Shoji Ushio
Spectreman

I start by suggesting you think of a magician show.

Perfect, immaculate tuxedos, incredibly white cuffs, super cufflinks, sculpted hair, slicked back, not a hair out of place, fast, elegant, hypnotic movements, dazzling bicycles that fly, disappear, reappear and disappear again, and you pleasantly don't understand a thing.

Then arrives a strangely dressed guy, not scruffy, just different. He grabs your attention but you can't place him in the various typical situations your brain has on file. He's all jerky movements. They offer him brand-new bicycle decks for his tricks, but he refuses them. He goes out to buy Novella 2000, August issue, tears the cellophane always with those jerky moves, pulls one of the two decks out from the promotional Modiano scala 40 pack, throws the rest away with a grunt that sounds like "soo-ooka" from far away, and with that deck, he performs the best prestidigitation trick you've ever seen.

Okay, for now, put this aside.

No, it's not out of context. In my opinion, science fiction operates on the same rules as magic tricks, but I'll get to that later.

Accessible science fiction, TV and movie products then, in the time when I was a kid, one could find American and, to a lesser extent, Japanese ones.

I gravitated more towards the latter, and so I have this thing that when I hear about science fiction, my mind instinctively goes to the imagery created by productions from the Land of the Rising Sun.

I'm not referring to "serious" cinema... Let's call it. I'm referring to animated series, Leiji Matsumoto first and foremost, and secondly sci-fi TV series "tokusatsu" (special effects, wiki quote) like the one in question.

The tokusatsu TV series, which can be placed chronologically between the late '60s and early '80s, are the link between Godzilla and a fair number of nonsense, "unforgettable" stuff like Winspector and Power Rangers.

At least the origins are noble, Godzilla is a direct child of the scars of the Japanese people caused by nuclear tragedies.

What they had in common was the interaction between man and machine (cyborg, androids, robots), and the technological development connected with the fear of global pollution and radiation.

The frequent scheme they were based on sees a single hero, the one with the important powers, sometimes flanked by a small group of sidekicks with worthless powers, fighting legions of enemies, usually made up of dinosaurs or alien invaders in dinosaur form.

Perhaps the quintessential tokusatsu series is Ultraman, which I know only by reputation. Never seen anything.

The first one I remember watching was Spectreman, where the adventures of an alien cyborg battling the androscimmies for the earth's salvation are told, who in daily life hides his true identity behind the facade of a journalist (... signur ...). Stuff for strong stomachs, basically.

The other series I remember are Megaloman, Koseidon, and I-Zenborg.

Products that I dare not think how they might be considered by a viewer who, seeing them, wouldn't be overwhelmed by nostalgic youth memories similar to mine. Probably despicable stuff, with special effects like those from art attacks and actors making funny/ridiculous poses.

I remember that to my child's eyes, the very makeshift nature of the special effects contributed to making these series even more surreal, disorienting, and imaginative. Even then I clearly knew it was "bunn pat" stuff (minimal expense, maximum yield), but the shameless showdown of baubles, for some reason, had the opposite effect on me, like the strange magician who does tricks with modiano.

I made the comparison with American sci-fi series, made with the right money, cutting-edge effects, in short, perfect magicians with their bicycles... and to my taste, all that lacquer immediately brought with it the smell of trickery (forgive me lector, I know that Star Trek is serious stuff, which has been able to address like no other even impossible themes like the various grandfather paradoxes, of knowledge, etc., I know, believe me).

Nothing, nostalgia from when I was a lad.

The image I've chosen may be misleading. The guy isn't doing a Roman salute. It's not a nazi cyborg, that position allows him to receive rays from the star of origin for the transformation.

Oh well. Pay attention to the punctuation. Until next time.

Nano, nano.