There are two organizations or "institutions" at-odds in Japanese Spider-Man. One is quite obviously good, the other bad. Supaidaman is, unfortunately, caught between the two but, although he seems to ally himself with "good" side, he's not quite "on the team", so to speak. As with any representation of Spider-Man (other than the current "New Avengers" title), Spider-Man is definitely a lone-wolf. This post is meant as a discussion and overview of these two institutions - The "Interpol Intelligence Department" and the "Iron Cross Army." I will talk about the actual agents of the Iron Cross Army in a later post (there's a decent amount of symbolism in their costumes that has no relation to this post whatsoever). What I'd really like to get into here is a discussion of the Cultural Implications of these two fictional Institutions - as such, I will be drawing from research by Matthew Penney, author of the article, "Rising Sun, Iron Cross - Military Germany in Japanese Popular Culture." Penney suggests some interesting things about why there are so many references to Germany and specifically the German Military in Japanese media and I am going to try to fit Japanese Spider-Man into his framework. Here's a link to that article...
www.dijtokyo.org/doc/JS17_Penney.pdfLet's start with the Interpol Intelligence Department. First of all, I checked - There is no such thing as the Interpol Intelligence Department. Interpol has no intelligence department. In fact, it's kind of redundant, since most of the activities that Interpol undertakes are at least somewhat intelligence related. It would have been more accurate if Hitomi was the director of the Japanese "National Central Bureau." These are the agencies that operate in each member country and act as liaison between Interpol and local police and intelligence organizations. However; as with most comic book inspired television and film, accuracy is clearly not important to the story. So we have the Interpol Intelligence Department, headed by a Japanese and ready to save the world. I wonder what Matthew Penney would read into that... Let's talk a little more about that later.
Incidentally, Interpol has had one Japanese President, Toshinori Kanemoto, from 1996 - 2000. However at the time that this television show was made, there had been no Japanese leadership within Interpol.
Next there is the evil entity known as the Iron Cross Army. As I have said, I have a few ideas about the cultural references embedded in the actual soldiers or agents of the Iron Cross Army which I will get into next post. There is a good deal to say, though, about the concept of the Iron Cross Army. I think it is pretty obvious that the "Iron Cross Army" is a reference to the German Army. The Iron Cross was a symbol of the German Army since the 1800's. Hitler changed this but later reinstated it as a medal of honour. There's no doubt that this is where the name comes from in Japanese Spider-Man - I didn't even need to research the connection to figure that one out... but I did anyway. That's how I found Matthew Penney's article.
Penney discusses a number of interesting facets of the portrayal Germany and the German military in Japanese pop culture. It is actually a common theme, apparently, dating back all the way to the 1950's. I think quite a bit of what he says fits right into our story, and the insight that he's provided has greatly enhanced my understanding of Japanese Spider-Man and how it fits into the over-arching picture of late 20th century Japan. In lieu of you actually needing to read penny's article (though I heartily recommend that you do) lets identify a couple of the key aspects that are relevant here. First, very prevalent in Japanese literature, manga, anime, etc... is a very romanticized view of German culture and the German military, specifically German Military technology. Second, it is important to remember that Japan was allied with the Nazis in the second world war and that they lost - there is definitely a sense of regret in the modern, democratic Japan about how their nation acted during the war. Third, Japan suffered 2 atomic bomb attacks near the end of the war, resulting in their surrender... added to this, they were essentially operating under a military dictatorship with the god-like figure of the Emperor as its puppet leader- this has resulted in the notion of a "victim culture" in Japan. Basically, there is a dichotomy in Japan surrounding the fact they it is difficult to, at the same time, accept both the atrocities committed by Japan and to Japan during the war. Clearly Penney goes into much more detail and is much more articulate on the subject than I, but let this suffice as an overview of the general concept. Now let's try to fit the Interpol Intelligence Department and the Iron Cross Army into Penney's framework.
First of all, the Iron Cross Army is definitely a representation of German Militarism... and I think that it fits the bill for a romanticized view of military superiority. The agents or soldiers of the Iron Cross Army posses awesome super-human capabilities. They can disappear and reappear at will and display fantastic feats of acrobatics - so fantastic that they require tricks of photography in order to accomplish! They have harnessed the awesome power of the Sea-Devil as well. I think that, in the context of the show, we can call this military superiority. In fact, the Iron Cross Army is so superior, militarily, that the international community (embodied by the Interpol Intelligence Department) is powerless to stop them from attacking Japan. The fact that they would specifically be attacking Japan fits into Penney's framework as well (although who else would they be attacking... it is, after all, a Japanese show). So who does the international community turn to, to help them fend off the marauding Iron Cross Army? The US Army? Nope. A Japanese slacker named Takua Yamashiro... a.k.a. Supaidaman! Japan, embodied by Supaidaman, is even superior to the might of the Iron Cross Army - forget launching torpedoes out of one's mouth or fancy acrobatics, Supaidaman has the ability to crawl up tall buildings, the Supaida-Net (which is the Japanese version of web-slinging, although in this case he just launches a net out of a wrist-band), the Supaida-Machine (a car/boat/jet-craft that is influenced by the Batmobile and Speedracer in equal measure) and, last but not least, the Marveller/Leopardon. This last piece is the most advanced piece of equipment that a person could possibly have imagined in the mid 70's. This futuristic space-ship like vehicle in which the Supaida-Machine can land and which is capable of transforming into a giant robot controlled by Supaidaman's movements is what really saves the day (This is also where the story becomes truly Japanese and diverges from the Marvel Comic Book). Without the advanced robotics technology of the Japanese, the world would soon be on its knees.
Supaidaman is victorious in the end, leaving Japan and indeed the world safe from evil (at least for one more week). Now let's try to take a look at these references in the abstract:
1 - Japan is being victimized by the Iron Cross Army and their monster who bears the name of an American submarine circa WWII. This fits two peices of the Penny puzzle. a. Japan is portrayed as at-odds with Germany and b. There is a latent reference to the Atomic Bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am certain that Stan Lee did not pick-up on that one...
2 - The Iron Cross Army is a reference to the German Military. They are technologically superior to all but Supaidaman.
3 - Actually, I think the first two cover it. Basically, we have a great example of a peoples' culture profoundly affecting subject matter to make it its own. Who would have thought that Spider-Man could be turned into an essentially Japanese tale in only a half-hour TV show?