The Golden Bat (
Ougon Batto) was Japan's first-ever modern superhero!
Long before Japan had comic-books and TV, they had "kamishibai" (paper plays), where children would gather around readers who travelled around neighborhoods and narrated 12-picture panel stories, as long as they bought the sweets sold to them!
One such kamishibai was created in 1930 by Takeo Nagamatsu, and it was called "The Golden Bat." It was about a mysterious avenger who sort of resembled the Phantom of the Opera (he was comically fat, wore a skull mask, and was clad in Shakespeare-style garb, cape and hat), and he could fly. He was a fighter for justice. Somewhere in the late 1940s, a manga adaptation was done by Osamu Tezuka, but the most popular adaptation was done in the mid-60s by Daiji Kazumine, whose design was translated into the Golden Bat you see in Toei's 1966 movie (the one you're talking about), and the 1967 anime series (the one titled
Fantoman in international markets) that followed! In those, the Golden Bat was a mummy-like guardian who was awoken by an elite defense team (led by a goateed Sonny Chiba!), and helped them fight a race of evil aliens that sought to conquer the Earth!
I hope this helps!
Oh, did I mention that Shunsuke Kikuchi (one of my favorite composers, who would do classic superhero and anime music scores in the next decade) was the composer for the '66 movie?
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 4:29 pm
