GHWP Live Tweet June 16, 2015

    

     It's Toku Tuesday once again, and I'm running out of extra tokusatsu intros to pad in between my Spectreman episodes. It's not for the lack of their existence but rather a disappointing decrease in the intros that used to be on YouTube. It used to be a simple matter to type in a show name and see the intro pop up as the first result, but the best guess is that the owner companies are having them taken down. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me considering that these are truncated clip montages set to an edited theme song, and one would think that it serves as free advertising and promotion when the entire shows themselves in many cases are not uploaded to YouTube themselves. This is, of course, speculation, and it is the prerogative of Toei and the other companies to do as they wish. Any opinion I have on fair use is just what it is. In any case, this Tuesday's extras include a few more Japanese hero intros I could find as well as a couple of toku movie trailers. You'll see the opening for Battle Hawk, Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine (2nd version), Kamen Rider Black, Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan, and trailers for Message from Space (which spun off into a successful Star Wars-style TV series of its own) and Legend of the Dinosaurs (which Toei produced in 1977, the same year as Jaq-Q Dengekitai). Also included are the opening theme of Family Adventure on Planet Zero (a sort of Japanese toku take on Lost in Space) and the opening and ending theme of Soreyuke Mahougumi. I was very fortunate to find this rarity, and viewers may recognize the star witch of this series as the late Michiko Soga, whose visage was introduced to American audiences via stock footage as none other than Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Soga's long and fruitful toku acting history extended well beyond her appearance as the face of the first major Power Rangers villain, and I felt she deserved a little added recognition here.

The late, great Michigo Soga as the witch Bellbara.

This live tweet's Spectreman selections:
Episode 25 - Grand Double Operation - Magulah and Satan-King
Episode 26 - Two Giant Monsters Battle in Tokyo

     Tonight, we gear up for a battle royal on Friday night's Midnight Spectreman. Before Friday's titanic seven-monster resurrection story, we have two colossal creatures to introduce first: Magulah and Satan-King... or King Satan if you're nasty.

Satan-King. "And he's made of bread rolls!" - @ThermalkatPt2

Magulah, Mommy Monster Dearest.

     Dr. Gori is particularly proud of King-Satan's power, and it seems like the red-headed beast from the heart of a meteor (who also, incidentally, has a roar that was created using screeching car brake sound effects) is on the verge of defeating Spectreman once and for all until their battle comes to close to the edge of a volcano. If the previous Spectreman live tweet taught us one thing, it's that giant monsters love making nests in volcanoes.

"Say what you will, Bakulah keep a very tidy, organized nest." - pic by @snail_rampant, quote by @Ghyxion

     Magulah erupts from the ground to protect her egg from Satan-King, giving a battered Spectreman an opportunity to escape, but Spectreman isn't going to get off so easily in this story. You'll have to tune in after #TrashTue to find out what happens, and the fun starts at 10:30PM EST.


Addendum: As an added treat, and since the Tuesday Spectreman live tweet runs at an earlier time, I am extending tonight's show with an episode of Battle Hawk.

Axes. I want to make a superhero show with a lot of axes. Did I mention I want axes? Write it down.

I hadn't heard of this one until a few days ago, and I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a random episode uploaded to YouTube. Unfortunately, it is not the first episode, but there is not much you need to know to catch up. Battle Hawk, unlike so many of the intros I have featured as extras, did not come from Toei or Shotaro Ishinomori. Battle Hawk was one of many creations of the other godfather of Japanese superheroes, Devilman/Cutie Honey/Mazinger Z creator Go Nagai. The plot centers around three young warriors that inherited three magical tomahawks from their sensei. Before his death at the hands of the Commandments of Insanity, a group of assassins bent on world terror, their sensei told them of his time training in America with a Native American tribe known as the Shasta. They imbued the three "God Hawks" with mystical power, allowing the three young warriors to transform when all three tomahawks are hurled into the air. Go Nagai certainly had a different style to his storytelling, but he is nevertheless as widely known as Ishinomori for his contributions to Japanese superhero manga/anime/live action history.