By the same token, Doctor Who is considered tokusatsu for the same reason as Star Trek!

Cartoons =/= Tokusatsu

I wouldn't categorize Doctor Who or Star Trek as toku either. There aren't any "super-hero" elements in it. Doctor Who maybe, but I'd purely leave it as being pure Sci-Fi. Godzilla even is a hero for Earth I'd say.

^ This


Don't confuse "Henshin Heroes" with Tokusatsu. Tokusatsu is ANY live action sci-fi, fantasy or horror film. Animated works can't be Tokusatsu. A good example, Smallville in Japan is labeled as Tokusatsu. Toku is not limited to transforming super heroes. Pick up a NewType: The Live magazine and you'll understand a lot better. :)

You said the magic word. SFX, as in special effects, is exactly what makes tokusatsu tokusatsu.

Yes, and so does Roger Rabbit, MacGyver, and pretty much all superhero films. Heck, even Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends can count.

However, much like the use of the word anime in English, tokusatsu here refers to only Japanese made SFX media, not all of them. And like anime, the lines are blured when we have an American Toku section. That's part of the confusion and getting off topic.

Bottom line, anything that has no live-action can ever be consider Toku.

PS While I do not know what exact genre Sailor Moon, GoLion/Voltron, Gatchman, and Super Sentai (and Precure, I guess. I refuse to watch it) would all fall under, I know it's something team based. However, they all fall under different genres first and only one of them is Toku.

There is no requirement for superhero elements in tokusatsu, though. The first "modern" tokusatsu was Gojira, and there are no superheroics in that film -- only a monster against the military and scientific minds of a nation. The daikaiju eiga didn't have a truly heroic monster until 1962 (King Kong, from King Kong vs Godzilla), although I suppose you could argue for Mothra in 1961 (sympathetic if nothing else).

Moonlight Mask would introduce the superhero aspect of a tokusatsu show in 1957, but the concept didn't really skyrocket until 1966 with Ultraman (itself a followup to the non-superheroic Ultra Q). Kamen Rider, Spiderman, what would eventually become the Super Sentai, the Metal Heroes, and others from various other studios helped create what we generally think of as tokusatsu nowadays, but its not limited to that.

I was on a podcast with several guys once, and I mentioned that while I did not watch much anime I was a big fan of tokusatsu. Another guy on the show asked what that was, and someone immediately said "Oh that's Power Rangers." So when I corrected the guy and explained the whole "live action special effects" aspect, he was dumbfounded. Reminded me of the arguments I used to have back in junior high and high school (which was tantamount to "VR Troopersis not a sentai show!" or "Masked Rider is not a sentai show!"). :)

Eh? I know animated works aren't toku. All I said was the live-action Sailor Moon series is definitely toku.

Yeah your right, didn't mean to confuse you.

Robot, no robot, henshin, no henshin, for boys, for girls or adults only, none of these matters.

Tokusatsu is a filming catergory based on how it is made; it has nothing to do with the content.
It is paralleled to animated show/animation/anime.
Since anime is the "Japanese term for animation", you can understand Tokusatsu as the "Japanese term for live action".

So when there is a title/brand (Rider, Sailor Moon, Transformers etc.), it can be filmed as either animation OR tokusatsu.

Yes, Dagwon is filled with nods to tokusatsu (majorly Ultraman and Sentai). However, toku has a huge cultural influence in Japan, giving these references in an anime isn't a rare thing. It's been done long ago.
They DID make real costumes, for live promotions and commercial shorts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4GrnPMA_8E
So this commercial short is catergorized as TOKU, while the major TV-series is still delivered as an animation show...

Same case with Skullman(2007), they have the prequel episode done as TOKU, while the rest of the show is animation.

Gah, I stand corrected :D