Ishinomori Week: Henshin Ninja Arashi

At last, it's time for igadevil.com's first ever annual

January 25th marked what would have been the 73rd birthday of Ishinomori Shôtarô, and I don't think I need to tell you who he is. Although he's sadly no longer with us, Ishinomori's legacy lives on today, and as far as I know he's still the Guiness world record holder for most comics created by one author, with over 128,000 pages (thanks Wikipedia!) That's a lot of comics, that is. And many of them live a simultaneous life on television and the movies, as animation or live action (and sometimes both.)

For a while now I've always wanted to get around to at least briefly touching upon some of his other co-creations with Toei and producer Hirayama Tôru, because while Ishinomori's most critically-acclaimed and famous stuff is his long-running comic series like Cyborg 009, Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae or Hotel , it's the series that also exist as Tokusatsu that I find particularly fascinating, especially when it comes to the differences (and similarities) between comics and the show.

Now obviously, I could cover the original Kamen Rider, BLACK, and that one weird "Kamen Rider EX" anthology that's about Amazon and the unmade movie, but I'm going to hold off on those for the moment since I talk about Kamen Rider 99.9% of the time on this site anyway, so they'll get coverage at a later date. Instead, for the next 5 days I want to focus on a few of my favorite 70's Ishinomori-created shows that all have some unique links back to Kamen Rider. Why only 5? Because I'll need something to do next time I do this!

First up, a character that'a probably less well-known than the rest I'll be covering this week, but he's really grown to become one of my favorites over the years:

Henshin Ninja Arashi is a 1972 series that started up almost a year after Kamen Rider began, and just a few days after Toei's other big early 1972 hero, the non-Ishinomori creation Chôjin Barom-1. I say "early 1972" since that summer would see a certain red and blue guy come along, but we'll talk about him later.

There are a couple of "period drama" Tokusatsu out there, with the three most famous probably being Toei's earlier effort, Kamen no Ninja Akakage, P-Production's Kaiketsu Lion Maru (and sequels/revamps) and this one. Akakage is a pretty cool show and one of its principal cast members plays a similar role in this series. Being from the late 60's, it's part of the pre-Rider, pre-Ishinomori Holy Hirayama Trio (along with Giant Robo and Captain Ultra.) All three shows are notable in their own ways, and would leave a lasting legacy: stock footage of their special effects scenes would get recycled for years, from the famous "Toei Splash" to the "Toei Gas Station Explosion", you'll see bits of them turning up for at least the next decade.

P-Pro's Lion Maru has a dude who becomes a lion-man (of course) and is often compared with Henshin Ninja Arashi, as they feature similar concepts. He also beat Arashi to TV screens by a matter of days. Both shows do have a lot in common, with some clear advantages over each other. Lion Maru's arguably got the best finisher, plus his horse flies! (these period drama heroes generally ride horses.) There's also the legendary Tiger Joe, an intriguing anti-hero with a kick-ass costume. I think it's also regarded as a bigger success since it spawned a sequel and an updated version years later.

For my money though, Arashi has the cooler villains, Toei's usual level of action and fight choreography, and Kamen Rider influences all over the place. Both have rockin' theme songs, but I think I like Arashi's slightly more.

That's all good then, but just who is Arashi, and what's his show about anyway?

Henshin Ninja Arashi is set in the Edo period (1603-1868), a time of relative peace and stability in Japan after many years of war and bloodshed. Enter the Blood Wheel Clan, a secret society that has existed for ages in the shadows. Led by the mysterious Majinsai, and using their Kenshin-Ninja, guys who have mastered the art of turning into a half-man, half-animal monster, they make a bid to smash that peace, spreading fear and chaos throughout the land. And since they're backed up by like a bajillion ninja henchmen, even the fiercest warriors are no match for them.

Hayate is a young man born into a family that has been under the Blood Wheel Clan's thumb for generations, and with help from his dad, undergoes a secret ritual which grants him the ability to become the transforming man-animal ninja known as Arashi! Unfortunately his father is killed so it's now up to our man Hayate to travel Japan and route out the Blood Wheel Clan wherever it raises its ugly mug. He's assisted by the Iga Ninja (no relation) Tatsumaki and his equally ninja-skilled kiddes Kasumi and Tsumuji.

Arashi is pretty cool. He's got a magic sword which plays a role in his transformation and is used to slice and dice enemies, either normally or through some unique special attacks. He throws feather-motif shuriken, and rides a horse (of course.) Later in the series he gets some really wacky powers like a laser beam attack, but when you're going up against Satan (!) in a UFO (!!) you're gonna need those. The fights in Arashi are pretty wild, and unique even for the time since there's a lot more swordplay than usual. The show's loaded with crazy ninja tricks as well. Let me just say that I've never, ever seen teleportation done like it is in the first episode. Also, in a kind of unusual twist, Arashi is voiced by a different actor than Hayate in some episodes (and from 19 on, for the rest of the series.)

As his journey progesses, Arashi encounters new friends and enemies, including a whole new variety of villain alongside the Kenshin-Ninja forces: the Seiyô Yôkai, or roughly "Western Monsters". Yes, Majinsai decides to outsource! With his own flora and fauna-based cronies consistently failing, and his right-hand man Gaikotsu-Maru not being much more help, the armored entity brings in the Demon Master, who summons famous fictional monsters from abroad.

Arashi goes up against a veritable tourist group: the Mummy, the Wolfman, a Japanese-style Frankenstein, Medusa, the Sphinx, the Gorgon (apparently different from Medusa, go figure) and the Tarantula, among others. Even Dracula gets in on the action (I think somebody at Konami really liked this show.) There's even that famous "Japanese-Western" monster, Backbeard, who in this series is a giant one-eyed head that shoots lasers. I love this show.

Eventually Arashi even fights, as previously mentioned, Satan himself! Played by Amamoto "Doctor Shinigami" Hideyo himself, no less. He's actually the main baddie near the end of the series.

On the good guy side of things, there's a secondary hero who appears later on, which is kind of unique for the time; some kick-butt ninja girls, a comic relief guy played by Ushio "Ambassador Hell" Kenji, and even Hayate's mom, who plays an important role in the last few episodes.

As if often the case, Ishinomori's comic version (which like his other comic adaptations, was written and published almost simultaneously with the series) varies quite a bit from its TV counterpart, though the general storyline is the same. Major characters like Hayate/Arashi, Tatsumaki and his kids, Majinsai and Gaikotsu-Maru are all present, though Hayate's basically on a solo journey after the first chapter, and the main villains only appear sporadically.

It's in the characterization where things really start to differ. On the TV show, Hayate/Arashi is your standard-issue 70's badass, albeit in the Edo period. He's a likable guy, but he never lets you forget that priority one is saving lives and kicking monster butt. However he's still got a lot of interesting qualities, particularly the fact that his lineage has long served the very guys he's fighting, so at times he feels a little conflicted about the Blood Wheel Clan, despite knowing them to be evil. It's a theme that would be revisited with Riderman and explored even more in Kamen Rider V3.

In the comics though, he's almost a completely different character. He still travels Japan fighting evil and turning into a katana-wielding avian every now an then, but in Ishinomori's manga, Hayate is a considerably darker, more morally-ambiguous hero. While the show has the whole "you killed my father, prepare to die" aspect to it, in the comic that is almost entirely what drives our protagonist along. Comic Hayate is committed to wiping out the Blood Wheel Clan for what they did to him, even if it means doing some pretty unpleasant things, as often is the case.

For instance, in the third chapter of the comic, Hayate encounters a woman who possesses the ability to become a fox (the story is based on the legend of Kuzunoha.) Now settled down and living with her husband and child, it wouldn't seem as though she poses any threat... but almost instinctively upon encountering Hayate, the two have to fight (Hayate earlier fought with a monk who was visiting her to remind her of her duties to the clan.)

After spending some time with her family, Hayate decides he can't bring himself to kill her after all, despite this being his original intent. But, having been already injured in the earlier fight, and realizing that she can never live peacefully anymore, the woman rushes him as he walks away. Although the end of the story is left ambiguous, the implication is that she either killer herself, or forced Hayate into killing her, and he's not exactly happy about it as the story closes.

In fact, this is something I notice a lot about the Blood Wheel Clan members in the comic: they're not always straight-up villains. They're not very nice people and they still want to kill Hayate, but you sort of feel sympathy for them because Hayate isn't so much a hero fighting the good fight as he is a damaged man on a quest for vengeance. Hayate too is often forced to make some tough choices, such as in the sixth chapter, where he for all intents and purposes has to fight and kill his own mother. Remember this story idea for a later series I'll be talking about.

However before you think that the comic basically just has Hayate having to make harder decisions than his TV counterpart, I also have to get back to the "darker, morally-ambiguous" thing. He's kind of a bastard sometimes, such as in the eighth chapter where he encounters a group of Otter-Men that plot to blow up Osaka Castle by swimming through an underwater tunnel beneath it and setting explosives in the basement. Were this plot done on TV, we'd probably get a scene where the bad guys rise up under the castle and Hayate is already there waiting for them, ready for a fight, and he'd save the day. Not here though! What's Hayate's method of dealing with the situation?

He waits until they go into the tunnel to set the explosives. He beheads the one guy they left on guard duty, then blocks the tunnel off with a boulder, trapping the rest of the Otter-Men under the castle... and oh yeah, they already lit the fuse and it's too late to stop it. In a two-page spread, part of Osaka Castle goes kaboom. Hayate, looking on, reminds us that he has just one goal: eradicate the Blood Wheel Clan.

That's pretty hardcore.

You've probably noticed that I keep on talking about Hayate, but not a whole lot about his beaked alter-ego. That's because Arashi doesn't actually appear that much! Hayate is content to do most of the damage himself, only becoming Arashi to deliver the killing blow. Over the course of the whole comic there's plenty of accumulated Arashi action, but if you just take it a chapter at a time, you won't see the big bird nearly as often as you'd think. One thing I found interesting was that for all the dirty business Hayate does, Arashi seldom steps outside of the boundaries of the TV incarnation. In other words, in the comic Arashi really is like a mask, the super-heroic identity Hayate assumes because he's such damaged goods on his own. We kinda need to see him become Arashi to remind us periodically that he's the story's hero.

When Arashi does turn up, he looks awesome. As often as we remember Ishinomori for his great ideas, I think he was also a fantastic artist. I mean look at this:

(Sorry about the scan quality, but my Arashi comics aren't very scanner-friendly.)

Truth be told, Ishinomori's Henshin Ninja Arashi manga is an interesting read. Of all the comics of his I've read, I think its hero is the most removed from his TV persona, despite still having many similarities. It's a strange story, less a tale of good vs. evil and more one man on a quest for revenge, with a killer twist at the end and a rather bleak message overall. Oddly, the TV series pulls a completely different twist with the same character!

What's really fascinating is that there's not just one Ishinomori Arashi comic, but two! Published almost simultaneously from what my sources say (the first one started slightly before the TV series, and this second one began with the show.) Known as New Henshin Ninja Arashi, this version sticks a little closer to the TV show. Hayate's a much nicer guy and there's more Arashi action. The baddies are definitely bad, and they're closer to their TV counterparts in design. The ending is just plain weird though, the Henshin Ninja Arashi equivalent of a "Silent Hill UFO ending". Literally.

Of course there's also another comic by a different guy (as was often the case; most of the Rider comics were not illustrated by Ishinomori directly, and many of his shows feature multiple serializations.) But this is Ishinomori Week, remember? Not much more I can say about that version as I haven't read it yet! But it's on the to-do list if I can find any of it.

So you're probably wondering what the heck any of this has to do with Kamen Rider. Well, if you've ever wondered what Kamen Rider would be like if it were set in feudal Japan and the hero was a bird-man instead of a bug-guy, Henshin Ninja Arashi is that show. Perhaps more than any other Ishinomori hero, Arashi has a lot in common with the Riders, both on a story and production level.

Story-wise, it should be pretty obvious: the hero fights an evil organization that killed someone close to him who also served as a connection between the hero and evil organization. He was "reconstructed" (Arashi uses the same terminology when describing the transformation ritual) and works on similar principles as the enemies he fights. His heroic alter-ego is a mask to conceal his identity from the world at large and even some of his closest friends, though is arguably done for dramatic flair as well. He has his trusty steed, his signature killing move, and his Henshin phrase and pose.

On the production side, that's where Arashi really stands out. Aside from Ishinomori and Hirayama, the series also shares a number of the same directors and writers as the original Kamen Rider, chief among them is Igami Masaru, aka Igadevil's Favorite Rider Writer. I need to do a mega-post on him some day. The music is composed by Kikuchi Shunsuke, also of Rider fame. Nakamura Bunya, a prolific Rider stunt actor who you may know out-of-suit as Marshal Armor, was the primary suit actor.

Rider alumni are all over the place. Aside from Amamoto and Ushio, the series is narrated by Nakae Shinji (the narrator for many of the old Rider series) and Majinsai is voiced by none other than Naya Gorô, better known as the voice of the Great Leader! Stylistically, I think it bears the strongest resemblance to Rider, especially the original series, out of all the other Ishinomori/Toei creations. Not bad considering there isn't a motorcycle in sight!

And now I should probably address the thing that a lot of you have been thinking: "Why does that guy look like the Oni Armor from Hibiki?" That's simple: the Oni Armor's design was inspired by Arashi! Okay you probably knew that, but there's a cool story in this.

For years there's been murmurings of an Arashi revival, and at one point Amemiya Keita was even rumored to be interested. Long before the Hibiki we know now was conceived, there was a point where Blade was going to be the last Rider series, and a new hero would take over the following year. A new hero... or a revival of an old one. Henshin Ninja Arashi was one of the names tossed around in the beginning, though the idea of making a sequel/spin-off to that disappeared fairly early in the game.

However, members of the Hibiki staff were clearly fans. The Oni Armor is intended as a direct homage to Arashi. The Hibiki movie features yet more shout-outs: Hitotsumi is pretty obviously based on Majinsai, and the movie-original Makamou are adorned with a logo almost identical to the Blood Wheel Clan's! I don't recall offhand if it was actually mentioned in the movie, but supposedly the name for the Makamou 'organization' in the movie is in fact "Blood Wheel Clan" using slightly different Kanji. That may have just been a production bit though. (And yes, I know that the more literal reading of the name is "Blood Wheel Political Faction", but c'mon. They're a ninja clan, and you never saw Majinsai appearing on any TV debates or anything.)

That does raise a few intriguing ideas. Hibiki's movie is set in the Sengoku, or Warring States period of Japan, predating Arashi. Who's to say the Blood Wheel Clan weren't a Makamou-aligned faction and Arashi was a legendary figure in Takeshi history? Also, Majinsai is secretly the Great Leader! Okay, that might be pushing things, but the idea of all the Ishinomori characters inhabiting a shared universe has been alluded to in JAKQ Dengekitai vs. Goranger. I can buy Arashi as being in the same 'verse as the Kamen Riders, anyway.

Also, Arashi is the only Ishinomori hero to my knowledge to get in on a TV special with Kamen Rider 1, 1972's Henshin! Henshin! Arashi & Rider. I've never seen it, but both Fujioka and Nanjô Tatsuya (Hayate) were in it, so yeah, it's one I'm always looking out for.

Henshin Ninja Arashi is a 47-episode series (with a "movie", a blown-up theatrical version of episode #6) and the comics (both of them) are 12 chapters each, though if you're looking for the most recent reprints, the first series is split across two volumes. I'd recommend the series easily; the whole period drama aspect sets it apart from a lot of other Tokusatsu out there. Also it has great fights and badass monsters that want to eat us all. You can't go wrong with that combination. As far as I know it has yet to be subbed, but it seems like more and more of the classic stuff is getting picked up every year, so I'm hopeful. And yes, Arashi is covered under my "I will send you a box of cookies" offer that also applies to anyone who finishes subbing the original, X and/or New Kamen Rider.

The comic is a slightly more acquired taste, though if my summarization sounds intriguing than I'd check it out. The Otter-Men story is so unbelievable it's worth reading for that alone.

And of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the S.I.C. set, which was sort of influential in getting me to check out the manga in the first place. A lot of people overlooked it so it's probably not too hard to find for cheap. In fact, on amazon.jp it's pretty cheap! If you can score one for $40 or less, I'd say go for it. While it's a bit more geared towards display than play, it's still two great figures plus a nifty display base. Definitely my favorite S.I.C. release of 2009, and that was a great year already. Plus there's a spoiler for the comic!

Oh and totally random trivia: Apparently there's some visual influence from Arashi in the design of Kamen Rider Odin. I'm going to guess it's the thingy on the center of their heads.

"Fukeyo Arashi! Arashi!! ARASHI!!!"