[DreamSword]

TL;DR: Toei Spider-Man is legit good and anyone who calls themselves a Spider-Man and/or Toku fan should watch it.

With the release of the Berndadelta Subs(shoutout to Androzani for making me aware of them), I've been spending the past month (re)watching Toei/Japanese Spider-Man with two friends of mine. I had previously seen it over a decade ago back when a bunch of bootleg subs were dumped on YouTube, and with all the attention that the show has continued to generate in recent years, I really wanted to give it another go. Was the show as legit fun and good as I remembered from way back when, or was it simply carried by all of the memes that people had made about it in recent years? I announced my intent to find out, and two friends of mine were ready to come along for the ride.

And let me tell you, if you think all the random screencaps and out of context gif sets are all that this show has to offer, then you don't know what you're missing. I was honestly surprised at just how good alot of the show's' storytelling and characterization was. I am in no way being ironic when I say that the main character, Takuya Yamashiro, has become one of my favorite Spider-Men. Sure, the show in many ways is wildly different than your "typical" Spider-Man affair(Spidey pilots a giant robot named Leopardon!), but, even more surprisingly, the core theme of "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" is still very much an active part of the show, while also often talking about the nature of revenge and its advantages and disadvantages.

And even aside from the storytelling aspects, for a show made in the late 70s, I was surprised at not only just how well the practical effects held up to this day, but also just how fantastic the stunt coordination and action sequences were choreographed. There's alot of stuff here that you just don't see anymore, which, while understandable in some regards(climbing up Tokyo Tower with zero safety nets is totally a great idea!), is also a great shame, because the practical effects make everything feel all the more real; Something I've also praised Power Rangers for in the past.

My friends and I had a thoroughly fun time watching it together, and for me personally, I feel like one of the best ways to highlight alot of what the show has to offer is to in turn highlight my personal favorite episode of the show. That episode being...

Episode 21:

Spoilers ahead!

Right off the bat, I just wanna say that whoever wrote the titles for the episodes of Toei Spider-Man better have gotten a raise. When you're writing titles as consistently metal as "I Saw Snake Woman's Tears in the Flames of Hell" you just gotta get some sort of recognition for that, you know?

The theme song is pretty great too. Has a nice tune to it and the lyrics flow rather nicely. Though I will say that I think whoever wrote the song got an entirely different sort of script than what the show would eventually become, because the lyrics, cool as they are, do not really reflect the show itself at all.

Getting into the episode itself, well...

Oh don't worry, it's just a training dummy! Though it does immediately signal that we're in for a real treat with this episode.

The set-up? The Iron Cross Army(evil space Nazis who Spider-Man fights) has gotten really sick of Spider-Man ruining all of their plans, so they instead resolve in this episode to just straight up kill him directly. Amazoness, the second-in-command, trains an elite squad of military men whom she calls "Exterminators" to fill the web-head with lead(head), with the monster of the week, Tank Buffalo, at the helm.

Their training session is cut short though when Amazoness discovers Tsuda, a spy for Interpol, not even bothering to hide himself while transmitting a message to headquarters. And thus, the man must flee into the jungle, with the Iron Cross Army hot on his heels.

Meanwhile.

Takuya and his kinda-sorta girlfriend Hitomi are at the local United Nations Youth Art Contest, admiring the various drawings and paintings done by the contestants. This particular piece was made by the only Japanese entrant in the contest: A little boy who lost his mother in a car accident, and his father isn't around anymore either. The painting is a call for an end to war, in the hopes of bringing about unity and peace across nations. To emphasize this, all the contestants in the art show will be taking their works internationally, with America planned as the first flight out later that day.

And this small scene, with Takuya and Hitomi exchanging pleasantries with the young painter, sets the tone and stage for the entire rest of the episode, but I'll get more into that later.

Upon returning home, Takuya gets a message from Interpol(Spider-Man works with them in this story). His mission? To go and rescue Tsuda, who's still lost in the forest. Without hesitation, Takuya puts on his Spider Protector(the Spider Suit), and hops into his flying car, Spider Machine GP-7, to take down more Iron Cross Army goons and rescue the secret agent. It can't penetrate the thick trees though, so Spider-Man has to continue on foot.

I have no doubt that insurance companies do not miss these days.

Spider-Man's a bit too late though because Tsuda gets captured. And this guy is a firggen champ because despite getting beaten with rifles, dragged across gravel, and getting shot at, the guy refuses to break, and continues to hold out hope that he can see his son once this is all over(and I bet you can guess who that is, right?).

Not to be outdone though, Spider-Man makes his coolest entrance ever by knocking out two soldiers and stealing their grenades.

Spidey and Tsuda make their escape, but unfortunately it's not gonna be easy, especially since Tsuda gets shot in the leg, requiring that they both hide out for awhile. It's here that Tsuda reveals to the wall crawler why he's putting himself in such danger: Revenge.

A year ago, Tsuda's' wife was killed by Amazoness, who ran his wife over. A scene shown in surprisingly graphic detail by comparison to today, by the way. Without hesitation, Tsuda began to hunt Amazoness down, abandoning his son, Hisao, without a word. At first, Tsuda is resigned to die, saying that he feels his mission is now complete since Spider-Man is there to stop Amazoness. Besides, Hisao must surely hate Tsuda after Tsuda left Hisao in the care of Tsuda's' brother, right?

Spider-Man reassures Tsuda though. Saying that Tsuda can't die yet, as not only has Hisao become an accomplished painter, but Hisao is still waiting for his dad to come home. But, with the upcoming flight to America, time is running out. Tsuda takes Spider-Man's' words to heart, and gains the determination to keep on living until he can see his son again.

With that, it's back to the action, which has been great all throughout the episode, by the way. First, pretty much all of Spidey's' powers are on display. There's the typical stuff like wall crawling and web swinging, but did you know that the Toei Spider-Man also has powers such as a healing factor, enhanced hearing, the ability to talk to spiders, x-ray vision, and night vision? The only ones not showcased are the talking to spiders and the night vision.

And besides that, the fights with mooks are well done, the pyrotechnics are exciting, and all around the episode is basically an entire action movie crunched down into 20 minutes. They even have their own "get to the chopper" moment!

Whatever the web-head's' stuntman was paid, it wasn't enough.

Anyway, despite being able to hijack a train, the duo's' escape is cut short by Tank Buffalo, who engages Spider-Man immediately. Things then escalate to, well, I'm sure you can guess.

And man, can I just say how firggen cool Leopardon is? Not only does it(and by extension, Marveller) have a really awesome design, but the show does a really great job at selling just how "super" this super robot really is. The thing is basically invincible! It takes basically no damage in any fight it gets in, and always makes quick work of whatever foe it's facing.

Now while that might sound boring, I wanna highlight a couple things. First, this was THE Toku Super Robot. It was thanks to the success of Leopardon that Sentai would make use of mecha going forward. And second, as the first, its use really highlights just how unique Leopardon is in terms of usage and story philosophy. You see, not only do the quick skirmishes work to really sell just how powerful Leopardon is, but here, in this show, enemies typically only get big when they've essentially already lost, and rather than their giant modes being portrayed as some sort of upgrade, as is the case with alot of modern Sentai/Power Rangers, it is instead portrayed as the villain being on its last legs; Making a desperate attempt at staying in the fight and taking Spider-Man down. Heck, some episodes don't even feature the giant monster fights! I found it really cool to experience, personally.

With the battle won, Spider-Man and Tsuda race to the airport to find Hisao, but as it turns out, they're too late. Hisao's' plane is in the process of taking off, and while Tsuda calls out to his son, Tsuda's' words go unheard, and Hisao's' plane takes off for America.

And then, in scene that is incredibly well done, Tsuda succumbs to his injuries, dying without his son ever knowing anything.

My friends called foul on this ending, but I personally found it to be really well done and a rather poignant way to end the story. This entire episode has been about the dangers of conflict and war, with the way it tears people apart, both physically and emotionally at the forefront. The Iron Cross Army's' war on Earth is affecting tons of people; Not just via taking their physical life away, but tearing apart the connected lives of family and people's' emotions as well. They're a real threat, and both the action of the episode as well as the arc Tsuda has in his obsession with getting revenge for his wife serve to highlight such. Vengeance is indeed a powerful motivator, but if you're not careful, it can very easily consume you, and further separate you from the things that are important in life.

Toei's Spider-Man is alot of things. It's a tale about revenge. It's an action packed superhero show. It's a show which helped shape the very foundation of Super Sentai. And it's a show that hits on what is, to me, the very essence of Spider-Man: A superhuman who is still, very much, human. Sure, there's a handful of fantastical elements, a couple episodes fall flat, and show itself has a solid dose of camp to it, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't totally sucked into it whenever I was watching. I had a great time!

In the end, if you're a fan of Toku, or a fan of Spider-Man(or both!), you should definitely check it out.

I give Japanese Spider-Man an overall rating of 5/6. It's amazing.