I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 431: Who Buys Playboy Just to Read Spider-Man?
To be fair, the Toei version of Spider-Man was an extremely outstanding tokusatsu series.
Don't be fooled by its low production budget—the staff poured their hearts into it, throwing every creative idea they had at making exciting scenes. The most famous examples were the dangerously daring climbing shots.
The story itself was also surprisingly strong. Beneath the absurd humor, there were genuine emotions woven into the characters. And the decision to have the protagonist pilot a giant robot was nothing short of brilliant—it became the show's most successful commercial element, leading Toei to include giant combining robots in all subsequent Super Sentai series.
It could be said that Toei's Spider-Man was a perfect collaboration between superheroes and Japanese tokusatsu, and the most successful localization of a Western superhero in Japan.
Few people knew that Japan actually tried three times to introduce Spider-Man.
The first attempt was a Japanese-original Spider-Man manga. The Japanese side imported the character and general story outline, but moved the setting to Japan. The main cast were Japanese, and even some villains incorporated local elements—like the Yuki-onna and other traditional yokai.
If not for Spider-Man's distinctive costume, readers might have thought they were reading a darker version of Astro Boy—the art style heavily imitated Osamu Tezuka.
This version couldn't really be called a success. It didn't make much of a splash in either Japan or North America. Still, several manga artists were influenced by it—most famously Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of Inuyasha.
In the 1970s, Japan made its second attempt, serializing translated American Spider-Man comics in a Japanese magazine.
This time preserved the original flavor—but the problem was that the serialization platform was the Japanese edition of Playboy…
Seriously, who the hell buys Playboy to see a guy in a red-and-blue bodysuit?
Unsurprisingly, this attempt did even worse than the first. At least the original Japanese manga managed to finish. The Playboy serialization got axed after only a few issues.
No one except the editor who greenlit the idea would've been surprised.
The Toei version was Japan's third attempt—and this time it succeeded, even making Spider-Man one of the most well-known superheroes in Japan.
That said, Japanese tokusatsu inevitably came with certain… unavoidable traits. For example: over-the-top chuuni elements. And they were dangerously addictive.
At least, that was what the Knight King Arturia—forced to binge-watch the show—thought. The hero's dramatic entrance lines were simply too brainwashing and bizarre.
Besides the most common "Emissary from Hell, Spider-Man," there were also:
"The man who bleeds for love, Spider-Man!""The man who cries for homeless children, Spider-Man!""The man who will stop Tokyo's great blackout, Spider-Man!""The destroyer of mushrooms, Spider-Man!"
"…How much of a grudge does this guy have against mushrooms?" Arturia muttered.
"Hm?"
Hearing her whisper, Shinji turned toward the calm-faced Knight King.
"Nothing, Master. I simply gained a new insight."
Arturia curled her lips slightly, expressing her thoughts in a composed tone.
At first, being accustomed to Shinji's film style, she had been utterly stunned by Spider-Man.
Servants might announce their class when fighting, and they shouted True Names when releasing Noble Phantasms, but who would attach such long theatrical chants to a self-introduction?
And worse, this red-and-blue pajama-clad youth changed his lines every time, basically improvising based on whatever was happening. The defining feature was pure, unrestrained spontaneity.
However, under Shinji's persistent urging, after binge-watching for several days, Arturia gradually became accustomed to Spider-Man's over-the-top chuuni speeches.
Besides, her own Master was a hardcore tokusatsu fanatic. To content that outsiders might see as full of cringe, he would only say, "A tokusatsu hero who doesn't shout his own name has no soul!"
At that moment, Arturia finally understood what people meant by "men remain boys until the day they die."
But once she got used to those dramatic tokusatsu-style performance techniques, her impression of the series improved. At the very least, she wasn't as resistant as before, and she even began trying to incorporate that exaggerated acting style into her own "animal" performance.
The only thing that left Arturia feeling slightly frustrated was that the final battle of FGO: Prologue—the showdown against Saber Alter—wouldn't be played by her.
"In the final battle, Fou and Saber Alter will appear at the same time. You can't both act and control Fou simultaneously, so we'll let Alter-san play the final boss as herself."
Shinji's explanation made perfect sense, but it was still a pity. Opportunities to spar head-on with other Heroic Spirits didn't come often these days.
"It's not as great as you think, Saber."
During one filming break, Cu Chulainn—dressed in his Caster robes—complained bitterly to the envious Arturia.
"I've got to fight that Archer bastard while sticking to the Caster setup. It feels so awkward. Several times I wanted to just stab his head with my spear. The whole thing feels off."
"Using the same Heroic Spirit in different classes to give the audience a fresh experience is important for keeping a work interesting," Arturia comforted him. "We fully summoned Servants can't switch classes by modifying our Spirit Origins like those incomplete ones. If it were possible, I'd like to try other classes myself."
"Other classes? Don't tell me Saber wants to try being a Caster too?"
"Not really." Arturia thought for a moment before answering, "I've always wondered what I'd look like as a Lancer. Master seems particularly fond of that version of me. Given his tastes… Lancer-me would probably be a top-tier woman both in personality and figure, wouldn't she?"
Cu Chulainn: "..."
Saber… I think that's just your imagination. If you believe a Master's sweet talk to girls, pigs might as well fly.
Cu Chulainn had no idea how "promising" Arturia's future actually was. To him, the petite Knight King was simply indulging in a harmless daydream.
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Tn: I updated the story once every 2 days, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
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