Switch On! One, Two, Three!
Nichi Bei Times - July 2004
Change! Switch On! One, two, three! While these lines may be meaningless to most, upon hearing these words, practically any thirty-something male from Hawai'i, including Japanee Bruddah Keet, is likely to strike a martial arts pose, suddenly transforming into the blue, red and yellow superhero, Kikaida.
Kikaida was an incredibly huge phenomenon in Hawai'i during the mid-1970s. The live-action television series, an early forerunner to Power Rangers, had a mediocre run in its native Japan, but when imported to Hawai'i by KIKU-TV in February 1974, it attained cult status, far greater than anyone could have ever imagined. The craze was so astounding, it was even the subject of a Time magazine article. A personal appearance in Hawai'i by Ban Daisuke, Kikaida's star, drew well over 10,000 screaming fans, and even earned him a visit to the office of Governor George Ariyoshi.
For those of you not familiar with Kikaida, here's the 43 episode series in a nutshell. The evil Professor Gill kidnaps and forces Dr. Komyoji to build Destructoid robots to enable his Dark organization to rule the world. Unbeknownst to Gill, Dr. Komyoji also creates a good android to battle the Dark forces.
In human form, the young, handsome Jiro, with a red guitar strapped to his back, travels the backroads of Japan on his motorcycle, in search of his creator, Dr. Komyoji. However, upon encountering the Dark Destructoid monsters and Gill's corps of android henchmen, Jiro transforms into Kikaida. The monsters are no match for Kikaida, unless Professor Gill plays his special flute, which drives Jiro berserk and prevents him from changing into Kikaida.
Like 50th State Big Time Wrestling, each episode was very predictable - Destructoid monster and Dark henchmen attack innocent victims, Jiro appears, Professor Gill blows his flute, Jiro is nearly overcome but at the last second, an explosion or other loud sound drowns out the flute. Change! Switch On! One, two, three! Jiro changes to Kikaida, then kicks the monster's butt. Despite the formulaic plot, tens of thousands of Hawai'i kids were glued to their television sets every week.
Perhaps none were more fanatic than East Bay graphic artist, Sebastian. (Like Prince and Madonna, bruddah Sebastian only get one name.) Small keed time, in da fifth grade, Sebastian wuz one JPO (Junior Police Officer) at Waipahu Elementary School. JPO after-school crosswalk duty ended just 15 minutes before Kikaida aired, but da school wuz 20 minutes from home. Every week, Sebastian did his best Bob Hayes (Carl Lewis for our younger readers) impression, racing home at top speed, but never missed a minute of his favorite program.
Sebastian proudly notes that the very first record he owned, a 45 rpm single, was of the Kikaida theme song. In fact, he admits that he can still sing the entire song, in Japanese, to this very day.
Sebastian and his friends also staged daily Kikaida battles in his yard. Of course, everyone wanted to be Kikaida, while nobody wanted to be Professor Gill's lame android henchmen, so the battles typically consisted of seven or eight Kikaidas versus one very unfortunate monster.
Youngsters, in fact, attempting to imitate Kikaida's acrobatics, and his "Spinning Attack," "Double Chop" and cross-armed "Denji Endo" moves represented one of the biggest problems caused by Kikaida at the height of its popularity.
Another of those kids was Japanee Bruddah Keet. One day after viewing an especially exciting episode, Keet wen go climb up to da top of da bunk bed and den, wen jump off, landing on top da bed on the oddah side of da room - and getting his wind knocked out. As he stared up at the ceiling, unable to breathe for a few seconds, little Bruddah Keet thought to himself: "I guess I bettah not do dat kine stuff anymo'."
Fast forward to the present. Recognizing that the thousands of original Kikaida fans are now adults and have young children of their own, KIKU is rebroadcasting the series, captivating a whole new generation of fans, and starting a second craze. The entire series has also been reissued on DVD.
Sebastian now watches the series on DVD, and enjoys it as much as he did 30 years ago, but for entirely different reasons.
As realistic and frightening as they seemed to a ten-year-old, the Destructoid monsters, with names such as Gray Rhino King, White Saw Shark and King Crab Maroon, are hilarious today. He noticed that one of the monsters, possibly Golden Octopus, had standard spaghetti strainers for eyes. In another episode, pieces of the monster began falling off, even before tangling with Kikaida.
Ban Daisuke, who played Jiro, will be appearing at the Super7 Store in Japantown on Monday, July 26th, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., to meet fans and sign autographs. If you nevah see da article about Super7, dey stay at 1630 Post Street, wea Wong's Bait & Tackle Shop wuz befo'. Get all kine cool Japanee toys, books an' artwork. Go check 'em out, an' go say howzit to co-owner and Hawai'i transplant, Mark Miyake. Eh, but no try cut in line in front of Sebastian, or he goin' Double Chop you.
--
Keith Kamisugi and Kyle Tatsumoto are da Two Japanee Bruddahs. Visit them on the Web at www.twojapaneebruddahs.com. Or e-mail them at wot@twojapaneebruddahs.com.
