With the advancement of the times and the development of information, you can now see the latest animation and special effects only on the Internet. ULTRAMAN’s production company Tsuburaya will also update the latest episode on YOUTUBE for you to watch. How happy are modern children?
There is also a Malaysian YOUTUBER who explains the tokusatsu program very clearly and with detailed information! It’s just that due to their age, many YOUTUBER’s are inspired by “KAMEN RIDER BLACK” when it comes to the origin of tokusatsu films in Malaysia. This is the same in Hong Kong and Taiwan. I thought there should be some old ghosts who have been exposed to it since the first generation to talk about what tokusatsu was like before BLACK was broadcast in Malaysia. Let me use my vague memories to take you into the time tunnel…
There are many tokusatsu network program hosts on the Internet, and there is a high probability that they were inspired by BLACK. (Both Hong Kong and Taiwan horses)
Speaking of which… I’m actually not old enough, because before I was smart enough (or before I was born?), when TV was still in black and white, Malaysia already broadcast tokusatsu films! When I was very young, my brothers told me that red robots and ULTRAMAN were shown on TV! Later, I checked the information and found that the red robots had “Super Robot Mach Baron” and “Super Robot Red Balon” back then. As for which one it was, I couldn’t tell! As for ULTRAMAN, I believe it is the first generation.
In the 1960s, television was still in black and white, and special dramas were already being broadcast in Malaysia.
But around the 1970s, I had a black-and-white TV at home, but the TV station had never broadcast a special feature film. To me, Ultraman was just a legend! In 1978, I suffered a fracture in my left hand due to a fall. My mother took me to Jinbao Town every week to watch the injuries. Because the process of applying the medicine was too painful for me who had not yet entered elementary school. So after my mother saw the doctor, she would buy two ULTRAMAN and Kamen Rider color picture albums from the bookstore next to Jinbao Station. Only then did I have the opportunity to witness the elegance of ULTRAMAN and Kamen Rider in print!
Since those color picture albums are all reprinted from Hong Kong, each of them has the ULTRAMAN LEON logo printed on them. Published by Planet Publishing House, Kamen Rider is written as “Colorful Kamen Rider” and ULTRAMAN is called “Seven Colorful Superman”, with English words next to it saying “ULTRAMAN IN COLOR”. However, in the Malaysian reprint version, “Colorful Kamen Rider” is also written in Malay “Semut Merah”. The translation of Semut Merah means “red ant”. Although when I was a child, I roughly guessed that the RIDER series was designed based on insects such as locusts, flies, and dragonflies, but why it was called red ant was a mystery at the time.
Later, I learned from a Japanese program more than ten years ago that KAMEN RIDER in Thailand is called after red ants or Ant Men. Because KAMEN RIDER V3 was very popular in Thailand at that time, and V3’s helmet was red, that’s why it was called red ant, right? That’s when Hiroshi Fujioka went to Thailand to film the show and Thai people recognized him and called him “Mddæng” (red ant). I only found out the origin of this name. Since horses and Thais are similar, the English name for Masked Superman was probably based on the Thai name.
The origin of red ants was only learned decades later from a Japanese program.
In the past, we used the original name of ULTRAMAN in English. In Chinese, it was called Superman, but it was confused with the American SUPERMAN, so we would always use ULTRAMAN in spoken language, and KAMEN RIDER was called Kamen Rider just like in Hong Kong. What’s interesting is that in Taiwan, ULTRAMAN was called Cosmic Superman or later the universal Superman, but later because Andy Lau and Stephen Chow used the folk name to call it “Salted Egg Superman”, the Taiwanese copyright owner decided to officially translate it as “Salted Egg Superman”. This caused Superman fans who were used to calling him Superman to protest against this name for many years! As for KAMEN RIDER, Taiwanese officials have always used the name “Kamen Rider”, but later the Taiwan-Japanese co-production official named it “Lightning Rider”.
At that time, Taiwan officially named it “Lightning Knight”.
Later, with the rise of China, a large amount of Chinese grammar poured into Malaysia. The new generation in Malaysia calls ULTRAMAN as “Ultraman”. The KAMEN RIDER is divided into the Chinese version of “Kamen Rider” and the Cantonese version of “Kamen Rider”. However, there is another school that calls all RIDERs “Baja Hitam”. (This will be shown later.)
These color picture albums were later used during the broadcast of “Kamen Superman V3” in Hong Kong on July 27, 1975. Two children imitated the protagonist’s high-altitude kick and fell from the 18th floor, causing one death and one serious injury. This trend has also spread to Malaysia. The government has become aware that these special photo supermen will have a negative impact on children, and has banned the sale of these color picture books. I still remember that I bought the last copy of “AMAZON Launch No. 6”.
When I saw the picture of AMAZON in the color booklet I bought back then, it was classified as a banned book and could not be sold…
So my last knowledge was that Kamen Rider went to Amazon No. 6, and then one day, I found a pack of old photos (called photo doll paper when I was a kid) in the cargo hold of my cousin’s old wooden house. It was the rider numbered 1 to 7 in the attached picture~!! Judging from the age of the photo, it was a while ago…! When I was a kid, I was surprised. It turned out that the seventh knight was included in my cousin’s old photo. When I was a child, I realized that the new color picture albums I bought were very outdated information. Of course, in the Internet age, you can check the correct year of the work. Stronger 7 was broadcast in 1975. It is not surprising that I found old photos in 1978 or 79~!! It also shows that the color picture album my mother bought me back then was just a publication that some countries broadcast the program and businesses took the opportunity to publish.
I was surprised to see the No. 7 STRONGER at my cousin’s house, and realized that my color booklet was actually outdated information…
According to data, after Japan finished broadcasting Stronger No. 7 in 1975, Sky Rider No. 8 did not appear until 1979~!! But I had to wait until around 1982, when my sister bought some snacks and toys with banknotes in her elementary school, and I didn’t know that Sky Rider No. 8 and Super 1 appeared at the same time~!!
Back then, my sister bought a toy banknote roll, which was filled with promotional stills of No. 8 Sky Rider and No. 9 Super 1. At that time, I was surprised to see that in addition to No. 9, I also saw No. 8 who had never seen it and had become an old person… I deeply felt that the local tokusatsu information was really slow…!
That year, I suddenly received the news that there were two new knights. It made my head excited but I couldn’t change it.
Fortunately, the banknote toy printed stills from two works at the same time. At least you can see the majestic appearance of No. 8 Sky Rider and the old version of the color information…! The attached picture is the picture printed on the banknote toy back then. Looking back now… I believe these books are strictly prohibited in the local area, and the merchants use another way to print these superman patterns to make profits? But as a child, I still appreciate them for bringing these rare information products~!!
On the one hand, I knew that No. 9 existed, but I also had to accept that No. 8 had two colors. It was a bit hard for my brain to absorb.
Speaking of No. 8, a color album with stickers appeared later. It was an album belonging to Sky Rider No. 8. You could get it through a lottery at the grocery store. But the boss of the grocery store sold it to me directly. It was a rare information from those days! From that book, I learned that the No. 4 Riderman was named “Lao Mao” and that the fake Sky Rider motorcycle was named “Tuk Tuk Chariot”.
On the contrary, in 1984, when I was in sixth grade, I saw the only photo in the grocery store, which was of zx No. 10, but there was only one photo! I never saw other relevant information later… Even I doubted whether he was a new generation of knights? Check the year when the Japanese zx was broadcast in 1984. It seems that the latest information of the times was followed?
There was only one photo stream back then, and I only thought he was a Kamen Rider, but there was no large collection of other photos proving that he was a member of the Knight family.
It wasn’t until about 1989 that a reply book from the Hong Kong anime magazine “ACLUB” came to Malaysia. The content in it once again made me encounter information about No. 8 and No. 9 at the same time. The book published stills from the last episode of BLACK RX. Seeing ZX listed there finally confirmed that he was a member of Kamen Rider, but another shock was that it turned out that RX’s predecessor was BLACK. In my opinion, the basic look of Kamen Rider is an insect head, a neck scarf, a Majo sweatshirt, and those six rows of chest and abdominal muscles! Suddenly seeing the new designs of BLACK and RX that abandon outdated designs is really shocking.
The ACLUB pull-up page introduction at that time surprised me at the evolution of the new knight’s style.
In addition to RX, it also brought out the information of its predecessor BLACK, which was as interesting as the elementary school when receiving new information on No. 8 and No. 9 at the same time.
Kamen Rider is named by the ranking of number one, number two, and number three. What about ULTRAMAN? I remember when I was a kid, I would call the first generation and Superman Axiang (later officially named Jack) Zuo Fei as number 123, number five as Ace, number six as Taro, and Ultr. Aseven is of course No. 7, and LEO is No. 8. I always thought that I assigned numbers and rankings to him when I was a child. But when I was looking for information to write this article, I found that some editors in these color booklets defined numbers for supermen. It seems that I was misled by this page when I was a child… (The Superman brothers are not ranked by number, but because Ultraseven is called Superman No. 7, the editor was guided to rank them. However, because there is Superman No. 7, and Taro’s theme song lists the sixth Superman, so according to the order, there is no Superman No. 4 in the picture!)
When I was a child, I was misled by this picture, thinking that all the Superman brothers were ranked by numbers.
Although the Kamen Rider TV series was not broadcast in Malaysia at that time, the movie theaters actually screened the Kamen Rider movie trilogy and a Thai-Japanese ULTRAMAN movie.
It was a co-production between Taiwan and Japan, and some of the scenes were mixed with Taiwanese actors and action scenes from the Japanese version. But in fact, new action scenes were re-filmed for the Taiwan version! Full of sincerity, the first film was “Lightning Knight V3”, which started with V3. It was released in 1975. After it was so popular, it was filmed again in 1976 and started filming “Lightning Knight vs. the Legion of Hell” starring Number 1 and Number 2, and “Five Lightning Knights” of Knight Number 5.
Although the order was messed up, all three films were released in Malaysia back then, and they were all released as big movies instead of the current way of releasing them as Japanese low-budget movies with a limited number of locations. I was lucky enough to watch the “Lightning Rider” trilogy in the cinema when I was a child. I missed the other two, but they were later broadcast on TV. The most memorable one is that the Taiwan version of Riderman No. 4 was changed to a female, the X Rider’s cruiser was renamed the Sun, and the Lytle Rod was renamed the Thunder Gun. (It’s obviously a stick…)
Another one is “The Monkey King vs. The Seven”, which was co-produced by Thailand and Japan. What I remember most is that Superman’s signature cross-death ray (Spacium Ray) was dubbed “Lightning Punch” in the Taiwanese dubbing (my childhood friends at the time jokingly called it “salty pancakes”.) Decades later, the Thai production company went to court with Tsuburaya’s descendants! They have not yet obtained Toei’s authorization to start filming another “Monkey King and the Five Knights” based on the film “Five Knights vs. Kingdark”. Now it seems that the props and leather cases are really shoddy…
It wasn’t until 1981, when I was in the third grade of primary school, that Malaysia began rebroadcasting the first generation of ULTRAMAN, which was dubbed in English. However, after the broadcast, the TV station did not immediately start broadcasting “ULTRASEVEN” while the iron was hot. It was followed by GETTER ROBO (Sanyi Magnum Man, Getter Robot), which was broadcast for two consecutive seasons… After that, it had to wait until 1985 before the TV station broadcast the third generation of “The Return of Superman” (dubbed in Malay). The fourth generation of “ULTRMAN ACE” had to wait until 1992 or 1993 (I forgot the actual year). At that time, the local toy company “Dasheng” also obtained the agency rights for ULTRAMAN. Later, after it was recycled by BANDAI, they also obtained the agency rights for Double Star TAMIYA. (I no longer have an agent…)
That was the first time I watched the Japanese version of the original Superman TV series, and I was surprised that Superman’s face was terrible…because the color booklet didn’t include the A TYPE look.
The only thing I remember later was that NTV7 broadcast the Chinese dubbed version of “The Return of Superman” in 1996 or 1997, and the Cantonese version of “ULTRAMAN LEON” in 1998. After that, I stopped paying attention to local TV programs…
At that time, it had to wait about five years before the TV station broadcast “The Return of Superman” and skipped “Superman No. 7”.
As for KAMEN RIDER, strictly speaking, I only watched the “Lightning Rider” trilogy co-operated by Taiwan and Japan during my childhood. The real Japanese version of the TV series should be “KAMEN RIDER BLACK” broadcast by the TV station in about 1992. This was the first time that the TV series version of RIDER was officially broadcast in Malaysia. It was dubbed in Malay and was called “BAJA HITAM”! It wasn’t until about 1998 that they broadcast the American-Japanese version of “KAMEN RIDER BLACK RX”. After that, I couldn’t pursue it… because I no longer watch local TV programs…
BLACK was broadcast in Malaysia around 1992, but I could already watch it on video in 1990.
Therefore, modern children and tokusatsu fans are much happier than in my era. In the past, either broadcasting or publishing was banned, or one series would have to wait for several years before there would be new ones to watch. Now you can use your mobile phone to surf the Internet and see the latest and fastest, with Chinese subtitles…
PS: This article was originally an article I wrote in a media company describing early tokusatsu in Malaysia from a third-party perspective of nostalgic information. Fortunately, it also received a good response! Some well-known cosplayers and online programmers also contacted me, but this article was not favored by the boss of the media. Later, they gave up on the nostalgic style and deleted the article. Since SUPERDOPE will be followed by special photography, superhero movies, models and other information, as the first special edition, I retrieved the original manuscript of this article and revised it from my own perspective. I hope everyone who has read it will like it.
Another interesting thing I didn’t write in the main article is that when I fractured my left hand, the bruiser master used a medicine to apply it on me. It was a medicine full of turmeric flavor. Since Chinese people rarely use turmeric to cook food, I didn’t understand the taste of turmeric! One time when I grew up, my mother bought turmeric and brought it back to cook curry. Since I had never seen turmeric before, I took a whiff out of curiosity. The smell of turmeric suddenly made my mind keep flashing images of ULTRAMAN and Kamen Rider! I was puzzled… and later I realized that it was the smell of the medicine used to apply the medicine on fractures… Since I bought those colorful books after applying the medicine at that time, the smell of the medicine was linked to those special photo supermen, so it reminded me of the situation.
I should be the only one in the world who can recall Ultraman and Kamen Rider from the smell of turmeric…
The bookstore on the right side of Jinbao Station was demolished in 1998 after it became a dangerous building… I found a picture online that it was now an empty space…
Do you also like tokusatsu films? Hurry up and join the discord group to chat with like-minded friends! !