. The film was made by Toho's legendary Godzilla directing/special effects/producing team of Ishirō Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Tomoyuki Tanaka, and is considered part of Toho's "mutant trilogy," along...
, Half Human
Half Human
Half Human, originally released in Japan as , is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho Film Productions Ltd. in 1955. The film was made by Toho's legendary Godzilla production team of Ishirō Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Tomoyuki Tanaka. This was director Honda's second assignment in the...
, and Tomei Ningen
Tomei Ningen
is a black-and-white Japanese action / horror film, originally released in 1954. Produced by the Toho studio, the film is a loose adaption of the science fiction novella entitled The Invisible Man, written by British author H.G. Wells in 1897...
.
Yōkai
Productions that feature have central characters such as ghosts, spirits or demons. The Yokai MonstersYokai Monsters
Yokai Monsters is a series of Japanese children's movies created in the 1960s.There were originally three movies made:* Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare * Yokai Monsters: One Hundred Monsters...
films became a popular yōkai series.
Popular franchises
Tsuburaya Productions
is a Japanese special effects studio founded in 1963 by special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya and was run by his family, until October 2007, when the family sold the company to advertising agency TYO Inc. The studio is best known for producing the original Ultraman TV series, as well as the Ultra...
has had the Ultra Series
Ultra Series
The is the collective name for all the shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad Ultra Monsters. The Ultra Series is one of the prominent tokusatsu superhero genre productions from Japan, along with Toei produced series Kamen Rider, Super...
starting with Ultra Q and Ultraman in 1966. P Productions
P Productions
is a Japanese production company, which has produced anime and tokusatsu programs, with minor work in motion pictures. It was founded by the late TV producer Tomio Sagisu. The company exists today as a stockholder...
began their foray into tokusatsu in 1966 with the series Ambassador Magma. They also had involvement in the Lion-Maru
Lion-Maru
is a Japanese tokusatsu television franchise that began in 1972 by P Productions as Kaiketsu Lion-Maru. The basic premise of the series is that the main character has the ability to transform into a superpowered anthropomorphic lion, usually wielding a katana...
trilogy which concluded in November 2006. Toei Company
Toei Company
is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...
has several series that fall under their Toei Superheroes
Toei Superheroes
Toei Superheroes are superhero shows produced by Toei Company Ltd., which has done the biggest number of live-action tokusatsu superhero shows in Japan...
category of programming, starting in 1961 with the single series, Moonlight Mask. Then, they produced several other longrunning series, starting with the Kamen Rider Series in 1971, the Super Sentai series in 1975, the Metal Hero series in 1982, and the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series
Toei Fushigi Comedy Series
The is a series of Japanese tokusatsu programs produced by Toei Company that features various superheroes much like their Super Sentai and Kamen Rider Series. However these shows mainly focus on cute robots similar to Robocon, cute and unusual creatures, masked individuals who get tracked down by...
in 1981. Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
, the creators of Godzilla, also had their hands in creating the Chouseishin Series
Chouseishin Series
The , translated as Ultra Star God or Super Star God Series, is the name of a tokusatsu superhero TV franchise which debuted in Japan from 2003 through 2006. The Chouseishin Series were produced by Toho Company, Ltd., in association with Konami, in attempt to emulate and rival the success of Toei's...
of programs from 2003 to 2006.
Tokusatsu movies
Various movies classified as tokusatsu actually work like generalized science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
films. These include , , , , , , , , , and .
Non-traditional tokusatsu productions
Non-traditional tokusatsu films and television programs may not use conventional special effects or may not star human actors. Though suitmation typifies tokusatsu, some productions may use stop-motion to animate their monsters instead, for example Majin Hunter Mitsurugi in 1973. TV shows may use traditional tokusatsu techniques, but are cast with puppets or marionettes: Uchuusen Silica (1960); Ginga Shonen Tai (1963); Kuchuu Toshi 008 (1969); and Go NagaiGo Nagai
, better known by the penname , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with Meakashi Polikichi, but is best known for creating Cutie Honey, Devilman, and Mazinger Z in the 1970s. In 2005, he became a...
's X Bomber
X Bomber
is a marionette tokusatsu TV series. It was created by manga master Go Nagai, and produced by Cosmo Productions and Jin Productions. The show aired on Fuji TV from to , with a total of 26 episodes , and was billed in Japan as being filmed in "Sūpāmariorama" , a puppeteering process similar to...
(1980). Some tokusatsu may employ animation in addition to its live-action components: Tsuburaya Productions
Tsuburaya Productions
is a Japanese special effects studio founded in 1963 by special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya and was run by his family, until October 2007, when the family sold the company to advertising agency TYO Inc. The studio is best known for producing the original Ultraman TV series, as well as the Ultra...
' Dinosaur Expedition Team Bornfree (1976), Dinosaur War Aizenborg (1977) and Pro-Wrestling Star Aztekaiser (1976).
Japanese fan films
Hideaki AnnoHideaki Anno
is a Japanese animation and film director. Anno is best known for his work on the popular anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. His style has come to be defined by the touches of postmodernism that he injects into his work, as well as the thorough portrayal of characters' thoughts and emotions,...
, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
is a Japanese character designer, manga artist, and one of the founding members of the Gainax anime studio. Before the studio was founded under the official name , he served as animator on the second animated project, the Daicon IV opening animation...
, Takami Akai
Takami Akai
is an illustrator, game creator, character designer and animator born on November 21, 1961 in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. He was a board member of Gainax, and runs his own company titled NineLives. His wife is Kimiko Higuchi...
, and Shinji Higuchi
Shinji Higuchi
is a storyboard artist and is one of the top special effects wizards in Japan, best known for his work on the Heisei Gamera Trilogy. He works on both anime and tokusatsu projects.-Biography:...
set up a fan-based group called Daicon Film, which they renamed Gainax
Gainax
is a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as Gunbuster, The Wings of Honneamise, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which have gone on to critical acclaim and commercial success, as well as for their association with...
in 1985 and turned into an animation studio. Besides anime sequences, they also produced a series of tokusatsu shorts parodying monster movies and superhero shows. These productions include Patriotic Squadron Dai-Nippon (1983), Swift Hero Noutenki
Kaiketsu Noutenki
, is a series of tokusatsu fan film parodies produced by Daicon Films . A parody of the 1977 Toei superhero show Swift Hero Zubat , the title hero of this series has the same exact alter-ego, Ken Hayakawa, only he is comically fat fanboyish young man wearing the same exact gringo cowboy attire! ...
(1982), Return of Ultraman (1983) and The Eight-Headed Giant Serpent Strikes Back (1985).
Around 2000, the comedian Shinpei Hayashiya produced a number of tokusatsu fan film
Fan film
A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by...
s. These include Godzilla Vs. Seadora and Gamera 4: Truth. In 2005 he completed his first original effort, Deep Sea Beast Reigo
Deep Sea Beast Reigo
is a 2005 independent tokusatsu film by Shinpei Hayashiya. Veteran artist Keita Amemiya designed the titular monster. The film's original working title was Reigo vs...
.
Tokusatsu-influenced productions outside Japan
Tokusatsu techniques have spread outside Japan due to the popularity of the Godzilla films. In 1961 England-based film-makers produced the Godzilla-style film, Gorgo, which used the same suitmation technique as the Godzilla films. That same year, Saga StudiosSaga Studios
Saga Studios was a film production company in Denmark. They produced many films up to the late 60s, many of their films starred Danish comedian Dirch Passer....
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
made another Godzilla-style giant monster film, Reptilicus
Reptilicus
Reptilicus, a giant monster film about a fictional prehistoric reptile, is a Danish-American co-production, produced by American International Pictures and Saga Studios, and is upon close examination two distinctly different films helmed by two different directors.The original version, which was...
, bringing its monster to life using a marionette on a miniature set. In 1967, South Korea produced its own monster movie titled Taekoesu Yonggary
Yonggary
Yonggary or Yongary , also known as Yongary, Monster from the Deep, is a 1967 South Korean Kaiju film directed by prominent genre-film director Kim Ki-duk...
. In 1975, Shaw Brothers
Shaw Brothers Studio
The Shaw Brothers Studio , owned by Shaw Brothers Ltd., was the foremost and the largest movie production company of Hong Kong movies.From their distribution base in Singapore where they founded parent company Shaw Organization in 1924, and as a strategic development of their movie distribution...
produced a superhero film called The Super Inframan
The Super Inframan
The Super Inframan is a Hong Kong tokusatsu-style superhero film produced by Shaw Brothers Studio in 1975. Based upon the huge success of the Japanese tokusatsu shows Ultraman and Kamen Rider in Hong Kong, this film features the same type of "henshin", monster/robot action and costumed derring-do,...
, based on the huge success of Ultraman and Kamen Rider there. The film starred Danny Lee
Danny Lee
Danny Lee Sau-Yin is a Hong Kong actor, film producer, screenwriter, director, action director and presenter. He is best known for frequently portraying Hong Kong police officers in films such as Law With Two Phases, The Killer and The Untold Story.-Background:Lee did not do so well in school and...
in the title role. Although there were several other similar superhero productions in Hong Kong, The Super Inframan came first. With help from Japanese special effects artists under Sadamasa Arikawa, they also produced a Japanese-styled monster movie, The Mighty Peking Man
The Mighty Peking Man
The Mighty Peking Man is a 1977 film produced in Hong Kong by Shaw Brothers Studio to capitalize on the craze surrounding the 1976 remake of King Kong...
, in 1977. In 2001, Buki X-1 Productions, a French fan-based production company, produced its own series, Jushi Sentai France Five (now called Shin Kenjushi France Five), a tribute to Toei's long running Super Sentai series. In 2004, Peter Tatara (with his company Experimental Amateur Hero Productions) produced a low-budget superhero video series called Johnny Robo, which is a tribute/deconstruction/parody of the Kamen Rider series and the Henshin hero
Henshin
is the Japanese word for "transformation," literally meaning, "to change or transform the body." This word is primarily used in manga, anime, and tokusatsu dramas for when a character transforms into a superhero. usually have a "henshin call", a catchphrase which they recite when they transform...
genre. The low-budget television series Kaiju Big Battel
Kaiju Big Battel
Kaiju Big Battel is a performance by the Boston, Massachusetts based performance entertainment troupe Studio Kaiju created by Rand Borden and David Borden. The performances are parodies of both professional wrestling and the tokusatsu kaiju movies of Japan...
directly parodies monster and Kyodai Hero
Kyodai Hero
A is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero who is able to grow to immense heights to fight giant monsters. Such heroes include Osamu Tezuka's Ambassador Magma and Eiji Tsuburaya's Ultraman and other heroes of the Ultra Series.-Heroes:...
films and series by immersing their own costumed characters in professional wrestling matches among cardboard buildings. In 2006, the South Korean series Erexion
Erexion
SFX Drama Erexion is a South Korean "children's special effects drama" that premiered on November 24, 2006. It is produced by Chungam Entertainment and airs on KBS 2. Its format is similar to the tokusatsu productions of Japan...
premiered as a "children's special effects drama"; its style is reminiscent of tokusatsu techniques. In 2006, Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers
Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers
Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers is a television show on MTV UK. The show is a parody of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and it also pokes fun at the emo stereotype. Mighty Moshin Emo Rangers is directed by Chris Phillips and Nick Pittom, who both live in Essex, England; sound design is by Dominic Sinacola...
premiered on the internet as a Power Rangers
Power Rangers
Power Rangers is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes...
spoof, but was quickly picked up by MTV UK for broadcast. In 2006, Insector Sun, a low-budget tribute to Kamen Rider was produced by Brazilian fans. In addition, a Thai
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
Sentai-style series Sport Ranger
Sport Ranger
Squadron Sport Ranger is a Thai live-action superhero television series similar to the Japanese Super Sentai and the American Power Rangers franchises. It premiered on August 6, 2006 and aired on Thai Channel 3...
began broadcasting on August 2006. Chinese television started broadcasting Armor Hero ( pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Kǎi Jiǎ Yǒng Shì) in 2009 which calls itself "Chinese Original Tokusatsu".
Adaptations
Godzilla, King of the Monsters!Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a 1956 Japanese/American black-and-white science fiction kaiju film. It is an "Americanized" version of the original Godzilla film, which had previously been shown subtitled in the United States in Japanese community theaters only, and was not known in Europe...
first appeared in English in 1956. Rather than a simple dub of the Japanese-language original, this work represented an entirely re-edited version which restructured the plot to incorporate a new character played by an American actor, Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...
. Ultraman gained popularity when United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
dubbed it for American audiences in the 1960s.
A major influx of tokusatsu adaptations came to American television in the 1990s, starting in 1993 with Saban
Saban
Saban Entertainment , was a worldwide-served independent American television production company formed in 1984 by music and television producers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy as "Saban Productions", a U.S...
Entertainment's purchase of footage from Toei's sixteenth installment of their long-running Super Sentai series, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger to become Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and start the popular Power Rangers franchise. Subsequent seasons of Super Sentai would be adapted in similar fashion for later seasons of the show. An adaptation of footage from Choujinki Metalder
Choujinki Metalder
is the sixth and shortest entry of the Metal Hero Series, running from March 16, 1987, to January 17, 1988, for only 39 episodes. The action footage of Metalder was adaptated for the first two seasons of VR Troopers...
, Jikuu Senshi Spielban
Jikuu Senshi Spielban
is a Japanese tokusatsu television series, part of the Metal Hero Series created by Toei Co. Ltd. from April 7, 1986 to March 9, 1987. Spielban's action footage was used for the battle scenes in VR Troopers....
, and Uchuu Keiji Shaider
Uchuu Keiji Shaider
is the third part of the Metal Hero Series, the last of the Space Sheriff Trilogy. It aired on TV Asahi from March 2, 1984 to March 1, 1985. Its action footage was used for Season 2 of VR Troopers...
from the Metal Hero series, became VR Troopers
VR Troopers
VR Troopers was a syndicated live action show produced by Saban from 1994 to 1996...
in 1994. There followed an adaptation of the ninth series in the Kamen Rider franchise, Kamen Rider Black RX
Kamen Rider BLACK RX
is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series produced as part of the Kamen Rider Series. The ninth show in the franchise, it was a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei Company, and aired on the Mainichi Broadcasting System and the Tokyo Broadcasting System from October...
, into Saban's Masked Rider. In 1996 and 1997, Juukou B-Fighter
Juukou B-Fighter
, was a 1995 Japanese tokusatsu television series. B-Fighter is short for "Beetle Fighter". It was part of Toei's ongoing Metal Hero Series. It dealt with three members of the prestigious fighting against the evil forces of the otherworldly Jamahl Empire...
and its sequel B-Fighter Kabuto
B-Fighter Kabuto
is a Japanese television series in the Metal Hero Series. It is the sequel to Juukou B-Fighter, taking place ten years after the preceding B-Fighter series. Kabuto aired from 1996 to 1997. The action footage and props were used for the Beetleborgs Metallix series.-Plot:Ten years after the...
became Big Bad Beetleborgs
Big Bad Beetleborgs
Big Bad Beetleborgs is an American television series produced by Saban Entertainment. It aired for two seasons on Fox Kids between September 7, 1996 and March 2, 1998. Reruns later aired on UPN Kids during 1998-1999...
and its sequel Beetleborgs Metallix. DiC Entertainment
DiC Entertainment
DIC Entertainment was an international film and television production company. In addition to animated television shows such as Ulysses 31 , Inspector Gadget , The Littles , The Real Ghostbusters , Captain Planet and the Planeteers , and the first two seasons of the English adaptation of...
, in 1994, purchased the footage of Tsuburaya Productions' Denkou Choujin Gridman
Denkou Choujin Gridman
, translated into English as Lightning Superman Gridman, is a Japanese tokusatsu "Giant Hero" series by Tsuburaya Productions, the producers of Ultraman. The show ran from 1993 to 1994. It was the inspiration and source material for DiC Entertainment's Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad...
to create Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad
Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad
Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad is an American television series. It was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Ultracom and DIC Entertainment, with distribution by All American Television , and ran for two seasons from September 12, 1994 to July 15, 1995 on ABC, as well as syndication...
. Most recently, the third Heisei Kamen Rider series Kamen Rider Ryuki
Kamen Rider Ryuki
is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It was the twelfth installment in the Kamen Rider Series of tokusatsu shows. It was a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei, and it was shown on TV Asahi from February 3, 2002 to January 19, 2003. The catchphrase for the series is...
has been adapted into Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight
Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight
Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight is the Daytime Emmy Award-winning American adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Ryuki, the twelfth installment of the Kamen Rider Series. It was brought to television by Steve and Michael Wang and produced by Jimmy Sprague through Adness Entertainment...
, which began broadcast on The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids is a Saturday morning cartoon block on The CW Television Network that premiered on May 24, 2008 in the place of Kids' WB...
in 2009, and won the first Daytime Emmy
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
for "Outstanding Stunt Coordination" for its original scenes.
Foreign productions as tokusatsu
The Japanese market regards several British and American live-action series dubbed into Japanese as tokusatsu programs. These include Doctor WhoDoctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
, Smallville
Smallville (TV series)
Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar based on the DC Comics character Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The television series was initially broadcast by The WB Television Network , premiering on October...
, Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman (TV series)
Wonder Woman is an American television series based on the DC Comics comic book superhero of the same name. Starring Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor, the show originally aired from 1975 to 1979....
, MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
, Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games...
, Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
, The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero is an American comedy-drama television series that aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981...
, Knight Rider, and even puppet shows such as Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
Thomas and Friends is a British children's television series, first broadcast on the ITV network in September 1984. Until 2003, it was named Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. This series was shot on 35mm film...
.