East of Burden: Japan's Forgotten Supervillains!

[jack_babalon]

WHO ARE ...

The 70's were a strange time to be a superhero here in the States. The 'Dark Age' of Vigilantes was just beginning and crime fighting went from mod acid trip absurdity to post Watergate Dirty Harry disillusionment. A time when caped crusaders became dark knights, Hero's were for hire, Weapon X's were unleashed for the first time and a skull clad Vietnam Vet bought the war home to the streets of New York. Nobody was looking up in the sky anymore, but rather seemed to be nervously glancing down the alleyways at the gathering of shadows.

But Japan, meanwhile, was a whole another story.

New Wave Plastic Ultramen went Kaiju boxing across the streets of Tokyo. Teenage Science Ninja Ravers battled rubber monsters between dates and musical numbers. The skies were lit up with fleets of UFO's hovering ominously off the coast. Monster Island was up and running (Why is it that we here in America can't even open up a Jurassiac Park for more than a day without somebody dying... while the Japanese can contain and maintain a full zoo of giant radioactive monsters with little to no trouble?). If you were bored on a Saturday night, you'd just dress up as a giant preying mantis, hop on a motorcycle and within minutes you'd be fighting oddly dressed acrobats no questions asked!

As a little kid my parents used to take me down to China Town occasionally and while I was there I would find all kinds of toys for these great sci-fi movies and franchises i'd never even heard of. After much pleading, whining and vows of saint like behavior they'd break down and buy me these great plastic kaiju dolls. I had no idea who or what they were so i'd have to invent origins for my monsters and scenarios for them to interact with my other action figures (I had this one game where my Star Wars bounty hunters were trapped on Monster Planet and had to fight my Ghidra doll along the alien terrain of the living room).

In that same spirit of improvised play i'm going to explore some of the forgotten bad guys, villains and space pirates that made up the technicolor rouges gallery for Japan's Finest.


"Smoke 'em if you got 'em!Members of the Nefarious Bastard Squad hold a henchman pep rally. If you think the rigors of being a Japanese businessman is tough imagine 'henching' for one of their villains.

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Shoggoth Jones
Origin: Miskatonic University transfer student.
Arch Enemy: Mankind
Beaten By: His one weakness - poking him in the eye with a stick.


The Royal Flush Gang East
Origin: Yakuza gang who lost a bet to another gang and as such had to commit 23 crimes while dressed as 'Playing Cards'.
Arch Enemy: DC comics legal department.
Beaten by: Copyright enfringement.


Bug-Out & the Astro-Creeps
Origin: Bitten by a radioactive preying mantis while on vacation.
Arch-Enemy: The Misfits.
Beat by: Still around and on tour with Guitar Wolf actually.


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The Last Temptation of Stormshadow: Crucifiction was just one of many horrible fates that could befall the unsuccessful science ninja!




Vaginasaurus
Origin: Scientology
Arch Enemy: Those who would mock her head dress
Beaten by: Marriage. Eventually found love with Doc Skull-Fuck and settled down.


Ronor the Insatiable & Queen Renfestia
Origin: After losing a costume contest at the San Diego Comic Con, husband and wife team 'lose it' and go on mass killing spree.
Arch Enemy: Common sense
Beaten by: A mob of drunk Klingons.


Hitler-Bug
Origin: All fucked up!
Arch Enemy: The Hebrew Hornet
Beaten by: Drove motorcycle off cliff because he couldn't see out of helmet.


Jack O'Ninja
Origin: Halloween themed ninja... whaddya need a map?
Arch Enemy: The Trick or Treat Twins
Beaten by: Well deserved laughter and ridicule


Mistress Alabaster Cold
Origin: Unknown
Arch Enemy: Rocket Ronin, Dragon Commando & Weapon Maiden
Beaten by: No known weaknesses.

Thanks to Japan Hero for the one of the best image gallerys on the web!

Comments

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

The Mysterians was one of my favouritest ever Japanese science fiction movies! 1958, only a few years after Gojira -- big robots and flying saucers whirling around, lurid colour, the chief villain with that strange semaphore gesture he kept doing while talking... it was great. Wish I could see it again.

I'm guessing the still is from Inframan, something I've never seen but have heard about.

[jackbabalon23.livejournal.com]

They just rereleased The Mysterians on DVD actually. One of my faves as well actually. Inframan was alright, I used to use it a lot on video mixes for it's hyperkinetic ultra-vil ballet sequences.

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll look for it!

[re-animating.livejournal.com]

hehee! I watched a lot of those when I was a kid. I even had some of the toys.
Don't forget Kikaida (http://www.generationkikaida.com), which I thought would re-run forever. It was just last year that it was taken off the program schedule in our area. Monsters, robots, mad scientists - muahahaaaa!

Oh geeze. I think I just had an epiphany.

[jackbabalon23.livejournal.com]

I never saw Kikaida myself but every Dragon*Con I go scurrying the dealers room for epilepsy inducing Japanese science ninja goodness, so i'll keep my out.

Also, as I mention in my next post, you should check out Japanhero.com for more monsters, robots and of course, mad scientists:)