This Spider-Man TV Show Was So Bizarre, It Helped Create Power Rangers
When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted in 1993, the teenage superheroes who fought bad guys and climbed into Zords to take on monsters were all the rage. What most viewers didn't know at the time was that the giant robot part of the Power Rangers formula had been developing in Japan for years. And we have a very strange version of Spider-Man to thank for it.
In 1978, Marvel and Japanese studio Toei Company made a deal to create a live-action Spider-Man series for Japanese fans. But instead of Peter Parker, the series followed Takuya Yamashiro, a 22-year-old motorcycle racer who becomes Spider-Man after a run-in with an alien from Planet Spider. Takuya is also linked to the Marveller, a spaceship which turns into a massive robot named Leopardon.
So when the monsters he's doing battle with become too powerful or grow several sizes, Spider-Man can summon Leopardon and take the fight to them. That's a pretty big departure from the Marvel comics. The reason for the change was due to the influence of tokusatsu (a general term for practical effects and fancy stunt work) on Japanese superhero projects.
But Leopardon wasn't the Megazord, and Japanese Spider-Man wasn't secretly an early version of Power Rangers. The show gave Toei a new way to combine superheroes, monsters, and giant robots. The studio eventually started using that formula elsewhere, including in 1992's Super Sentai franchise that provided much of the footage for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Spider-Man Gave ‘Power Rangers’ Its Giant Robot
Leopardon's biggest contribution to the Power Rangers formula was the way robots changed the structure of the fights. Jason (Austin St. John), Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones), Billy (David Yost), Kim (Amy Jo Johnson), and Trini (Thuy Trang) would spend most of an episode fighting a monster with their regular weapons, but everything changed when Rita Repulsa (Machiko Soga) made it grow.
Suddenly, the Rangers needed their Zords to continue the fight. But the Power Rangers version was much more complex than Japanese Spider-Man because Takuya only had Leopardon, while the Rangers each had their own Zord. The Tyrannosaurus, Mastodon, Triceratops, Pterodactyl, and Saber-Toothed Tiger could fight separately before combining to form the Megazord.
There was another small detail that Power Rangers took from Japanese Spidey. Before his biggest fights, Takuya would stop and strike a very dramatic pose. Those same poses became part of Super Sentai and eventually Power Rangers, where the Rangers' choreographed introductions became almost as recognizable as their costumes.
The success of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers turned the series into a full franchise, with new Ranger teams, new Zords, new villains, and new versions of the formula. It also expanded into movies, comics, and video games, giving the franchise plenty of ways to keep going. What started with five teenagers with attitude eventually became one of the biggest superhero franchises for kids.
Japanese Spider-Man Wasn't Just A Weird One-Off
For all the ways Japan's Spider-Man veered from the comics, Toei's version wasn't some forgotten experiment that disappeared after a handful of episodes. The series ran for 41 episodes between 1978 and 1979, and Toei even released a theatrical episode later that year. That's because underneath all the added mythology and giant robots, Takuya was still recognizably Spider-Man.
He could climb walls, sense danger, and use webbing, while his costume remained close to the familiar Marvel design. He also kept his identity secret and had to balance being Spider-Man with his ordinary life. The difference was that this Spider-Man had a lot more to deal with than Peter Parker usually did, including an alien army.
The series also had its own little touches that made Takuya feel unique. For instance, his web-shooter was a little different from the one Peter Parker used because it fired rope-like webbing that Takuya could attach to buildings and other surfaces. So it was still Spider-Man, just filtered through the very different style of Japanese television at the time.
What's even cooler is that Takuya eventually stopped being just a random piece of Spider-Man history. Long after the television series ended, Marvel brought him into the Spider-Verse comics. So the Spider-Man who once fought giant monsters with a robot is now officially part of the same multiverse as Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and the rest of Marvel's Spider-Men.
