I started this blog with the intention of opening the box of comics that I have saved since my pre- and early-teen years. I thought, “I’ll read them - maybe two or three per week - and ‘review’ or ‘comment’ or dissect them in one way or another...” This was the idea. Then I stumbled upon some online video content on Marvel.com and decided to include these. Also, at the time that I began writing this, I was reading the 39 Steps and one of the Mr. Moto novels, so I again decided to expand my scope. Well, so far I have managed to evaluate (to ridiculous detail) only one episode of a Marvel-based show. Not nearly the volume or the quality that I had originally hoped (the Seven-Part Review of Japanese Spider-Man Episode 0 starts of well and promises to be pretty epic, but it looses steam at some point during the 8-month hiatus...). So, today I decided to get started on something new. In fact on a couple of new things. I am going to start another few epic reviews, in multiple parts, and I am going to be alternating between them in order to prevent myself form becoming bored with the subject matter. I intend to review:
1) Gold Key Comics’ STAR TREK Series;
2) The first couple of years of Spider-Man and;
3) One other thing that I reserve the right to decide upon later.
First on the list is Gold Key Comics’ STAR TREK series (of which I have a handful of issues from the mid-late 1970s)...
So, after almost 8 months of pondering this single episode of a Japanese, Marvel Comics inspired TV show from the 1970’s I decided to actually finish blogging about it. It took me 8 months for a variety of personal and professional reasons that can be summed up as follows; My personal and professional lives interfered with my ability to find time to write this. I have a lot on the go. I have a baby, a full-time job, a flickr addiction and I am attempting to write a script for a comic book. Mostly it’s the baby and the flickr addiction that, if I am honest, take up the majority of my time. (I hope anyone from my work who reads this takes it with the ironic sense of humour that it is intended to be taken.)So today, I decided that I would finish my epic, 7-Part review of Japanese Supaidaman. In order to conclude this review, I decided that I would think about whether or not I plan to watch the rest of the series and give some indication as to why. Frankly, I don’t. It has been almost 8 months since I watched the episode for the first and second time and I haven’t watched another since. This, for me, is the most important measure. It isn’t just that I haven’t had enough time to watch them, I just haven’t felt compelled to do so. The show was really just OK. Not great. The real issues here is that it is too much of a stretch from the original Spider-Man concept. I like Spider-Man. He isn’t my favorite super hero, but I like him. What I don’t like are Super Sentai television shows. Which is what this really boils down to. The only thing that relates it to Spider-Man at all is his costume. I really don’t like this type of show. Right when the man-sized shark-guy grew to insanely large proportions and Supaidaman had to jump into the Marveller and everything began to look like a faded, older version of the Power Rangers, or a live-action version of Voltron. This just isn’t my favorite genre and it has been bothering me to increasingly irritating levels ever since I finished watching episode 0 for the first time. Incidentally, I don’t mind Voltron. Giant fighting robots I can take in their animated form. I just don’t like when people grow really really big for not reason and fight on fake looking sound stages that don’t really look like the place they were supposed to be in before they got big. I enjoyed watching it the first time until it got to the getting-big portion. I found it interesting to study some of the images that I found when I watched the show and found it fun to make stuff up when I couldn’t be sure where the images originated. But in the end, I didn’t enjoy it enough to watch more of the episodes. It was worth the single viewing, but I won’t be going back for more. Oh well. I really wanted to love it.
I think this one's going to be a bit shorter than the last few. The gist is this; When I watched this show for the first time the costumes that the Agents of the Iron Cross Army were wearing reminded me of something. At first I couldn't place them... They kind of reminded my of the "Foot Soldiers" from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I quickly discounted this notion. This was long before the "Turtles" comic, shows or movies. These guys can't have been inspired by the Foot Clan. Then I thought, maybe it's because the foot soldiers were inspired by these Iron Cross Army guys... and for a while that seemed plausible. But it ain't so. According to Wikipedia, the Foot Clan was inspired by "Hand…" as in Marvel Comics. This made sense - and it makes sense in terms of the Iron Cross Army as well. I'm not saying definitively that, like the Foot Clan's Foot Soldiers, the costumes and essence of the Iron Cross Army Agents were inspired by the agents of Hand, but it's possible. It is a "Marvel" show, after all. Clearly there are other elements to be considered, but I think this is at least a somewhat likely source of inspiration. They also somewhat resemble Nazi/Fascist uniforms and are a bit reminiscent of Imperial Officers in Star Wars. Clearly these are all related in terms of the aesthetic that they are trying to pull-off. I think the basis for the outfits is probably more related to WW2 than to Hand, but it's really too close to call.
But the costumes of the Iron Cross Army's soldiers/agents have even deeper symbolism - though what I'm about to discuss might be something of a stretch. You see; there was still something about these dudes' costumes. It wasn't the tight polyester body suits that they were wearing... it was their faces. They were wearing these strange looking, orange beaks that appeared to be made of some kind of foam. I found these "masks" so strange and yet so familiar - I knew it couldn't be chance or some kind of random design element, so I did a bit of research online to see if I could figure out their significance.
First I had a look at just the colour of these beaks; orange... to see if orange has any specific significance to Asian or Japanese culture. Turns out it does - and I was pleased to find that I could fit this cultural significance into the plot of Supaidaman without too much effort. You see colour "Orange" in Japanese is represented as "Daidai-Iro." Iro means colour or hue and Daidai is a type of fruit - literally "The colour of Daidai." There isn't much significance to this on it's own until we understand what Daidai is. Daidai is - you guessed it - a type of orange. Specifically a bitter orange. An orange, so bitter that it isn't eaten as food. Now, I am not saying that they chose orange as the colour for the masks of evil people because of this. In fact, I don't think that's the case at all. But I do think that it is interesting that the bitter fruit in the story has something in it's representation that is directly related to the bitter fruit.
I think I can also put this into context with Penney's research as well... but you are going to think I am stretching a bit to far (and I clearly am). You see, the Daidai made it's way to Japan from elsewhere. Specifically from the Himalayan mountains, through china. I could argue that this is a method of disassociating the Iron Cross Army from the core of Japanese people. We have to assume that the people in the costumes are Japanese. Amazonessu is clearly Japanese. But the colour orange and it's association with an essentially foreign plant might have a way of providing some separation. Supaidaman is not orange. And there really isn't any need to add orange styrofoam masks to the costume of the ICA soldiers/agents... so... who knows, maybe I am right about this.
Truth is, though, there's probably a better explanation. An explanation that is a little more plausible and a little more fun, too. One that doesn't require quite the same stretch of imagination in order to fit. You see, there was something that I was immediately reminded of when I saw these masks for the first time. Noh masks.
In case you are not familiar, Noh is a Japanese traditional form of theater. These musicals, dramas and comedies which have existed since the 17th century often involve elaborate costumes and... masks. Among other things, these masks are often used to portray animal characters. A frequent animal character in these plays is what is the “Kitsune” - the Fox spirit... also known in Noh plays as Ko-Tobide. I won’t go into excessive detail about Kitsune as you can look them up here, but I will say this. Kitsune is a very powerful supernatural spirit of sorts who can shape shift and is known as a trickster. This fits well with what the Iron Cross Army soldiers represent, and how they act in this episode. Added to that, the Ko-Tobide mask is very commonly an orange mask.
All in all, I think the Daidai reference is probably wrong. I am fairly certain that the Iron Cross Army soldiers are meant to look like the Ko-Tobide Noh masks. They don’t shape-shift, but they are trick little dudes and they seem to have a good deal of supernatural power. I don’t know if this is much of a conclusion, but it’s the best I got.
