Hawaiian Childhood Flashbacks.
Aug. 25th, 2003 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patgundWhile in Little Tokyo last Saturday, I found something that returned me to my childhood.
I lived in Hawaii from 1970 to 1975, while my dad was stationed at Hickam AFB. And like most Hawaiian kids my age, I was addicted to two Japanese "Sendai" live action shows, "Kikaida" and "Rainbowman".
Kikaida, (also known as Kikader), was a series about a humanoid robot named Jiro, who was designed to defeat a legion of various monster robots built by DARK and the evil Professor Gill. Jiro looked human, and had a circut designed to let him know right from wrong. To defeat the evil robots, Jiro could transform into Kikaida, a kick-ass fighting robot. An average episode went like this.
Evil monster robot shows up.
Evil monster robot kills the expendable extra of the day, and thenkidnaps someone, (usually the daughter or annoying son of Jiro's creator)
The Evil monster robot (and the expendable robot henchmen, all of which must have gone to the same tactical school as Imperial Stormtroopers) hear a haunting guitar song.
Jiro is standing about 2-6 stories up, playing his red guitar.
Jiro puts down the guitar and dives down into the fray to save the victim.
Massive martial arts fray insues.
Professor Gill plays his flute, which causes Jiro to go out of control and makes the evil monster robot more powerful.
Jiro transforms into Kikaida, and an even bigger martial arts fray ensues
Kikaida kicks Evil monster robot's metallic ass.
Evil robot explodes into a pile of various scrap electrical stuff that must have been found in the studio's dumpster.
Jiro rides into the sunset on his motorcycle, red guitar on his back.
Well, I found *licenced* Kikaida episodes on DVD. In Japanese, with subtitles. They're done by a studio in Hawaii, off the the prints that the local Japanese TV station used in the 70's and again for a revival in 1998 (it's still amazingly successful there). So I grabbed the first one, and watched two of the five episodes last night.
It's scary, I still remember the theme song. The special effects by today's standards are cheesy enough to make an entire crate of goldfish crackers, but I still found it a blast to watch.
The other series was "Rainbowman" (Ai no Senshi Reinbooman, or "Rainbowman, Warrior of Love". No, I'm not kidding, that was the actual title. Sounds more like a cheesy porn title.) They didn't have DVD's at the store and I would love to get ahold of them if possible.
Rainbowman was weird, but fun. Basic concept was:
A disgraced ex-wrestler (Takeshi Yamato) hopes to redeem himself by going to India and studying under the mystic Daibadatta. He does such, and when Daibadatta dies his mystic energy is transferred to Yamato. This gives him the abilty to transform into the Warrior of Love, Rainbowman. Rainbowman has seven forms, (Moonman, Fireman, Waterman, Treeman, Goldman, Earthman, and the most common, Sunman), which give him various elemental powers. He then goes back to Japan to fight a mysterious Chinese organization (Shrine Shine Dan, or "Die Die Gang"), trying to destroy Japan in revenge for World War II.
(Now, let's face it, there's no way something like this could be made in the US. Some people would complain that the term "Rainbowman" was promoting homosexuality or some such, and the entire idea of someone studying in India and becoming a superhero with elemental forms would have some people screaming about "new age propaganda!" Gak.)
Cheesy, but cool.
I lived in Hawaii from 1970 to 1975, while my dad was stationed at Hickam AFB. And like most Hawaiian kids my age, I was addicted to two Japanese "Sendai" live action shows, "Kikaida" and "Rainbowman".
Kikaida, (also known as Kikader), was a series about a humanoid robot named Jiro, who was designed to defeat a legion of various monster robots built by DARK and the evil Professor Gill. Jiro looked human, and had a circut designed to let him know right from wrong. To defeat the evil robots, Jiro could transform into Kikaida, a kick-ass fighting robot. An average episode went like this.
Evil monster robot shows up.
Evil monster robot kills the expendable extra of the day, and thenkidnaps someone, (usually the daughter or annoying son of Jiro's creator)
The Evil monster robot (and the expendable robot henchmen, all of which must have gone to the same tactical school as Imperial Stormtroopers) hear a haunting guitar song.
Jiro is standing about 2-6 stories up, playing his red guitar.
Jiro puts down the guitar and dives down into the fray to save the victim.
Massive martial arts fray insues.
Professor Gill plays his flute, which causes Jiro to go out of control and makes the evil monster robot more powerful.
Jiro transforms into Kikaida, and an even bigger martial arts fray ensues
Kikaida kicks Evil monster robot's metallic ass.
Evil robot explodes into a pile of various scrap electrical stuff that must have been found in the studio's dumpster.
Jiro rides into the sunset on his motorcycle, red guitar on his back.
Well, I found *licenced* Kikaida episodes on DVD. In Japanese, with subtitles. They're done by a studio in Hawaii, off the the prints that the local Japanese TV station used in the 70's and again for a revival in 1998 (it's still amazingly successful there). So I grabbed the first one, and watched two of the five episodes last night.
It's scary, I still remember the theme song. The special effects by today's standards are cheesy enough to make an entire crate of goldfish crackers, but I still found it a blast to watch.
The other series was "Rainbowman" (Ai no Senshi Reinbooman, or "Rainbowman, Warrior of Love". No, I'm not kidding, that was the actual title. Sounds more like a cheesy porn title.) They didn't have DVD's at the store and I would love to get ahold of them if possible.
Rainbowman was weird, but fun. Basic concept was:
A disgraced ex-wrestler (Takeshi Yamato) hopes to redeem himself by going to India and studying under the mystic Daibadatta. He does such, and when Daibadatta dies his mystic energy is transferred to Yamato. This gives him the abilty to transform into the Warrior of Love, Rainbowman. Rainbowman has seven forms, (Moonman, Fireman, Waterman, Treeman, Goldman, Earthman, and the most common, Sunman), which give him various elemental powers. He then goes back to Japan to fight a mysterious Chinese organization (Shrine Shine Dan, or "Die Die Gang"), trying to destroy Japan in revenge for World War II.
(Now, let's face it, there's no way something like this could be made in the US. Some people would complain that the term "Rainbowman" was promoting homosexuality or some such, and the entire idea of someone studying in India and becoming a superhero with elemental forms would have some people screaming about "new age propaganda!" Gak.)
Cheesy, but cool.
