There are many sides to Japanese pop culture, including anime, manga, moe-kei games, and cosplay. Another category with a long history is known as 特撮 tokusatsu, meaning “special effects,” which describes the various types of live-action hero and monster TV shows, such as “Super Sentai” (Power Rangers-style teams of heroes who fight for justice), monster-specific series like Ultraman plus the long-running Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) franchise. Virtually every child in Japan grows up watching these shows, and they’re forever tied to that point in television history as they go forward in life. My son grew up during the era of Seiju Sentai Gingaman, Kamen Rider Kuuga and Ultraman Gaia (all late 1990s shows), and if he encounters a person of similar age he’ll be able to talk about these series with them. The newest Kamen Rider show is Kamen Rider Gaim, which is getting a lot of buzz as it’s written by Urobuchi Gen, the legendary writer responsible for Madoka Magica and our popular game Saya no Uta. Whether this means we’ll see main characters getting decapitated by Cthulhu monsters remains to be seen.
There’s a new Kamen Rider series on TV. Will you be watching?
