I reposted this fantastic publicity still of Maki Fuyukichi as Tonbei the Mist from Greg Newman over at the Facebook “The Samurai” Group. Got a lot of attention, so I thought this would be a good time to revisit a … Continued
When you’re a niche geek within an already geeky niche you tend to do your own gift shopping. My session of retail therapy last holiday season was these: While I’m not the biggest tokusatsu fan out there, I do like … Continued
Siren Visual way down in Australia has re-released their previously available box sets of the landmark series The Samurai with all-new packaging, and just in time for the holidays come new releases of the latter seasons. I love this new … Continued
Pre-pubescent axe-weilding hero Watari goes through standard shinobi like shit through a goose, but things get a lot dicier when he encounters a bizarre rogues gallery of super-powered villains. Further Reading: I wrote a short plug for this film on … Continued
Scored some 4×6″ B&W press stills from Toei’s 1966 mess of a masterpiece Watari the Ninja Boy (Daininjutsu eiga Watari). Depending on one’s previous knowledge of the Shirato Sanpei manga and where you stand on magical superhero ninjutsu vs. grim … Continued
The Red Shadow kid’s TV series ran 52 episodes over two years. Six of those episodes were later cut together into movies released under titles like Ninjascope (The Magical World of the Ninjas) in Australia and Latin America. They were … Continued
Seems Japan has been beset by giant monsters forever, and luckily for us today heroes like Ultraman are around to fend them off. But in the fuedal era, centuries before any space-faring monster fighters, laser-weilding science patrols or little kids … Continued
Somehow, it’s the last week of October… Time flies when you’re running around in an Oni mask like a maniac. Actually, some mid-month travel put a dent in what I wanted to be a more prolific output for MONSTERS AND … Continued
Anyone wanting to show their appreciation of this site can remember me at Christmas and send about three bills to Art of Toy in Japan… I’m actually a big fan of the Keita Amemiya’s Mirai Ninja (aka Cyber Ninja and/or … Continued
Once upon a time, there was a ground-breaking Japanese TV series called Onmitsu Kenshin (or Onmitsu kenshi), starring Koichi Ose as Shintaro, wandering samurai detective protecting his half-brother the Shogun from various conspiracies and assassins. It was popular in Japan, but when … Continued