Japanese Spider-Man Episode 0 - Part Five: A Quick(ish) Discussion of the Institutions Represented in the Show and the Cultural Implications Thereof

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.pdf

Let'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?

Japanese Spider-Man Episode 0 - Part Four: The Villains Dissected

There is really one, main, villainous organization that is the cause of most of the strife for Supaidaman and the Interpol Intelligence Department - The Iron Cross Army. I will discuss them in a further post, likely to be entitled "A thing or two about the Institutions represented in the show..." or something like that. What I really want to get into here is a quick(ish) discussion of the two main villainous characters - Amazoness and Sea Devil. I have to admit that, when I watched the show for the first time, I was really unimpressed by these characters. They just weren't that exciting to me. But... when I delved into researching both these characters, I was surprised to find some significant depth in terms of symbolism and plain old amusingness.

Let's start with Amazoness, or Amazonesu. Pronounced A-Ma-Zon-Ess-Ugh. She's your typical villainess - she wears an odd bathing suit, heavy boots and is almost always angry. She doesn't exactly look scary, but weird. And I don't think I'd want to meet her in person. She's also a master of disguise... sort of. When you are a crazy super-villainess, you don't need to change your face... just change from your weird bathing suit into civilian clothes and you are completely unrecognizable. Anyway, she does this and it works. But none of this was what I was thinking of when I watched Supaidaman Episode 0 for the first time. It was her name that caught my attention. At first, I thought the subtitles were incorrect, and that it should simply have read, "Amazon," not "Amazoness." We all know that Amazons are women. I assumed that (as is true with many Japanese words that come from English) amazonesu is the direct translation of amazon and that it only sounds strange because it has been Japanesisized. Well, that ain't the case, man. "Amazonesu" literally means "Amazoness." According to one online reference that I was able to find, the suffix "esu" changes a word to make it feminine. So then I thought, well, maybe amazons just aren't that common in Japanese media and, therefore, they need the "esu" otherwise they wouldn't know implicitly that it must be a woman. Well, man, this ain't the case neither. I was able to find several references to "Amazonesu" in Japanese popular media including several Manga and Anime characters. I don't know about anyone else, but I really had a hard time wrapping my head around this concept. I wonder what Wonder Woman would have to say about it...

By a long-shot, the more interesting of the two villains is the Sea Devil. Again, I wasn't super impressed but the Sea Devil after watching the episode for the first time. His costume (a grey body-suite with fake, foam muscles and a mask that kind of resembled a shark with a long, serrated snout) didn't scare me, and I didn't think it was all that cool. Oh, and he shoots torpedoes out of his mouth - I wasn't really sure if I liked this or just thought it was completely lame... I tried to force myself to remember that this show was produced in the 70s and that it was meant for kids, but it didn't help. I was a little disappointed at the way he died, too. These things, I eventually realized, are problems with the production of the show and the genre itself... and not the character himself. I vowed to give Sea Devil the benefit of the doubt and typed his name into Google...

Holy Crap! What references, what diversity! Well, maybe I exaggerate some, but there are a couple that really seem to fit the story. What doesn't fit is the true sea devil... the Manta Ray. Most things that are named sea devil in this world are named after this, largest of the Rays. But our Sea Devil has a shark's head... so he's definitely not named after the manta ray. There must be something else - perhaps one of the many things named after the manta ray, but perhaps something else... I wasn't sure. Then I cam across a reference from Japan. Not quite the Sea Devil, but there's a little something known as the "Pacific Bermuda Triangle." Also known as the "Devil's Sea," this is an area that has seen many a sailing vessel disappear over the years. The "Sea Devil" in our story has a penchant for destroying sea vessels and, when they sink, they essentially disappear. After I finished reading all about the Devil's Sea I was almost completely convinced that this was where out Sea Devil got his moniker - but something bothered me. It seams that the "Devil's Sea" is not a direct translation from the Japanese. In fact the Japanese, Ma no Umi, translates as roughly Sea's Space or Space in the Sea... or something along those lines (I remembered "Ma" from Hitomi Sakuma so I looked up "no Umi"). This started to seem far fetched, so I searched further.

Finally, after much digging, I hit on what I believe is the real symbol (whether a conscious reference or not) of the "Sea Devil." That happens to be a WWII era US submarine. A Balao class sub by the name of USS Sea Devil. This vessel was named after the Manta Ray. This vessel saw action during the second world war. This vessel saw action in the Pacific during the second world war. the "Sea Devil" from Supaidaman looks nothing like a manta ray, but he is the same colour as a submarine. And he shoots torpedoes... much like a submarine. This was intriguing to me, so I read on. As it turns out, the USS Sea Devil saw a decent amount of action during the war while it was PATROLLING THE SHIPPING LANES NEAR JAPAN AND CHINA! What?! Yes. The USS Sea Devil participated many attacks on Japanese vessels during the war and, as far as I can tell, sank at least one (probably more) Japanese cargo vessel. Well, the "Sea Devil" also loves to attack cargo vessels. With torpedoes. Destroying them. Hmmm.

I think this must be it. Solved.

Japanese Spider-Man Episode 0 - Part Three: Something of a Rudimentary (Piss-Poor) Analysis of the Protagonists' Names

I took the liberty of doing some rudimentary analysis of Hitomi and Takuya's names to see if they might shed some light on these two characters - and I think they do. I should point out, before I get any further along, that I DO NOT speak, read or write Japanese. My analysis has been accomplished via a few Japanese-to-English translation websites and two Japanese-to-English print dictionaries. That is all. This is by no means a definitive translation of the name and I fully admit that there is likely some kind of deeper meaning (or some way in which the combination of the words used changes the meaning) of Japanese names than what you can pick up by looking at a dictionary. Also, it must be remembered that I am only looking at the way the word sounds... I don't read Japanese calligraphy, so I am relying on the "romanji" or western spelling of these names. Regardless, I think there is something to be gained in interpreting the characters in Supaidaman by looking at the rudimentary analysis. Like many Japanese names (I happen to have one myself... my middle name, which ironically does not fit the pattern that I am about to mention) all four (each man's first and last name... or last and first, it's never really clear with the Japanese) names are made up of two distinct characters or "words" - I think that each one, whether intentionally or not, really relates to the role that the character plays in the story.

Let's start with Takuya. Taku translates a couple of ways... I am assuming that there is more than one symbol or character in Japanese calligraphy which is pronounced "taku" (it might also have something to do with the fact that Japanese and Chinese characters are both fairly common in Japan because of the high degree to which Chinese language and culture influenced Japan in the middle ages). "Taku" means a few things. It can mean husband, but I don't think that's what it means in this case because the other two meanings (specifically one of the other two, but they are somewhat related) fit better with the suffix "ya." Taku can mean both to boil food (as in to boil rice) or to burn. I think that to boil rice makes more sense, since the suffix “ya” suggests either a store, or a dealer of something… i.e. Takuya is a boiled rice seller… perhaps a restaurateur or something along those lines. Now, I have spun this around in my head for a few days, trying to come up with some kind of way in which this relates to the character… but I can’t. It seems like it’s probably just a name with no significance to the story whatsoever. Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree?

Well, maybe not. Clearly I am getting a bit to into this, but I’m enjoying my self. I had a hunch that Takuya’s second name (incidentally I have no way of knowing which is his given vs. surname. I know that traditionally the Japanese use the reverse order to that which we use in the west, but I believe that some have begun to use the western order instead. I am also never sure whether people are switching the order when translating for a western audience – ie subtitles) so I won’t even hazard a guess. Suffice it to say that we have a first and a second name to discuss… the second being Yamashiro. This is an interesting name. Again, as with most names, it is made up of two separate words and isn’t a word in and of itself. Yama has two very interesting meanings that might just relate to the character. First is Mountain or Hill. On it’s own, this doesn’t imply anything about our hero. The second meaning of Yama is climax, as in the climax of a story. I think there is clearly a logical connection between the two meanings, so I am fairly confident that they are the same character (though I have no way of knowing for sure) – and that there are two ways of interpreting it. Shiro refers to a fortress or castle. A-HA! Finally, something that I can massage into sounding relevant to the story! What better name for a hero than “Hill Fort with a hint of Excitement." This even gives "Takuya" a bit of relevance too! The very proletarian first name adds a sense of “everyman” making him someone to whom we can better relate.

Therefore – Takuya Yamashiro is literally “Boiled Rice Seller Mountain Castle” or in a more contextual sense, “Everyman Exciting Defender atop the Mountain.” Now this makes sense. This fits his character.

Now that we’ve beaten that name to death, let’s take a look at my favourite character in this charade, Hitomi Sakuma. The Interpol, Mr. Moto, Nick Fury-Lite dude. Hito is a prefix that can refer to either “one” as in “a single object” or it can refer to a thing’s disposition or nature. Mi is the body or a person’s self. Saku has three meanings in the dictionary and they all seem to be different words/characters because they are all very different meanings. They are; 1) to rend, split or tear, 2) to devise or scheme (which is the one that I like best for fitting into the story) and 3) to bloom (as in a flower). Ma means “space” or “area.”

If you put the first name’s parts together in such a way as to fit it into the story, you could come up with only two really good options, as I see it. Option one is something akin to “Guy,” “Man,” or something like Clue’s “Mr. Body.” Alternatively Option two is more like “Self-Disposed,” “Selfish,” “Self-Natured…” Something like that. Putting the parts of the second name together you could get “torn space” (as in a tear in the space-time continuum), “Scheming Place” (as in devising devilish plans in your office) or “Bloom-Place” (as in a garden).

This leaves us with a lot of options to consider in interpreting this name… and it ain’t easy. My gut is telling me that “Guy Gardener” feels like the most accurate interpretation, though I have no way of proving this. However; if Hitomi really is Mr. Moto – JP Marquand’s character from 30 years earlier – perhaps “Guy Rend-Space” fits. Unfortunately, because I have no way of proving any of this, I am forced to ignore my gut instinct & my childish Star Trek fantasies and go with what fits best with the story… And that interpretation is “Self-Centered Scheming-Place.” Hitomi Sakuma is a bureaucrat who’s got his own agenda and is willing to do anything to achieve it. Sure he’s a “good guy,” but there’s no way he has anything but his own best interests at heart. He hasn’t risen to the top of the Interpol Intelligence Department by being a virtuous nice-guy. He’s where he is today because of guile and self interest.

This has been in no way scientific. Japanese language experts are probably cringing. But it has really helped me take a closer look at what motivates our heroes. Supaidaman is what he is... Everyman Save-the-day. He's one-dimensional. He can't help himself. The guy to really watch in this story, however, is Hitomi. What's he really up to? And what will he pull next? When and if I watch episode 1, I will be keeping a much closer eye on him.

Japanese Spider-Man Episode 0 - Part Two: A Little Bit About the Protagonists

Let's start of with the hero of our show - Supaidaman! At home he's the mild mannered Peter Par... I mean Takuya Yamashiro. And he's not mild mannered at all - as far as I can see he's a rough, motor cycle riding, leather jacket wearing, bad-assed slacker. When we meet him he's loungin' on a lawn chair in the sun, midday, having an anxiety day dream. I think that says a lot. This is both a huge difference between Takuya and the Peter Parker we know and love in the west, and kind of a similarity as well. Peter would either be at school, cooking something totally unexpected up in the lab (in order to help him fight crime) or pining over Gwen and/or Mary Jane. Peter Parker would never be daydreaming in the sun in the middle of the day. Alternatively... if he was, he would definitely be having and anxiety day dream about being trapped in an elevator shaft by a super villain, too. Takuya Yamashiro is, essentially, Peter Parker as a hip slacker.

Another interesting character is the somewhat enigmatic leader of the Interpol Intelligence Department, Hitomi Sakuma. Hitomi kind of reminds me of a director-of-shield type of character. Certainly not as hard-core as hard core as Nick Fury - in fact, much more of a bureaucratic figure. We don't really know much about him, except that he's very resourceful and very sneaky. He seems to always get what he wants from people... including Supaidaman! He tricks Takuya into rescuing is own sister and brother by giving information to the main villain group in the show, the Iron Cross Army (more about them later). It turns out that the Interpol Intelligence Department have figured out approximately where Supaidaman lives (though we're not sure exactly how) and have tipped off the Iron Cross Army in the hopes of drawing Supaidaman out in order to learn his true identity (now why didn't Fury think of that? Think, "Spider-Man, Agent of SHIELD!"). Why do they do this? Well, they need his help to fight the Iron Cross Army of course. Somehow they (the Interpol Intelligence Department) are able to kidnap (in a good way) Takuya's sister, brother and girlfriend whilst he's chasing (and fighting in his kick-ass style) the agents of the Iron Cross Army - they are spirited away to a resort so they can swim in a pool and have fun... and so Takuya will think something bad has happened to them. Did this seem weird to anyone else? I didn't quite get the whole thing, but it worked. Hitomi got Supaidaman to come to his office so he could let him know the dangers of a world where the Iron Cross Army is allowed to run wild. They blow stuff up. It ain't good. Hitomi somehow engineers this whole scheme in order to bring Supaidaman into the fold. Hell, he's crafty.

I also want to point something about John P. Marquand's character, Mr. Moto. In Marquand's novels Moto is a Japanese agent, but in the WWII era films (in which Moto is portrayed by Peter Lorre) Moto is... you guessed it, an Interpol Operative. I think having an agent of the empire in a Holiwood film wasn't seen as terribly appropriate during the war. I have a hunch that the Hitomi is somewhat based on Moto - they are both crafty as hell, for sure... however Moto (as portrayed by Lorre, at least) is also a kick-ass Judoist. Perhaps we can see something of Moto split between the two heroes? Perhaps Hitomi will prove to be kick-ass later in the series? I don't know. Anyway, it occurred to me so I said it.

I wonder if the Villains of the story are as interesting as it's heroes. Also, could a piss-poor translation of our heroes' names add to our understanding of their personalities? Further posts, I think, are required.

Japanese Spider-Man Episode 0 - Part One: Intro & Initial Thoughts

Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow! Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow! Clearly I was never going to not like this show. It has so many of my favourite elements; Martial Arts action & Japaneseness in general, coupled with a mainstream comics motif (ie Spider-Man), mixed with a general helping of absurd weirdness & awesome sound-effects. It's really the perfect combination of things for me. Almost. I have a little trouble with the Leopardon (I never really got into the Power Rangers-esque vibe), but that can be dealt with... and I'll discuss it in more detail later.

First, by way of preface; This is by no means an academic article. There is no thesis and there is nothing to really prove. As such I will not be providing citations if and when something is quoted. I have reviewed a number of sources in order to pull together the information I needed to fully understand Supaidaman Episode Zero - and believe me, there's a lot more depth here than you might expect. At the outset I have no intention of quoting any of these sources directly. My goal here is to analysis a specific episode of a TV series, not to analyze the sources of data that are providing substance to that analysis. These sources are as follow (and there's not a lot of detail here that's worth giving so I'll be brief):

- Several Wikipedia pages;
- Onmark Productions website (www.onmarkproductions.com);
- The Interpol website;
- A few Japanese-English translation websites;
- 2 Japanese-English Print Dictionaries;
- Marvel Comics Website;
- marvel.wikia.com;
- and the essay/article, "Rising Sun, Iron Cross - Military Germany in Japanese Popular Culture" by Matthew Penney (2005).

There are five areas that are worth discussing when considering this show, and specifically this episode (since, so far I have only watched the one). They might end up blurring into each other, but they are (in no specific order) the characters (heroes/villains), the institutions, the costumes, the genre, and some of the significant or interesting scenes. It may not split out like that by the time I'm done, but that's basically what you'll be reading about in the next few posts. By the end, I should have determined whether or not I intend to watch episode 1. Apparently Stan Lee liked it, I hope I do too!

N8Meats' Manifesto

Call this an introductory post. Use it as a context through which to view subsequent posts. Etc… This is my first blog post. The first post for my first blog. Until recently, I had never really intended to write a blog. Sitting in front of my computer to type about my life never really appealed to me – details of parties, visits with friends and family… frankly the people who would want to read the mundane details of my life are probably those with whom I wouldn’t want to share. My day-to-day is just not interesting enough to warrant most people’s interest. So I never did it. I never blogged.

Then, about 6 or 7 months ago I “found” (in quotes because they were never really lost, I just hadn’t looked at them in a long time) the comic books I collected in the early 1990s. I still read comics, but I don’t consider myself a collector, per se. I happened to be looking through old boxes and stumbled upon the collection. Something occurred to me, about half way through sorting and cataloguing these about 200 comic books (not a large collection by any standard… I was not rich growing up and I have a very short attention span, so keeping focused on any one hobby was extremely challenging when I was younger). It occurred to me that it might be fun to re-read them, rate them and decide whether or not to fill in the huge, numerous gaps in the collection. Then I thought, “Wouldn’t it also, therefore, be fun to review each of them as I went, and put these reviews on the internet somehow?” Well, the answer was yes. Hence, “N8Meats’ Comments” (Innate Meats’ Comments).

Now, I sat on this for quite some time. I have to admit that I forgot all about the idea… in fact, probably before the day was over. I didn’t do it and I think I realized that it would be kind of boring (for me and for readers) because the concept was really limited. A blog about nothing but old (but not very many of them vintage) comics? Worse yet, a blog about only those old(ish) comics that I happened to choose to purchase as a very unoriginal 13 year old? Well, of course, that’s not going to work at all.

But the idea sat there in my subconscious for several months, churning and evolving. I may have forgotten about the whole thing, but it certainly didn’t forget about me. It sat there, as I said, and kept growing... until earlier this week. I was watching a lecture about, of all things, blogging for business when I remembered the idea. I remembered it and, all of a sudden, like an organic thing this concept flooded back into my brain, very much matured from when I last recalled thinking about it. Two major pieces of this had changed:

1 – Why stick with the comic books I owned in my youth? I also read and collect current trade paperbacks and hard cover collections of contemporary comics, vintage pulp and sci-fi novels… and I enjoy old & new cartoon interpretations of comic, sci-fi & noir themes… as well as old films based on these themes… I also have some non-fiction interests that I am pursuing avidly at the moment. So in an effort to keep my own focus (remember the short attention span) and to make this blog interesting for the potential reader, I am opting to “mix it up a bit.”

2 – Reviews? Really? Perhaps I should leave the reviews to the professionals, eh? I mean, isn’t the intent of a review to make the reader or viewer want to experience that which the reviewer has enjoyed and to avoid that which the reviewer did not enjoy? Is that what I want to do? The answer is, “Emphatically No.” What I intend to do with this blog is to provide constructive criticism (often to dead or retired authors, artists and the like) and an exaggerated sort of in-depth analysis that will sometimes be extremely ridiculous, given the subject matter.

So there you have it. N8Meats’ Comments.