Ukiya Was Bored: The Tokusatsu Influence in the Philippines.

I was watching the first few episodes of Jetman when this idea came into my head, tokusatsu has been around here in the Philippines since the late 70’s thanks to JAKQ and later became a staple in Philippine TV till late 90’s thanks to Goranger, better known here as Star Rangers. For nearly 3 decades, tokusatsu is part of Philippine TV. With Kamen Rider Hibiki reruns on TV5 and rumors of the return of Super Sentai, I decided to create this.

To kick things off, I’ll start with Super Sentai. The first Super Sentai that aired here was JAKQ but the one that popularized Sentai was Goranger better known here as Star Rangers. Because of the success, other Sentai shows aired here and the two prominent titles are: Chodenshi Bioman and Laser Squadron Hikari Sentai Maskman. From the two, Bioman is the most influential and here’s a recent example.

Since the National Elections here in the Philippines is fast approaching, probably one bored guy decided to do this. The one wearing the Orange Red One suit is a presidential candidate, Manny Villar. The one wearing the Green Two suit is also a presidential candidate named Gilbert Teodoro. The one wearing the Blue Three suit is a vice presidential candidate named Mar Roxas. The one wearing the Yellow Four suit is a presidential candidate named Noynoy Aquino. Lastly, the one wearing the Pink Five suit is a vice presidential candidate named Bayani Fernando. Why poke fun? Because of their campaign colors, that’s why!

Due to the popularity of the show, even its theme song was, well, it unavoidable here in the Philippines to be parodied. Here are the songs.

Another popular Sentai that aired here in the Philippines was Turboranger and seeing this bubble gum commercial reminded me of the Turboranger suits.

To those who don’t have the idea on how the suits look like, here’s a picture.

Aside from Super Sentai, another tokusatsu series was popular here in the Philippines, the Space Sheriffs of the Metal Hero franchise. And from those Sheriffs, Shaider stood up above the rest. Due to the extreme, I repeat, EXTREME popularity of Shaider, a TV network (Best known for remaking Korean dramas) asked Toei’s permission to remake Shaider… and failed. But these guys, they are very determined and finally, Toei cooperated. The result? A spin-off, a non-canon sequel (If I will call it canon, the fans will kill me), or parody some would say was created that goes with this name: Zaido: Pulis Pagkalawan (Translated as, Zaido: Space Sheriff). Because of this, rumors circulated that the rival TV network would do a remake of Maskman but seeing the negative feedback of the original fans, they cancelled the plan.

Another popular tokusatsu show here in the Philippines is Kamen Rider Black. Even though, according to some sources from the World Wide Web that it had a short run, it left an incredible impact to Pinoys. A prominent example is the logo of an online video game rental company here in the Philippines.

As seen on this logo and the name, it felt like a homage to Black’s motorcycle, Battle Hopper, heck, the front view of the logo kinda looks like Battle Hopper’s front view!

And just recently, a promotional poster for a local radio show has a weird caricature of Black in it, how weird? See for yourself.

Another thing, most Pinoy fans of the said toku shows always refer them in their given Filipino names. For example, Takeru of Maskman is always referred as Michael Joe and Kotaro Minami of Kamen Rider Black is referred to as Robert Akizuki or affectionately, Kuya Robert.

Since tokusatsu is slowly returning here in the Philippines, expect that the next generation of Pinoys might do those things mentioned above in the near future!

Nostalgia Trilogy 2 of 3: Saban's Masked Rider, Saban's VR Troopers and well, Shaider.

Part two of the Nostalgia Trilogy, this time, I will go for the other toku shows that I watched in my childhood. Back then, most tokus that I watched are either Super Sentai/Power Rangers (Discussed in Part 1) or any toku adaptation by Saban.

Saban is the company responsible of bringing toku in the States and best known for Power Rangers, VR Troopers and making Shotaro Ishinomori mad, I mean, Saban’s Masked Rider.

First, on the Saban toku adaptations that I watched back then is Saban’s Masked Rider. Based on Kamen Rider BLACK RX, this show is about Dex fighting against his uncle, Count Dregon. Dex has the ability to transform as Masked Rider. Since back then, I am a mindless kid; I don’t care how crappy the show is, until I watched later shows in the franchise. To be honest, back then I find the show cool maybe because of the light saber thing and he is guy wearing a bug costume and fights evil!

Without this show, I don’t know the Kamen Rider franchise. This show introduced me in the franchise that I am currently hooked with. Without this show, maybe I won’t be watching W/Double every week.

Next, VR Troopers, this show is really awesome because of the virtual reality bit on it. The show is more action packed compared to Masked Rider and the costumes are really stunning which add the “techo” feel on the show. Another thing that I liked about the show is, Jeb. He is really entertaining unlike a certain Ferbus.

Now, Shaider, to be honest, I am not a fan of the said show because it sorta bored me. Really, I was bored in Shaider! Maybe it is because that I am not used with Ida and time space warp. I am more of a Super Sentai guy than a Metal Hero guy. If my memory serves me correctly, I only watched about 3 or 6 episodes of Shaider. The memorable one is the episode about a certain band being controlled by the Fuuma Empire. That is when I learned about Vavilos, Time Space Warp and…saw Annie’s panties. LOL.