Before there was the Power Rangers, or any other Japanese-inspired, live-action, superhero television show on for that matter, two series aired in Hawai’i and briefly in various cities around the continental U.S. called  Kikaider and Kamen Rider V3.  

Anyone who grew up in Hawai’i in the 70’s and 80’s knows about Kikaida and Kamen Rider V3.  They were tokusatsu (live-action superhero) shows which aired on an all-Japanese channel and although many of the young viewers could not understand the Japanese language, they fell in love with these shows nonetheless.   Many could not even read English well enough to follow the subtitles they were so young, but that never stopped the droves of viewers from watching. If anything, it helped them learn to read faster. Due in part to its much younger fan-base, Kikaider was also one of the first shows to start airing PSA’s about not trying any of the stunts at home.

You have to understand that these TV shows were produced in a time where television programming was still relatively squeaky-clean with stuff like Gilligan’s Island dominating the airwaves.  Watering down storylines and characters to entice American audiences the way they do now was unheard of back then. Not to mention, the FCC would have had a field day over some of the subtitles.  But being that martial arts was the core fighting style, the shows were also pretty violent.  The main characters were fully grown men.  They didn’t need to be made more relatable by being written as teenagers or recasting the main character to look more American; they were who they were and viewers loved them regardless.  So what was so great about these shows, anyway?  Well let’s start with Kikaider…

Picture a Japanese landscape, a spaghetti western type of theme playing, and a lone acoustic guitarist clad in blue denim head to toe.  Suddenly he is ambushed by a gang of scary evil android dudes with bright red horns and masks, blue jumpsuits and bright red combat boots.  At times they don’t even talk, just make weird sounds kinda like Jawas, and they all brandish huge machetes on long, wooden handles.  (Other times they’re impersonating people and driving around conspicuously in compact cars).  Then the scene erupts in a flurry of what appears to be kenpo (a combination of kung-fu and street-fighting), acrobatics and pyrotechnics.  We’re talking cars exploding and huge boulders tumbling down gravelly hills reminiscient of Ultraman and Godzilla.  Close-up on our hero Jiro who stares into the camera, strikes a pose, says “Change!  Switch on! 1,2,3!” and in a puff of smoke, transforms into his alter-ego Kikaider much to the chagrin of various baddies who are wreaking havoc among innocent bystanders.

Jiro rarely wavers and remains on the side of good as he refers to himself as a “champion of justice.”  He was given a conscience circuit that helps him feel empathy and fills him with a desire to protect life.  This good vs. evil theme runs throughout as Jiro fights off a different monster every episode but is constantly challenged by his regular enemies:  those scary red android guys, the warlock-looking Professor Gill, purveyor of DARK, and later in the series Hakaider, Jiro’s younger bro. 

Jiro suffers a most lethal sibling rivalry with his half-brother Hakaider, an evil android who wears all black, can turn gravity on its head by effortlessly walking up the side of tall buildings, and whistles whenever he shows up like something out the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Jiro’s only weakness is when the creepy Professor Gill plays his flute of destruction.  Somehow the flute’s sound permeates across miles and hits Jiro like kryptonite.  He writhes in pain and holds his ears, flails wildly at the red-horned guys, but still manages to escape to his motorcycle, helping whoever he is saving into the side-car and zoom away…

Special Effects – What can I say?  This show predates Star Wars.  Luckily, Kikaider relies more on blowing up stuff and when it comes to that, well, fire is fire.  Explosions can only get bigger and some of them are pretty freaking big for a TV show.  As for the sound effects, they’re classic as well, adding an element of charm in spite of all its unintentional hilarity.

Martial arts, monsters, explosions, cool music… What more can you ask for?  And on top of all that, Jiro drives a yellow and white Kawasaki motorcycle with a sidecar that transforms when he does.  Many productions have stemmed from this one including the popular spin-off Kikaider 01, over a dozen incarnations of Kamen Rider, a feature-length film revolving solely around Hakaider, an anime, a manga, not to mention a slew of action figures some of which are worth thousands in their original condition…the list goes on.

Shotaro Ishinomori, the creator of Kikaider and a major contributor to Kamen Rider, is legendary in the manga world.  He is most recently known for his work on the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past manga and Cyborg 009 which ran on Cartoon Network.  With the likes of Osamu Tezuka as a mentor, Ishinomori is said to have created Jinzo Ningen (android) Kikaider as something of an homage to Astro Boy.  Kikaider is like Pinochio and Frankenstein all rolled up into one. Ban Daisuke, the actor who plays Jiro (and who more recently appeared in the original Ringu as the creepy girl’s father Dr. Ikuma), brings a vulnerability to the character that is palpable even now, decades later as he maintains an innocence within Jiro that prevails in a dark world of violence and chaos. 

Whether you’re a fan from back in the day or just a little curious about what the show is all about, Kikaida’s historical significance cannot be denied.  It was one of the first in a long line of live-action superhero shows that changed the landscape of American television forever and brightened the childhoods of countless numbers of viewers in the process.  Even to this day, island fan events featuring Ban Daisuke and until last June, the actor who appeared in Kikaida 01 (RIP Ikeda Shunsuke) draw large crowds of fans both big and small.

JN Productions out of Hawai’i has remastered the original series and put it on DVD. The video and sound quality is amazing for a reproduction. They also have other items like t-shirts and mugs available.  Please visit www.generationkikaida.com for ordering information and stay tuned for my review of the Kamen-Rider V3 DVD….

[Sources:  AICN, Around Hawaii, Generation Kikaida]

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