Feats N' Faults: Supaidâman 1978
Yeah yeah yeah, Wow!
Welcome back to Feats N’ Faults, where our Tiered Point System ranks and records our favorite characters based on their achievements and deeds. Please check the About Page for a more in-depth look at how points are awarded. Our Tier System is below for quick reference. Spoiler Warning!
We are diving into the depths of the Spider-Verse and looking at a gem of a show by Toei. Spider-Man 1978, also known as Japanese Spider-Man or Supaidaman, is a live-action Spider-Man TV show that aired for 41 episodes. I started watching it on a whim but was quickly drawn to its charm. Today, we cover the heroes and villains of the series and analyze how much they affected their universe. This week, Spider-Man, Spider-Boy, Professor Monster, Amazoness, Ricky, Takuji, Hitomi, and Shinko are all under our analytic lens. Will Japanese Spider-Man be our highest-scoring Spider-Man yet?
Let’s Get Started!
8th Place, Takuji: -2 FN’F Score (1978-1979) 36 ep.
I had no knowledge of this series before I started tracking points. If I did, I might not have tracked Takuji. Takuji is Takuya's (Spider-Man) little brother. He has no powers but appears in many episodes and helps to deliver some exposition. He is a kid and acts like a kid, but that was a detriment to his FN'F Score, primarily because of his complacency. He actively bullied and allowed bullying to happen in his proximity. While Takuji is not a bad kid by any means, his desire to be a hero and letting that happen earned him two faults. Unfortunately, this means he is one of our lowest-scoring characters across all fandoms.
7th Place, Hitoma: 0 FN’F Score (1978-1979) 38 ep.
Hitoma is this version of Spider-Man's Mary Jane. However, there is a role reversal in this universe. Shinko is a photographer trying to break into the industry. She works for the local paper and is constantly trying to take photos of groundbreaking events to make a name for herself. This mainly causes her to become the damsel in distress, but I was surprised by how strong and independent they characterized her for the time period. She never got a chance to make significant changes, but she achieved her personal goal of publishing her pictures in a magazine. Dreams do come true, even if they are small ones.
6th Place, Spider-Boy: 2 FN’F Score (1978-1979) 2 ep.
Ok ok, disclaimer, this boy may have only appeared in two episodes, but his impact is undeniable! With powers derived from a life-saving blood transfusion from Spider-Man, he withstood interrogation from the Iron Cross Army when others couldn't. Though not a sidekick and lacking an iconic outfit, his connection to the Spider-Verse is clear. He even returned the favor by saving Spider-Man's life with his own blood! While his role was small, his bravery and shared lineage with other Spider-People make him a noteworthy figure in the Spider-Verse! Don’t listen to the comics, this was the first Spider-Boy!
5th Place, Shinko: 2 FN’F Score (1978-1979) 40 ep.
Shinko is Takuya's sister and acts like the Aunt May of this series. After the death of their father in the pilot, this family is left with no parental figures, and Shinko steps up to fill those shoes. She is not a fighter but was able to ward off Amazoness using a laser necklace.
4th Place, Ricky: 9 FN’F Score (1978) 1 ep.
Here is another character who only appeared in one episode, but I was so gobsmacked by his performance that I had to rewatch and score him. Ricky is one of the most incredible dogs I have ever seen! He has no powers, yet he survived being shot, falling off a dam, and saving all of Tokyo.
He survived that!!! How do you not track and give honor to a good boy like that? Ricky deserves all the treats and every single point he scored during his unfair lack of screen time. I want an entire series following him!
3rd Place, Amazoness: 58 FN’F Score (1978-1979) 41 ep.
At first, I thought Amazoness was a joke. The name and ever-changing bad wigs never made her seem like a threat. Then she ran over a kid with a van, and you bet I started to take her seriously. She is a villain through and through.
Amazoness is Professor Monster's right hand. He sends her to do the dirty work when he needs something done. Amazoness has run so many fake businesses and schemes and even married a man to get him to confess secrets about a power plant. Howling, did they date?! It sounded like years. So much commitment just to turn Tokyo's power off. Ultimately, Professor Monster grew tired of her failure to kill Spider-Man and banished her. During this time, she discovers Spider-Man's secret identity and poisons him! She beat Spider-Man, but the sea currents saved him from being found. Her death came at the hands of Professor Monster, who killed her before he went to defeat Spider-Man once and for all.
While she may not appear to be a powerhouse, Amazoness is ruthless. She scored 58 FN'F, which puts her in the same league as Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop and fellow villain Omega from Doctor Who. When we eventually build the Top Tier Sinister Six, I would not be surprised to see her or Professor Monster on that team.
2nd Place, Professor Monster: 66 FN’F Score (1978-1979) 41 ep.
Professor Monster is the main antagonist of the entire show. He is in command of the Iron Cross Army and Machine Bem, which are mutated cyborgs that can grow to the size of buildings. Through his influence and armies, he reigned terror over Japan, and multiple government agencies were on the lookout. To the point where Interpol and Spider-Man eventually had to team up to contend with all the mayhem that he was creating. He had destroyed Planet Spider and had been on Earth since the feudal era. His final aim was to conquer the world, but Spider-Man eventually tracked him down and destroyed Professor Monster with the Sword of Vigor.
Professor Monster was this universe's greatest villain, but how does he stand up to the multiverse? With a FN'F score of 66, Professor Monster did not quite match up to Kilgrave from the MCU, who scored a 69 FN'F Score, but he did beat Luke Skywalker from Star Wars by 1 point.
1st Place, Toei Spider-Man: 203 FN’F Score (1978-1979) 41 ep.
Who is this version of Spider-Man? Takuya was a young man whose father was researching asteroids and the cosmos when a meteoroid fell to Earth one day. While investigating, they got tangled up with the Iron Cross Army, and Takuya's father was murdered in front of him. After this devastating loss, Takuya fell into a cave while trying to escape. In this cave, he met a man named Gaia, who was from the Planet Spider, which was destroyed while battling Professor Monster. Gaia was dying and passed his blood on to Takuya. A fun meta-comparison is that Gaia's blood closely resembles a symbiote entering Takuya's bloodstream. This show would have come out before venom or symbiotes were ever a thing in comics.
Anyway, this blood gave Takuya the reflexes and powers of the people from Planet Spider. Yes, Gaia then turned into a literal spider and died, but that is not the point! Japanese Spider-Man is one of the most powerful Spider-Men in the multiverse. His Spider-Sense allows him to see into the future and sense disturbances from miles away. He can focus his energy to regenerate, force shrapnel out of him, and has X-ray vision! Besides that, he has all of the powers that normal Spider-People have, like wall-crawling, reflexes, and strength. His gadgets are what set him leagues apart.
His Spider Bracelet can store his suit and see-through disguises and shoot his spider string and nets. He also uses it to communicate with his car, the GP7, and his spaceship/Megazord, Leopardon. The GP7 is equipped with machine guns and can fly. Once inside Leopardon, it changes into a mighty mech that has never been defeated. Its Sword of Vigor has taken out every opponent without fail. Did I also mention that it does this with one single hit? No one should stand in front of the Sword of Vigor.
Takuya is currently our highest-scoring Spider-Man, beating the three from the MCU put together. He is currently right under Thanos from the MCU on our tier list and scored higher than John Wick! I am beyond excited to see him this high on our tier list and cannot wait to see if any other Spider-Person can dethrone him.
Feats N’ Faults Review:
Supaidâman 1978: 7.5/10
This series is by no means perfect or very in-depth. However, it is a blast to watch and so much fun. They do not worry about continuity or IP; they just took the license, got Stan Lee's blessing, and had fun with it. The first episode has Spider-Man being swung around like a toy by a giant kaiju. How do you not have fun with a premise like that?
The action is fun and a little campy, which I enjoy. Spider-Man's primary form of attack is bitch slapping his enemies to death while wall-crawling. It is a thing of beauty. The kaiju angle is another unique concept for a Spider-Man series. While explaining this to people, I kept referring to Power Rangers. It is very Power Rangers esq since the end of every e[episode ended with the villain growing giant and being defeated by Leopardon. However, the correct term would be that Power Rangers is Spider-Man esq. That's right, Spider-Man came out first, and it was the popularity of Leopardon that inspired Toei to create the Super Sentai series and their Megazords. It's interesting to think that Marvel and Spider-Man are directly tied to the creation of a series and genre that seems so disconnected. I've been wanting to do Power Rangers for Feats N' Faults. This may be my inspiration to begin scoring them.
The soundtrack for this series is impeccable, too. Once you listen to the intro, it will stick in your head for days. I do not know Japanese, but I know every single word of this theme song. I drive my wife crazy by signing throughout the house. His suit should not be overlooked, either. I have never been a fan of the sleek look that Spider-Man has had in recent years. While I like the MCU and Raimi Spider-Man, the lack of wrinkles and the materials used always bug me. The Amazing Spider-Man suit captured the essence better. It looked like it was made of an athletic material, and you could visibly see the bending and bunching up of the fabric. A good visualization of this in comics would be the cover by Lee Bermejo. His variant cover captures this effect beautifully for Amazing Spider-Man #1.
It makes it feel more handmade, which is how a poor college or high school student must make his super suit. This being said, I unironically love the Japanese Spider-Man suit. Sure, it is campy, clunky, and falling apart in some episodes, but that makes it feel more authentic for me. Seeing the zippers and fabric beginning to get dirty does not make it feel cheap; it makes it feel realistic. This suit does not quite reach my love for The Amazing Spider-Man suit, but it is my second favorite live-action suit, hands down.
Recommendation: Yeah Yeah Yeah Wow! Yeah yeah yeah Wow!!!
Campy, entertaining, and featuring stunts that make you wonder if there were any safety precautions, this series is a must-watch for me. I see myself revisiting a couple of favorite episodes every now and then to giggle and watch this fun version of Spider-Man fighting and eventually beating his mortal enemy, The Iron Cross Army. I bought the complete series, but if you’re interested, you can watch it all online for free here: https://archive.org/details/Supaidman. This internet archive preserved and saved the series for everyone to watch. Watch a couple of episodes, and let me know what you think! I bet you will be hooked like I was after the first two episodes.
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Until Next Time!