Moonlight Mask

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Moonlight Mask

]] is a fictional superhero

Superhero

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

Anime

is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
television shows and movies since his TV debut in 1958. Created by writer Kohan Kawauchi

Kôhan Kawauchi

, , created various tokusatsu series, including the first, Moonlight Mask, in 1958. He was originally from Hakodate, Hokkaido. His series Rainbowman is considered to be an inspiration for Go Nagai's Cutie Honey....
, Moonlight Mask is best described as Japan

Japan

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is an United States, long-running, old-time radio and early television show created by George W. Trendle , and developed by writer Fran Striker....
and Batman

Batman

Batman is a Character , a comic book superhero co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger , appearing in publications by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939....
.

eas Super Giant

Super Giant

is a fictional Japanese superhero featured in a successful series of Serial -like tokusatsu short feature films produced by Shintoho . He is also known in Japan as , is known in United States as Starman, and known in France as Spaceman....
is Japan's first celluloid superhero (only he had debuted in movies), it was Moonlight Mask who set the standard as Japan's first live-action TV superhero, and was a huge success with children.

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Encyclopedia

]] is a fictional superhero

Superhero

Japan

Tokusatsu

Anime

Kôhan Kawauchi

Japan

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is an United States, long-running, old-time radio and early television show created by George W. Trendle , and developed by writer Fran Striker....
and Batman

Batman

Japan's first TV superhero

Whereas Super Giant

Super Giant

is a fictional Japanese superhero featured in a successful series of Serial -like tokusatsu short feature films produced by Shintoho . He is also known in Japan as , is known in United States as Starman, and known in France as Spaceman....
is Japan's first celluloid superhero (only he had debuted in movies), it was Moonlight Mask who set the standard as Japan's first live-action TV superhero, and was a huge success with children. Television

Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
was already new in Japan, so many children that didn't have a TV set were gathered around to watch it at a friend or neighbor's house. Children also bought toy capes, sunglasses, masks and pistols and played Moonlight Mask in schoolyards and backyards (but as with every children's superhero, Japanese or American, Moonlight Mask was not without liability casualties; See "Liability Issues & Cancellation").

Who is Moonlight Mask?

Moonlight Mask's identity has always been a mystery (which is why the Moonlight Mask persona is credited as being played by "?" in the original series).

Decked out in white tights, white & red cape, white scarf, yellow gloves & boots, dark glasses, face cloth and Indian-style turban

Turban

The turban is a headgear consisting of a long scarf-like single piece of cloth wound around either the head itself or an inner hat. The word "turban" is a common umbrella term, loosely used in English to refer to several sorts of head wrap....
(pinned with a "moon" ornament), Moonlight Mask is armed with a whip, two six-shooters, shuriken

Shuriken

Shuriken is a traditional Japanese concealed weapon that were generally for throwing, and sometimes stabbing or slashing. They are sharpened hand-held blades made from a variety of everyday items such as needles, nails, and knives, as well as coins, washers, and other flat plates of metal....
and moon-shaped boomerang

Boomerang

Boomerangs are curved pieces of wood used as weapons and sport equipment. Boomerangs come in many shapes and sizes depending on their geographic or tribal origins and intended function....
s. He also rides a motorcycle.

However, only audiences know that Moonlight Mask could very well be detective , who seems to disappear from his friends before the caped crusader rides to the rescue in his motorcycle! Even his comical assistant , his friend Inspector Matsuda, and children Shigeru, Kaboko and Fujiko are oblivious to Iwai's secret identity.

The original 1958 series

The original B&W

Black-and-white

Black-and-white is a number of monochrome forms in visual arts. Most forms of visual technology start out in black and white, then slowly evolve into color as technology progresses....
Moonlight Mask tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

Senkosha Productions

Senkosha Productions was the television production arm of the large Japan advertising agency the Senkosha Company. The Tokyo-based Senkosha Company still exists, though it has long since closed its television division, now known as Senko Kikaku ....
and was aired on KRTV (now TBS)

Tokyo Broadcasting System

or TBS, is a television network in Tokyo, Japan.TBS has a 28-affiliate news network called Japan News Network, as well as a 34-affiliate radio network called Japan Radio Network which TBS Radio & Communications has....
from February 24 1958 to July 5 1959, with a total of 130 (or 131) episodes, divided into 5 segments.

Juro Iwai/Moonlight Mask was played by Ose Koichi

Ose Koichi

was a Japanese actor famous for his lead role as Samurai swordsman Akikusa Shintaro in The Samurai . This series made a huge impact when shown in Australia in 1965....
.

Chapters

Skull Mask (????? - Dokuro Kamen) - Episodes 1-72, 72 episodes (February 24 1958-May 17 1958)
The Secret of the Paradai Kingdom (????????? - Paradai Okoku no Himitsu) - Episodes 73-93, 21 episodes (May 25 1958-October 12 1958)
Mammoth Kong (??????? - Manmosu Kongu) - Episodes 94-104, 11 episodes (October 19 1958-December 26 1958)

Features TV's first daikaiju
Kaiju

File:Gojira 1954 poster 3.jpgFile:Jujin Yuki Otoko poster.jpg is a Japanese language word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English language as "monster." Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....
, Mammoth Kong.

The Ghost Party Strikes Back (?????? - Yureito no Gyakushu) - Episodes 105-117, 13 episodes (January 4 1959-March 29 1959)
Don't Turn Your Hand to Revenge (?????????? - Sono Fukushu ni Te wo Dasu na) - Episodes 118-131, 14 episodes (April 5 1959-July 5 1959)

The movies

To coincide with the Nippon Gendai/Senkosha

Senkosha Productions

Toei Company

is a Cinema of Japan and television Production company and Film distributor corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four Movie theater across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates Movie studio at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a Shareholder in several television compa...
produced the Moonlight Mask theatrical movies. This was Toei's first involvement in the tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

Superhero

A superhero is a Character "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to act of derring-do in the public interest". Since the debut of the prototype superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes?ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas?have dominated American comic books and crossed over into other mass...
genre (although their first original superhero production was the TV series 7-Color Mask
7-Color Mask

is the name and title character of a tokusatsu TV series, later called .Created by Kohan Kawauchi , this B&W TV show was the first-ever superhero TV series by Toei Company....
in 1959). All movies (which are in B&W

B&W

B&W, B/W or B+W may refer to:* Black-and-white as it refers to photography or cinematography* Monochrome* Gray scale* Babcock and Wilcox, an American manufacturing company ...
, just like the TV series) are basically feature adaptations of the show's story arcs, and were filmed in "ToeiScope" (2.35:1).

For these movie versions, Juro Iwai/Moonlight Mask was played by Fumitake Omura.

Moonlight Mask (???? - Gekko Kamen) July 30 1958; Directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi
Tsuneo Kobayashi

is a Japanese people anime film director affiliated with Studio Pierrot. He has directed the critically acclaimed anime series The Twelve Kingdoms....
Moonlight Mask - Death Fight in the Distant Seas (???? - ????? - Gekko Kamen - Zekkai no Shito) August 6 1958; Directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi
Tsuneo Kobayashi

is a Japanese people anime film director affiliated with Studio Pierrot. He has directed the critically acclaimed anime series The Twelve Kingdoms....
Moonlight Mask - The Claw of Satan (???? - ???? - Gekko Kamen - Satan no Tsume) December 22 1958; Directed by Eijiro Wakabayashi
Moonlight Mask - Monster Kong (???? - ????? - Gekko Kamen - Kaiju Kongu) April 1 1959; Directed by Satoru Ainoda
Moonlight Mask - The Ghost Party Strikes Back (???? - ?????? - Gekko Kamen - Yureito no Gyakushu) July 28 1959; Directed by Shoichi Shimazu
Moonlight Mask - Evil's Final Moment (???? - ????? - Gekko Kamen - Akuma no Saigo) August 4 1959, Directed by Shoichi Shimazu

Manga adaptation

A few months after the show first aired, a manga

Manga

, , are comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art....
tie-in was commissioned. There were different artists drawing the manga, the majority of which was done by young artist Jiro Kuwata

Jiro Kuwata

is a Japanese people mangaka....
(who would later become the co-creator of 8 Man
8 Man

or is a fictional manga and anime superhero created in 1963 by writer Kazumasa Hirai and artist Jiro Kuwata. He is considered Japan's earliest cyborg superhero, predating even Kamen Rider , and was supposedly the inspiration for RoboCop....
).

Liability issues and cancellation

Ironically, as is the case with every superhero idolized by children (especially Superman

Superman

Superman is a Character , a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio, and sold to DC Comics in 1938, the character first appeared in Action Comics Action Comics 1 and subseque...
and Super Giant

Super Giant

is a fictional Japanese superhero featured in a successful series of Serial -like tokusatsu short feature films produced by Shintoho . He is also known in Japan as , is known in United States as Starman, and known in France as Spaceman....
), children themselves become victims of the many liability issues surrounding them (ie. imitating the hero's dangerous & impossible feats), and Moonlight Mask was no exception. Because of the many concerns over children imitating Moonlight Mask's dangerous stunts, the show was unfortunately cancelled on July 5 1959, after the end of the final story arc, Don't Turn Your Hand to Revenge. Toei's movies, however, continued well into August of that year.

Fortunately, this would not be the end of Moonlight Mask. He made his return to Japanese TV 13 years later.

The 1972 anime series

The anime

Anime

is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
adaptation Seigi wo Ai Suru Mono - Gekko Kamen (??????? - ????), translated as The One Who Loves Justice: Moonlight Mask, was produced by Knack, and aired on Nippon Television

Nippon Television

is a television network in Shiodome area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan owned by the Yomiuri Shimbun. It is commonly known as , Japanese abbreviated and contracted words to , and abbreviated as "NTV"....
from January 10 1972 to October 2 1972, with a total of 39 episodes (divided into three segments). The show also became very popular in Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
under the title ("Captain Flash").

Veteran seiyu

Seiyu

A is a Japanese voice actor. Seiyu work in radio, television, and Film; they perform voice-overs for non-Japanese movies; they provide narration; and they work as anime and video games character actors....
Michihiro Ikemizu

Michihiro Ikemizu

is a veteran seiyu from Kanagawa Prefecture and a graduate of Waseda University who works for Aoni Production.Among his other roles, he has performed the characters Onsen-Mark , Isao Ohta and Kinnikuman Super Phoenix ....
provided the voice of Juro Iwai/Moonlight Mask.

Changes

Moonlight Mask now wears an open face helmet instead of a turban, and his cape has an ornament with the scarf attached.

Chapters

The Claw of Satan Series (Episodes 1-13)
The King Kong Series (Episodes 14-26)
The Dragon's Fang Series (Episodes 27-39)

The 1981 movie

The tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

is a Japanese language word that literally means "special effects." It is primarily used to refer to live-action Japanese film and Japanese television drama that generally feature superheroes and make considerable use of special effects....
movie Moonlight Mask, produced by Purumie International/Herald Enterprises and distributed by Nippon Herald Pictures, was released theatrically on March 14 1981. Considered Japan's answer to the American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
box-office fiasco, The Legend of the Lone Ranger (released the same year), this updated version of the Moonlight Mask legend bombed at the Japanese box-office. Daisuke Kuwahara (who, like Klinton Spilsbury

Klinton Spilsbury

Klinton Spilsbury is an United States actor. This actor was born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua. His lone known acting credit is the film The Legend of the Lone Ranger , playing the title role....
, disappeared from doing films) played George Owara (Moonlight Mask's new alter-ego), and the rest of the cast made up of veteran action starlet Sue Shihomi, Daijiro Harada and Takayuki Godai

Takayuki Godai

is a Japanese people actor. He was born on July 1, 1956 and is famous as the shogun's ninja Saizo in the long-running prime-time television jidaigeki Abarenbo Shogun....
, with none of the original characters turning up. The movie was directed and co-written by Yukihiro Sawada.

The 1999 gag-anime series

The gag-anime

Anime

is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
series We Know You, Moonlight Mask-kun! (????!?????? - Gozonji! Gekkô Kamen-kun), a very comical take on the famous masked hero, was produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha

Tokyo Movie Shinsha

, formerly known as , is a Japan animation studio, founded on October 1946. One of the oldest and most prominent anime studios in Japan, it has also produced numerous animated series airing in other countries such as France, the United States, and Italy....
and broadcast on TV Tokyo

TV Tokyo

is a TV station with headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. The network is also known as , a portmanteau of "terebi" and "Tokyo." It is the key station of TXN ....
from October 3 1999 to March 26 2000, with a total of 25 episodes. The opening theme song is an updated version of the original theme song, and is sung by COA

COA

COA can refer to:*Cambridge Occupational Analysts*Cash on Arrival *Cause of action*CedarOpenAccounts COA *Center of Attention*Certificate of Approval for marriage or civil partnership in the United Kingdom...
.

Parodies

Kekko Kamen

Controversial mangaka

Mangaka

is the Japanese language word for a comic book creator or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese person....
(manga artist) Go Nagai

Go Nagai

is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica.He made his professional debut in 1967 with Meakashi Polikichi, but is best known for creating the seminal works Cutie Honey, Devilman, and Mazinger Z in the 1970s....
made a very raunchy parody of Moonlight Mask, titled Kekko Kamen
Kekko Kamen

is originally a shonen manga series from Japanese people creator Go Nagai, which spawned an OVA series and several live-action films. The manga series is about the misadventures of a student named Mayumi Takahashi who attends a boarding school called Toenail of Satan's Spartan Institute of Higher Education that is run by sexual...
(?????? - Kekko Kamen, roughly translated as "Splendid Mask"), a pun on Gekko Kamen (Moonlight Mask's Japanese name). The manga depicts the adventures of a young superheroine who wears a red mask, scarf, an occasional cape, gloves, boots and nothing else. She has various weapons like nunchaku

Nunchaku

Nunchaku is a traditional weapon of the Okinawan kobudo weapons set and consists of two sticks connected at their ends with a short chain or rope....
and a feather on her mask.

Moonlight Knight (from Sailor Moon)

In the anime Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon

is the title of a Japanese media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. It is generally credited with popularizing the concept of a sentai of magical girls, as well as "revitalizing" the magical girl genre itself....
, the character Mamoru Chiba

Mamoru Chiba

is a fictional character and the primary male protagonist of the Sailor Moon metaseries. His real name is , but he disguises himself in order to support the series' central heroines, the Sailor Senshi....
appears in the Makaiju arc as the "Moonlight Knight" dressed in a white costume and turban similar to that of Moonlight Mask.