Dynaman: From Serious to Slapstick
By Alex
"DynaSmythe" Smith
< style="font-family: tahoma;">First
off, before going into the article itself, I'd like to give my
condolences
& prayers to John Rocco Roberto's family. I don't know John
personally, but
from what I heard of him he was a wonderful man. Both him & I share
a great
love of history, and of course an interest in all things kaiju.
< style="font-family: tahoma;">
You
will be missed John, hope I see ya in heaven one day.
< style="font-family: tahoma;">The 1980s were in their peak, and so was the
Super Sentai series. In 1984 the show Dynaman debuted, tearing up the
airwaves
with it's dynamic explosive effects, and serious storyline.
Unfortunately this
would all fall apart when it was imported to the US on
the late night variety show Night
Flight.
< style="font-family: tahoma;">
Dawn
of Evilution
Five
young inventors assemble in a gathering at Dr. Yumeno's laboratory. He
gives
them the Dynaman suits, each possessing special powers and weapons. He
tells
them of the Evilution Empire (Darwin
skeptics must be having a field day, sorry,couldn't resist) and their
plans to
conquer Earth. The Evilution Empire each have a different amount of
tails; the
leader Emperor Aton has 9, General Kar 7, Megiddo
5. They are from the very extreme depths of Earth. The Scientific
Squadron
Dynaman must stop them. Fighting their Shinkaiju, Dan Hokuto(DynaRed),
Ryuu
Hoshikawa(DynaBlack), Yosuke Shima(DynaBlue), Kousaku Nango
(DynaYellow), and
Rei Tachibana(DynaPink) must fight to save Earth, utilizing the aid of
their
Super Dynamite ability, and their distinctively Japanese mecha DynaRobo.
< style="font-family: tahoma;">
From
Serious to Slapstick
< style="font-family: tahoma;">The USA
Network needed material for the 1987 show Night Flight, so they stole
this from
Toei and redubbed it in terrible fashion, parodying everything from the
names
of the characters to the special effects(which were actually good for
the
time). Dan Hokuto was renamed Wooshi(probably a bash at the late-night
Kung Fu
Theater dubbed names), Ryuu Hoshikawa renamed Huba, Yosuke was renamed
Franky
the Human Outboard Motor(poking fun at his love of water), Kousaku
Nango was
renamed Cowboy, the slow thinking weapons expert(Ironic given in the
original he
was FAR from slow-witted), and Rei Slojin(I can't see the origin of
this
one...). The villains and Shinkaiju had it worse off though, with
Emperor Aton
being renamed Bernie Tanaka, General Kar Mel Fujitsu, and Prince
Megiddo the
rock star Nigel. The tail soldiers are "Reptiles that go Whee!" The
background music was replaced with generic superhero music, the
dialogue was
redone to be totally random. The dub once used the henshin devices as
walkie
talkies. Some footage was reused over and over. For example, it became
a
running gag for Megiddo
to have his tail cut off by Dynared, which only happened once in the
original.
The dubbing was done by comedians some of whom were members of the
comedy group
Kids In the Hall. 6 episodes in, Toei stepped in and threatened legal
action if
the dubbing was not ceased. So it was, however, it would be rebroadcast
on
Nickelodeon in 1989.
<>All in
all, as horrid and disrespectful the dub was, it paved the way for the
famous(some would say infamous) Power Rangers adaptation series by
Saban/Disney. This is what shaped sentai in most Americans' minds. Some
have a
positive outlook on it, others see it as mindless violence(which the
original
sentai was far from) and a bad influence.