1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,000 I say 2026 a few times. I mean 2025. Sorry about that. This is MJ Munoz bringing you a part of my 2 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:15,160 Ishinomori celebration for 2026. Again, this is the Celebrate Ishinomori Initiative for 2026 where I 3 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:21,440 have re-reviewed Skullman. I've talked about Ishinomori and why I've been thinking about him so much 4 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:29,360 and just how cool he is in general and some of the wonderful beautiful things I find in his stories, 5 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:35,840 particularly the Kamen Rider and a little bit Skullman I guess you could say. And now I want to 6 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:42,200 talk about the men who made Kamen Rider and I have heard about this thing for a long time. I've never 7 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:49,120 read it before. I don't read Japanese. It's mostly available in Japanese and fortunately for me I 8 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:54,600 was able to find a scanlation of it but only of the first chapter and from what I can tell there 9 00:00:54,600 --> 00:01:00,400 are multiple chapters at least two if not three. However I can't really tell how many there are 10 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:07,840 total so I am going to talk about this with you and I'm going to start off by saying I am shocked 11 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:14,160 and relieved and I don't know I feel kind of not special because I'm not special in regards to this 12 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:18,760 because of this but I feel I don't know somewhat validated by the fact that chapter one is called 13 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:25,520 the Cry Baby Producer and before I get into that hold on real quick. So this is Kenichi Murata who 14 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:32,520 did the artwork and I think the story as well for Shin or for Kamen Rider spirits and Shin 15 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:36,080 Kamen Rider spirits which it's only called Shin Kamen Rider spirits because it moved from one 16 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:41,620 weekly magazine to another and now it's on IEDIS unfortunately in like I don't know Tonka Bon like 17 00:01:41,620 --> 00:01:46,280 16 or 18 or something like that is out and yeah we're I don't know when we're getting the rest of 18 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:51,480 the story but I'd love to get more of it but hopefully one day one day it'll happen anyway 19 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:57,520 but yeah I was really pleased with this because I really like his artwork but more importantly in 20 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:02,280 the artwork it's the story that's being told of the birth of Kamen Rider and how that all worked 21 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:13,600 out so it's a well real quick it's beautiful it's beautifully illustrated and the story I feel like 22 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:18,720 is probably you know fairly accurate and fairly concise but there's more to it than this but it 23 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:26,640 does start it starts with the idea phase of coming up with a new hero for NBS which is the network 24 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:31,640 but totally was involved from the beginning which I was correct about but NBS is let me see if I 25 00:02:31,640 --> 00:02:46,560 can find it the Manichi broadcasting system so they requested the show be made and they 26 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:50,520 requested the Toei make it and they told them they had no budget so they'd have to make it 27 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:56,720 on the cheap for sure which is kind of funny a lot of Western fans talk about Tokusatsu has no 28 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:02,800 budget and that's part of the charm of it and I don't necessarily agree that the fact that they 29 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:08,440 have no budget is part of the charm but there is a quote that I'm misremembering I can't remember 30 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:13,560 the exact quote that says the more come the more restrictions you have on something when you're 31 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:18,920 designing it or working on it the more elegant your choices have to be in order to make it 32 00:03:18,920 --> 00:03:24,960 successful now that's very much a butchering of a quote about permaculture which is about lifestyle 33 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:30,240 design garden design and making natural and human systems interact with each other in a more efficient 34 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:39,640 more you know beneficial way but it does apply to this because at some point Hiriyama gets set up 35 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:47,000 who's this producer he's the crybaby producer he gets set up with one of his co-workers who is 36 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:55,120 let's see this is you right yes yeah he gets set up with um well I think I'm just gonna read this 37 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:59,840 Toru Hiriyama also known as the crybaby producer he's a legendary producer who would go on to 38 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:10,040 create many of Toei's superheroes and I see here Inazuman and Kikaider and those three demon guys 39 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:24,680 and the oh the giant robot twins and Go Ranger and oh what's his name Birdman Ninja who of course 40 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:29,720 is Henshin Ninja Arashi anyway and then there's this other guy he's working with here it's a head 41 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:36,400 of business office Toei Tokyo production department Yusaku Uchida he was two years younger than 42 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:40,240 Hiriyama during their time at Kyoto studio I would imagine he was two years younger than him 43 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:52,440 throughout their lives anyway so apparently giant robo was or whatever it was called was being 44 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:57,840 aired the final episode of it and Hiriyama was crying because of the sacrifice that giant robo 45 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:03,320 made to protect earth and people kind of thinking he's ridiculous for that and I gotta say I called 46 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:08,560 you know this Kamen Rider show writer tears because of both the tear marks that Kamen Rider has on 47 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:14,200 him and which is touched on in this manga and how emotional I get over Kamen Rider because there's 48 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:19,200 something in it that just speaks to me which I won't belabor right now I'll just go on and say 49 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:28,000 it's interesting MBS asks for Toei to produce a show and there's gonna be no budget for it so 50 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:35,360 Yusaku Uchida goes to Hiriyama and he asks him how to make this motorcycle show and he's saying 51 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,560 that they're gonna have to produce it outside and they're gonna be using an abandoned warehouse for 52 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:42,960 part of it I don't know if that's for set design or if that's for production of it or what but 53 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:48,040 basically they're gonna have to work with the barest thing they can and it's really cool one 54 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:56,000 of them says it's gonna be I think I think Uchida says it has to be a gorilla production otherwise 55 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:00,800 it won't work they won't be able to afford it anyway so that's like you know guerrilla warfare 56 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:10,880 and that means you know you get the shots wherever you can however you can and it's interesting 57 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:14,720 there was even talk about like unions and strikes and things like that that they talked about a 58 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:19,400 little bit which is interesting I didn't know that those were problems for them in Japan at the time 59 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:25,480 but yeah it's interesting they're talking about using the barest things that they can and making 60 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:30,240 this like motorcycle action show and they're trying to figure out what to do with it and they 61 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:36,560 don't know what to do with it so they go ahead and go to Shiro Ishimori who was known as Ishimori 62 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:44,600 at the time he was already successful with cyborgs 009 and some other things so Hiriyama 63 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:51,460 goes to him and Ishimori gives him the design for crossfire at the time which was a guy in a cool 64 00:06:51,460 --> 00:06:58,800 motorcycle suit with a kind of four-pointed shuriken ninja star type deal on the face where 65 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:04,560 you could see his face through there and Hiriyama likes it and so do a bunch of other people at 66 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:12,400 Toei but Ishimori actually thinks it's not grotesque enough it's not realistic enough and that it's 67 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:19,720 too cool and so he gives him another design which is similar to skullman it's like a skull rider 68 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:26,800 and yeah it's a skull rider design and it's it looks pretty pretty cool but it's not what they 69 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:30,040 end up using because people at the department like the licensing and toy department so the 70 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:33,400 skull was like too extreme and they didn't want to have to work with it it was gonna be a hard 71 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:40,080 sell I guess on toys but in the manga Hiriyama says it's gonna be kind of like golden bat or 72 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:51,520 Ogon bat and anyway or also known as Fantomas in other countries and yeah he um Hiriyama tries 73 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:57,760 to sell it pretty hard to MBS and they initially like it but eventually they just they can't do 74 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:03,600 the skull thing they don't want to the sales side doesn't want to have to sell a skull so that's put 75 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:10,060 aside and they're still working on this motorcycle in the background and there's somebody uh took 76 00:08:10,060 --> 00:08:15,720 aichi Hirose deputy general director of MBS he and Hiriyama have a conversation in this manga 77 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:22,000 and they both talk about their experiences in the war and because this is post World War 2 and 78 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:31,880 Hiriyama was actually a volunteer in the kamikaze program but he was too short apparently to go and 79 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,320 be a kamikaze pilot which I would think you know if you're gonna blind to somebody doesn't matter 80 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:41,480 how tall you are but maybe height has to do with mass and he was even heavy enough right I don't 81 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:48,040 know I don't know what that is about that's kind of strange um but this other fellow take aichi 82 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:56,680 let me see take aichi one Hirose he was like a motorcycle riding guy which Hiriyama conjectures 83 00:08:56,680 --> 00:09:01,760 that's why Hirose wanted to go ahead and do the motorcycle here why he he highlighted that because 84 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,800 like the little kids thought it was cool and there was a good youth culture which I think 85 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:11,160 is like teens of motorcycles as well as you know fast it's daring it's exciting all that good stuff 86 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:17,040 they even use the phrase motocross in here which I don't know but that would have been a term of 87 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:25,880 the day or not but regardless it's used here and um Hiriyama actually we get pretty soon an insight 88 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:31,960 into how things were for him in the war when he's talking with his wife oh it's after he sees the 89 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:37,360 the revision of skull man into a grasshopper and each time or he's saying just off the top of his 90 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:42,600 head hey what if he you know he's a grasshopper so what if he you know actually you know uses the 91 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:46,800 power of the wind and he fights for nature and it's about you know nature versus destruction and 92 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:56,080 things like that and it was very much just like a ping-pong back-and-forth collaborative exchange 93 00:09:56,080 --> 00:10:09,240 of ideas and it was not made in a vacuum it was made in collaboration it was made with I don't 94 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:16,440 know just like with this very interesting back and forth and that process is interesting to me 95 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:19,200 because as they're talking each and more he keeps adding to the sketch he talks about the 96 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:24,680 turbine on his belt and eventually Hiriyama when he presents this he says that you know even kids 97 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:30,320 can draw it which is cool for marketing and I don't know it's just really interesting to see 98 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:36,480 these different aspects all coming together and then Hiriyama talks it to his wife about how he 99 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:40,160 when he was in the war he had this horrible experience with heroes helping clean up these 100 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:45,360 corpses that you know they were taking people's dead bodies and actually I'm gonna look at the 101 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:49,560 historical context of it so I can talk about what exactly he meant by that and get back to you. 102 00:10:49,560 --> 00:10:55,720 So I found a quick article or I'm gonna read an excerpt from article during the so-called 103 00:10:55,720 --> 00:11:01,800 Great Tokyo Air Raid on March 10th 1945 the urban area centered around the Shidamachi part of the 104 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:06,560 city was selected as the primary bombing target the entirety of the area from the Sumida River 105 00:11:06,560 --> 00:11:12,920 to the Arakawa River presently Sumida Ward and Koto Ward and many neighborhoods on the West Bank 106 00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:20,680 of the Sumida River such as Asakusa and Nihonbashi were completely reduced to ash it is estimated 107 00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:26,200 that more than 100,000 people died that night the cause is of death included burning suffocation 108 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:33,200 drowning freezing and more throughout World War two something Chongning Dresden and many other 109 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:38,800 cities were bombed indiscriminately note one furthermore Hiroshima Nagasaki were also hit with 110 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:42,640 nuclear bombs much like the other areas the Great Tokyo Air Raid was one of the bombings 111 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:50,040 with the highest casualties in the war so yeah and as I was looking there was like stuff that 112 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:58,080 said you know baked boiled to death like just it was awful awful bombing of civilians people 113 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:05,280 in civilian areas and there's actually a bit in the manga where Haruyama is thinking back to it 114 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:12,520 and he this actually made me cry he there's this just pile of dead bodies people trying to flee 115 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:18,760 I guess they got caught anyway and there's like a mother and child someone holding their baby 116 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:24,760 and it looks like a mother or mother or father that you're so burned it's hard to see honestly 117 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:34,840 and here he on the sofa he runs over to them and he's holding the mother and baby together and he's 118 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:40,160 telling the other guys who were working not to separate them because you know I don't know why 119 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:48,200 but just the image of a dead mother holding her baby something powerful and he's saying the idea 120 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:53,640 of common later being someone who will as each no more he said it looks like I'm someone who would 121 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:58,960 appear like the wind fight like a storm it's just so beautiful and like he wanted that he wanted 122 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:05,160 that kind of hero to be around and so he's creating the show with that kind of hero in 123 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:10,240 collaborate from all these other people and I think I don't know maybe something about that is why I love 124 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,840 coming in or not sure there's definitely the redemption aspect of it and the idea of like 125 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:20,040 you know your darkness doesn't have to define you that I find is true in common writer but maybe 126 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:25,600 it's really like maybe I'm feeling some of your yama's heart and some of the hearts and souls of 127 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:30,080 these other people imprinting on their work in common writer and that's why I'm so attached to 128 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:36,360 it and then like there's this thing about how some of the people after Fujioka got injured they 129 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:40,040 wanted to just write him off the show and like the actor write the actor off the show and say 130 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:45,680 that he was caught by shocker and they did more surgery on him and they changed look of his face 131 00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:50,160 so they could just replace him and keep it as to kiss you on go but here you almost have no heroes 132 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:55,280 never die we're not gonna kill our hero like that we're going to do something else and make it work 133 00:13:55,280 --> 00:14:02,120 and they went ahead and did that and that that is why he's hemorrhagic you know became or you know 134 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:08,960 writer to came into the show and then the double writers reunited in episode 40 something and that 135 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:15,200 you know that dramatically actually increased counterjust popularity like the ratings went way 136 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:23,920 up in that part of the show like as a result of taking younger coming back and I don't know how 137 00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:29,800 I would have felt all these decades later watching it if to case young go had just been replaced or 138 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:35,000 rewritten with another character another actor because there's something about him who's Fujioka 139 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:42,240 specifically that is like in the show is very appealing very dramatic very I don't know what 140 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:46,520 there's there's something that he brings to it that definitely makes me love common writer as 141 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:50,240 well something is performance something in his look it's just he's got a whole package there and 142 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:59,520 it really works and not like I dislike each emoji it's just he's not Hongo and yeah he's just not 143 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:03,640 Hongo there's a difference for me and I was so glad to learn that he did come back I found that 144 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:09,680 out years ago but then reading about how Haruyama you know made that happen in the show is really 145 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:14,840 amazing and yeah it's just like it's very moving it's very interesting so here you are each memory 146 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:26,080 let me see who else who did I mention there's Takechi I want to credit everybody as well as I 147 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:40,240 can Takechi Hirose and Yusaka Uchida and more the people of MBS who ordered it like these are some 148 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,640 of the people who made common writer these are the men who made common writer I really thought 149 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:48,640 this was a fun read it was very enjoyable it's very cool Maria's art style of course is a joy 150 00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:55,480 to look at and the way it put together the story was really fun and I really enjoyed it and I just 151 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:59,440 I found like there was something even deeper in this thing that I already love and have all this 152 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:05,360 affection for and it honestly made me love common writer even more than I already do and that's 153 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:09,880 quite a feat quite a feat and I think there's more I found chapter one I don't know where the 154 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:14,920 other chapters are I can't haven't quite found them yet but I see on HLJ I can get the raw 155 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:20,200 you know Japanese version of this and I might just buy it just to look at the artwork because 156 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:25,480 that could be pretty cool anyway that's pretty much all I have to say for now check out MJMwindows.com 157 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:31,640 to follow everything else I'm doing I'm planning on now that I'm over some personal issues getting 158 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:39,080 back into more aggressively covering tokusatsu and getting back into my writing and if you go 159 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:46,600 to growbugs.com you will find hopefully very soon some updates on the production of my middle grade 160 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:51,920 book that has magical bugs battling monsters and protecting kids and one kid in particular 161 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:57,080 for this first book first set of books and hopefully I'll be releasing updates on that 162 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:16,080 soon and putting up a pre-order and you can check that out.