is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, tokusatsu mainly refers to science fiction, superhero, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is also occasionally dubbed a genre itself. Its contemporary use originated in the Japanese mass media around 1958 to explain special effects in an easy-to-understand manner and was popularized during the "" (1966–1968). Prior to the monster boom, it was known in Japan as or shortened .
Subgenres of include kaiju such as the Godzilla and Gamera series; superhero such as the Kamen Rider and Metal Hero series; Kyodai Hero like Ultraman and Denkou Choujin Gridman; and mecha like Giant Robo and Super Robot Red Baron. Some television programs combine several of these subgenres, for example, the Super Sentai series.
Tokusatsu is one of the most popular forms of Japanese entertainment, but only a small proportion of tokusatsu films and television programs are widely known outside of Japan. Certain aspects have attained popularity outside of Japan. For example, Godzilla has featured in popular American-made movies.
History
1908–1933: Early development has origins in early Japanese theater, specifically in kabuki (with its action and fight scenes) and in , which utilized some of the earliest forms of special effects, specifically puppetry. Japanese cinema pioneer Shōzō Makino is credited as the founding father of tokusatsu techniques, having directed several jidaigeki films starring Matsunosuke Onoe that featured special effects. Makino's effects work inspired filmmaker Yoshirō Edamasa to employ such technology in his own movies, notably Journey to the West (1917) and The Great Buddha Arrival (1934).
1933–1945: Influence from King Kong and wartime efforts After researching the special effects featured in King Kong (1933), Eiji Tsuburaya began to develop tokusatsu and had his breakthrough on Princess Kaguya (1935) and The Daughter of the Samurai (1937). Modern , began to take shape in the late 1940s.
1954–present: Widespread recognition Tsuburaya and the director Ishirō Honda became the driving forces behind 1954's Godzilla. Tsuburaya, inspired by the American film King Kong, formulated many of the techniques that would become staples of the genre, such as so-called suitmation—the use of a human actor in a costume to play a giant monster—combined with the use of miniatures and scaled-down city sets. Godzilla forever changed the landscape of Japanese science fiction, fantasy, and cinema by creating a uniquely Japanese vision in a genre typically dominated by American cinema.Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, pp. 47–48. This film also helped Tsuburaya's employer Toho establish itself as the most successful effects company in the world.
Godzilla kickstarted the genre in Japan, creating the "Monster Boom", which remained extremely popular for several decades, with characters such as the aforementioned Godzilla, Gamera and King Ghidorah leading the market. In 1957 Shintoho produced the first film serial featuring the superhero character Super Giant, signaling a shift in popularity that favored masked heroes over giant monsters. Along with the anime Astro Boy, the Super Giant serials had a profound effect on the world of .Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, p. 262
In 1958, Moonlight Mask premiered, the first of numerous televised superhero dramas that would make up one of the most popular subgenres.Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, p. 262 Created by Kōhan Kawauchi, he followed up its success with the superhero shows Seven Color Mask (1959) and Messenger of Allah (1960), both starring a young Sonny Chiba.
These original productions preceded the first color-television series, Ambassador Magma and Ultraman, which heralded the Kyodai Hero subgenre, wherein a regular-sized protagonist grows to larger proportions to fight equally large monsters.Porter, Hal. The Actors: an image of the new Japan, pg. 168 Popular superhero shows in the 1970s included Kamen Rider (1971), Warrior of Love Rainbowman (1972), Super Sentai (1975, trademarked in 1979) and Spider-Man (1978).
Techniques Miniatures
Tokusatsu is recognized for its heavy use of miniature sets, especially in the Kyodai Hero subgenre. Miniatures are placed from the camera's perspective to create the illusion that the characters are larger than they are.“The Men Who Made Ultraman.” Directed by Akio Jissoji and Takamichi Yamada, Tsuburaya Production,1989
Suitmation
is the term used to describe the process in movies and television programs used to portray a monster using suit acting. The exact origin of the term remains unknown. At the least, it was used to promote the Godzilla suit from The Return of Godzilla.
Franchises and productions
The many productions of series have general themes common throughout different groups.
Kaiju
productions primarily feature monsters, or . Such series include Ultraman, the Godzilla film series, the Gamera series, the Daimajin series, and films such as Mothra, The War of the Gargantuas, and The X from Outer Space, whose Japanese title was 宇宙大怪獣ギララ (Uchu Daikaijū Girara, "Cosmic Daikaijū Girara").
productions primarily feature supervillains as their central character. This includes films such as The Invisible Avenger, Half Human, The H-Man, The Secret of the Telegian, and The Human Vapor.
Popular franchises Since about 1960, several long-running television series have combined various other themes. Tsuburaya Productions has had the Ultra Series starting with Ultra Q and Ultraman in 1966. P Productions began their foray into in 1966 with the series Ambassador Magma. They also had involvement in the Lion-Maru series which concluded in November 2006.
Toei Company has several series that fall under their Toei Superheroes category of programming, starting in 1958 with the film series, Moonlight Mask. Then, they produced several other long-running series, starting with Shotaro Ishinomori's Kamen Rider Series in 1971, the Super Sentai Series series in 1975, the Metal Hero Series in 1982, and the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series in 1981.
Toei also produced several other television series based on Ishinomori's works, including Android Kikaider and Kikaider 01, Robot Detective, Inazuman and Inazuman Flash, and Kaiketsu Zubat. Toei was also involved in the Spider-Man television series, which influenced their subsequent Super Sentai series.
In 2003, TV Asahi began broadcasting the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series in a one-hour block airing each week known as Super Hero Time. Toho, the creators of Godzilla, also had their hands in creating the Chouseishin Series of programs from 2003 to 2006 and the Zone Fighter franchise.
In 2006, Keita Amemiya's Garo, a mature late-night tokusatsu drama, was released, starting a franchise composed of several television series and films. Other mature late-night series followed, including a revival of Lion-Maru in Lion-Maru G, the Daimajin Kanon television series (based on the Daimajin film series), and Shougeki Gouraigan!!, also created by Amemiya.
movies Various movies classified as can include disaster movies and science fiction films. These include (1956), , , , , , , , , and .
Similar productions
Non-traditional productions Non-traditional films and television programs may not use conventional special effects or may not star human actors. Though suitmation typifies , some productions may use stop-motion to animate their monsters instead, for example Majin Hunter Mitsurugi in 1973. TV shows may use traditional techniques, but are cast with puppets or marionettes: Uchuusen Silica (1960); Ginga Shonen Tai (1963); Kuchuu Toshi 008 (1969); and Go Nagai's X Bomber (1980).
Some employed animation in addition to its live-action components: Tsuburaya Productions' Dinosaur Expedition Team Bornfree (1976), Dinosaur War Izenborg (1977) and Pro-Wrestling Star Aztekaiser (1976).
Japanese fan films As the popularity of increased in Japan, several fan film projects have been produced over the years. Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Takami Akai, and Shinji Higuchi set up a fan-based group called Daicon Film, which they renamed Gainax in 1985 and turned into an animation studio. Besides anime sequences, they also produced a series of shorts parodying monster movies and superhero shows. These productions include Swift Hero Noutenki (1982), Patriotic Squadron Dai-Nippon (1983), Return of Ultraman (1983) and The Eight-Headed Giant Serpent Strikes Back (1985).
Outside of Japan
techniques have spread outside Japan due to the popularity of Godzilla films.
Adaptations Godzilla, King of the Monsters! first appeared in English in 1956. Rather than a simple dub of the Japanese-language original, this work represented an entirely re-edited version that restructured the plot to incorporate a new character played by a native English-speaking actor, Raymond Burr. Ultraman gained popularity when United Artists dubbed it for American audiences in the 1960s.
In 1993, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered on Fox Kids. The series used action footage from Toei's Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger for its first season and Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger for its second and third seasons respectively. Produce by Saban Entertainment. Power Rangers series adapted Super Sentai for 30 seasons; using footage from 25 Super Sentai Series. Both series are currently in hiatus. Due to the success of Power Rangers, Saban produced other series using footage from other Toei series. The first being VR Troopers using footage from Metal Hero Series: Choujinki Metalder, Jikuu Senshi Spielban, and Space Sheriff Shaider. VR Troopers ran in syndication. Saban went on to produce Beetleborgs based on Juukou B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto. Saban's Masked Rider is based on Kamen Rider Black RX.
In 2002, 4Kids Entertainment bought the rights to Ultraman Tiga, but simply produced a dub of the Japanese footage, broadcast on the FoxBox. And in 2009, Adness Entertainment took 2002's Kamen Rider Ryuki and turned it into Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight, which began broadcast on The CW4Kids in 2009. It won the first Daytime Emmy for "Outstanding Stunt Coordination" for its original scenes.
In 2023, GMA Network released Voltes V: Legacy, an adaptation of the original Voltes V, which used special effects and CGI heavily reminiscent of those found in traditional tokusatsu shows, with some western influences added. In 2006, YTV Monster Warriors used CGI for the monsters with humor in the show.
Original productions In 1961, England-based filmmakers produced the Godzilla-style film, Gorgo, which used the same situation technique as the Godzilla films. That same year, a Danish-American co-production between Saga Studios and Cinemagic made two Godzilla-style giant monster films, both named Reptilicus, bringing each monster to life using a marionette on a miniature set. In 1967, South Korea produced its monster movie titled Yonggary.
In 1975, Shaw Brothers produced a superhero film called The Super Inframan, based on the huge success of Ultraman and Kamen Rider there. The film starred Danny Lee in the title role. Although there were several similar superhero productions in Hong Kong, The Super Inframan came first. With help from Japanese special effects artists under Sadamasa Arikawa, they also produced a Japanese-styled monster movie, The Mighty Peking Man, in 1977.