Childhood Influences
March 24th, 2008
Henshin Rider is a tribute to my first childhood hero, Kikaider (or Kikaida) which was a live action tokusatsu TV show. It aired in 1973 (which shows how old I am) in Japan and Honolulu, Hawaii and was an instant hit with the kids. The show was actually bigger in Hawaii than in Japan. I owe a lot to Shotaro Ishinomori who was the creator of Kikaider, but is probably best known for creating the Kamen Rider series (Masked Rider) and GoRanger which was the genesis of what would become the Power Rangers.
A lot of research went into the creation of Henshin Rider. Tokusatsu heros often had brightly colored costumes which were some what symbolic of what their powers were. Using Yellow, blue and red seemed like a natural choice as Henshin is a tribute to Kikaider and gets his power from the sun. We added in the scarf which was popular with a lot of Ishinomori’s characters.
Another popular tokusatsu tradition is the “Henshin” (which translates ‘to change’ or ‘transformation’). Unlike most western super heroes, Japanese heros often stayed in human form until they called upon their powers and switched to super form. Usually the transformation is invoked by some sort of incantation along with a few dynamic movements. This was was made popular by Ishinomori’s Kamen Rider and has since been a staple for just about every character since. While you don’t see it in this Sugary Serials story, Henshin Rider has a “human form” where he is actually a Pizza Delivery guy.
I fondly remember the days of watching these tokusatsu shows on TV while growing up. In many ways, Anpan, Nemu, Anise and Kana are all reliving my childhood for me in these stories.
For anyone interested: A few fun videos for anyone wanting to take a look at what I was watching on TV as a kid:
Live Action Kikaider
Kikaider the Animation
Go Ranger Opening Theme
Battle Fever (another Power Rangers like show)
Kamen Rider V3
Henshin Example
March 27th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Hey Scott, it’s pretty cool that you’re opening the window to your childhood like this. I always love reading about the stuff that influences people to create.