Kikaida returns 30 years after original TV show
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Kikaida, the live-action TV character from Japan, was larger than life in the eyes of the fans, but the actual size of this figurine is only 3 inches.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Everywhere else on the planet, even in its native country of Japan, Kikaida is a somewhat hokey relic from the '70s vintage of superhero characters. In Hawai'i, though, he was a god to a lot of little kids who hung on every nanosecond of every "Kikaida" TV episode, and who now have grown into an army of 20- and 30-somethings, all bound together by the Internet.
And so, when one of them heard their childhood icon was coming back to the Blaisdell at "The Kikaida Experience," part of the Hawaii All-Collectors Show (see box), news shot around cyberspace. E-mail blazed across the Net, and Kikaida collectibles on sale at eBay suddenly acquired a new cachet.
"It's almost scary," said Ilene Wong, one of the organizers of the collectors show. "People are e-mailing us from the Mainland. I've heard from people who are booking their flights from Nebraska.
"Apparently there's this network of guys who have announced it," Wong said. "It's so quick, it's like wildfire, especially because of that age bracket, late 20s, early 30s. They're the ones on the Net."
Kikaida did get around a bit on the Mainland but was overwhelmingly a Hawai'i phenomenon (note: the Japanese title, which means something like "Robo Man," is sometimes anglicized as "Kikaider"). Children clung to what was then known as KIKU-Channel 13, every Wednesday at 7 p.m., for the live-action, English-subtitled adventure series. They would sing along with the theme song, a kind of mish-mash of Japanese and English ("Switch on! One-two-three! ... Jiro ... change-ee... Kika-iii-daaaa!").
The mania reached a peak in 1974, when Ban Daisuke, the original series star, came to Honolulu.
| • | 'The Kikaida Experience'
• With Ban Daisuke and Ikeda Shinsuke, part of the Hawaii All-Collectors Show • 7 p.m. Friday; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday • Blaisdell Exhibition Hall, $25 for autographs by the duo, $15 for a single • $3.75 adults, $2 children (collectors show admission) • 941-9754 • On the Web: Kikaida fan sites: www.kikaider.almostblue.net/ kikaider.htm |
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Then the Honolulu television production crewman and Kikaida memorabilia collector mentioned this by chance to a fellow collector, Gaylord Cambra, who'd been introduced to the Japanese actors. Cambra put Jeremiah together with Ban and Ikeda via phone in Tokyo, and the negotiations began. They were interested in a summer trip, and Jeremiah thought the collector show would be the ideal occasion.
The actors have no idea how many rabid fans they have here, Jeremiah said. But Wong has heard from some of them. So has Duane Chang, who, with co-owner Robert Lai, runs Collector Maniacs, a leading purveyor of Kikaida gear.
Local nostalgia for the show never faded completely. In 1993, KHNL brought back the show for a brief run, and in 1997, producers Toei marked its silver anniversary.
Next year is the 30th birthday, and a new generation of Kikaida collectibles has emerged. Chang is seeing another spike in sales with the advent of this week's appearances.
"We're getting so much inquiries it's not even funny," Chang said. "And they think there's only going to be 20 or 30 people!" The expected throngs will see costumed stand-ins for the real actors, who will appear devoid of disguise.
Nobody could say why the show was such a hit. Perhaps it was because there wasn't much competition for the affections of the superhero-loving keiki of the day, Chang said. It certainly wasn't going to win any awards. Kikaida was maybe a little more sophisticated than the old Godzilla, but not by much.
The story line: The good scientist Dr. Komyoji created Kikaida to defeat the monsters of Professor Gill and the Planet Dark, an evil empire with designs on conquering the Earth. When Kikaida wasn't fighting monsters, he was the mild-mannered, motorcycle-riding humanoid named Jiro. Kikaida was able to prevail because of his conscience circuit, but because the good doctor never finished it, Kikaida had a weakness. Professor Gill could send Jiro into agony by playing a magic flute, and prevent his transformation into Kikaida.
You can reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
