I guess it’s time to introduce another one of my addictions. This one may require some explaining as not many people will ‘get’ it.

I’m a big big fan of the japanese television shows called Tokushu Satsuei (特殊撮影) — almost always cut down to just Tokusatsu (特撮) – and usually shortened all the way down to Toku for ease of use. It is Japanese for “special photography.” These TV shows tend to be over the top fantasy with many special effects. Only recently has these special effects consisted of computer generated effects, but it is still mostly camera trick type effects.

One can think of Toku as live action anime. A lot of times anime has a hero who has some strange powers or abilities and preform pretty fantastic stuff. Toku is the same, except instead of a cartoon, it’s real people.

My favorite genre of Toku is Henshin Hero (変身ヒーロー) Japanese: Transforming Hero. These are usually the type where your hero(s) are average everyday people who can transform into super heros. Some of the more famous Nenshin Hero Toku are

• Ultraman (ウルトラマン)
• Kamen Rider (仮面ライダー)
• Sentai (戦隊)
• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン)

I watch all of my Toku translated into english (subtitled, the way it always should be) from TV Nihon. I recently finished Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and am still watching two Sentai series: Tokusou Sentai DekaRanger and Mahou Sentai MagiRanger. I’m also watching Ultraman: Nexus.

Toku has recieved a bad rap in the U.S. due to one hiddeous evil show called the Power Rangers. Back in the early 90’s, Saban Entertainment thought it would be great to release Super Sentai in the US, dubbed and localized for amercians. The first (of many) to recieve this butcher job treatment was Dinosaur Task Force Zyuranger (恐竜戦隊ジュウレンジャー), shortented to Zyuranger. Instead of leaving it as is and getting english voice overs, Saban took giant sized scissors to the entire show, mixed it all up, and in the end Power Rangers and Zyuranger looks so different, it isn’t even funny. Except for the costumes and bad guys, nothing is the same.

By now you may be thinking of how childish all of this sounds, and the Power Rangers are for kids. Toku, however, is not (at least not American kids). Toku is considerably more violent compared to what you would find on American television, has much more depth, story, and emotion. It is still over the top fantasy action that can be, at time, cheesy… but this is Japanese television we’re talking about. I love this stuff, and I’d expect myself to talk a bit more about this now.

I have seen all 50 episodes of Sailor Moon, up to episode 33 of Tokusou Sentai DekaRanger, episode 21 of Mahou Sentai MagiRanger, and episode 10 of Ultraman Nexus.