Kitsune kaiju and Kotaro Ushiwaka
I’ve never been a “fox person” myself, but lately and thanks to Yo-kai Watch I’ve been very interested on the kitsune as a monster. The nine-tailed fox spirit from japanese legend that can take many forms and could be your saviour or your doom or anything in between. Naturally, I was wondering if the kaiju & tokusatsu medium had any kitsune-inspired creature to offer. I didn’t find much, but what I did find was very interesting.
The first kitsune kaiju I found was, almost predictably, from Ultraman Taro, episode 15. Miegon is the name. It kind of has a "dinosaur-like monster” look to it. It can turn invisible and breath fire, and it’s based on a specific kind of kitsune called Kitsunebi. The plot of the episode centers around a kid coping with the death of her mother, because of course it does. Sadly the monster never appeared again, and the episode may be better known (i.e. infamous) for its unusual use of the opening puppet during a flying scene.
It was soon after watching the Taro episode that I remembered “Oh yeah, a Godzilland episode had a kitsune”. He shows up during one segment of the episode that teaches Hiragana, pulling pranks on Godzilla and Mothra larva by using its shapeshifting abilities. Strangely it wears a leaf on its head, usually worn by the japanese racoon monster called tanuki for the purpose of shapeshifting (something that a kitsune may be able to do naturally). Extra trivia: For what I understand, tanuki are usually portrayed as the “less graceful” counterparts to the kitsune.
Then there is Kasha, from Kamen Rider Hibiki. It looks pretty neat. It may technically not be based on a kitsune but on a regular fox but still, it’s neat. Sadly, this is the monster that appeared in episode 30 of the series, wich as I learned marked a HUGE change of tone and staff for the show, wich until then was a very unique entry on the Kamen Rider mythos. The change is a BIG can of worms and a rabbit hole all of its own, and poor Kasha here arguably ended up as the face of it.
I wasn’t having much luck after Kasha. There was this video from a fan that makes toku suit tutorials, Red Sun - 01, where his original hero fights a bad guy that wears a kitsune mask, but not much besides that. I was about to give up...
...when suddendly I came across HER:
Konjo! Don’t let her creepy face scare you off, she’s a very fun character.
Konjo (コーンジョ) is the main villain of the series Go! Kotaro Ushiwaka (行け！牛若小太郎). The fact that the title begins with “Go!” may ring some bells among kaiju fans, because this is the final entry in the “5-minutes episodes during a kids show” series after Redman, Godman and Greenman (and made by Toho like the later two).
The series follows the titular ninja of light Kotaro as he travels Japan, along with his companions the dumb ogre/oni/wathever Nyudo and the cowardly fox-man Uragira. Througout their journey they are stalked by the kitsune Konjo, who time and time again tries to destroy them, sometimes through trickery (like with her shapeshifting abilities), sometimes by summoning different yokai, sometimes by hiring assasains, and at least one time by randomly finding a fucking gun on the ground...
What’s interesting is that the show is very different to its predecessors. Whereas Redman, Godman and Greenman had episodes that were pure fight scenes with little to no plot or context (much to Redman’s popularity), Kotaro Ushiwaka is mostly dialogue and plot, at least as much as it is possible in 5-minutes episodes, with some slapstick for good measure.
There are usually fights, mostly sword ones, but not always. Some times Kotaro would simply outsmart the villains and walk away laughting to himself, always wise and cool. His companions would try to help but Nyudo would often be too clumsy and Uragira too much of a coward. Konjo is almost sympathetic in how she’s always defeated and often humilliated, kind of like Team Rocket from Pokemon.
There are 156 episodes, and most of them feature a yokai either original or classic (like the kappa or the tengu). I don’t know if all episodes are on youtube but many of them certainly are. Just searching the name of the show in japanese ( 行け！牛若小太郎 ) gives plenty of results.
A bit of trivia: According the wikizilla the series re-uses pieces of suits from Kure Kure Takora, Greenman, Triple Fighter, Spectreman and Rainbowman.
I found the episodes to be a nice watch. There is the novelty, the different format compared to its predecessors, and its memorable villain, but ALSO the fact that it’s a piece of tokusatsu that takes place in ancient Japan, like Daimajin and Kaiketsu Lion-Maru....... Ok, actually, that’s not entirely true, at least one episode takes place in an amusement park, but for the most part it fits the part at least visually.
Now, there is one last thing I need to share about Konjo, this is the cherry on top. The show may be obscure, and there may not be too much surviving merch of the show as far as I could find, but there is some unofficial stuff that more than makes up for it: There is a twitter user and artist called Hyousen that has done A LOT of fan-art of Konjo in a very cutesy style. Seriously, just... LOOK AT HER. She’s adorable! If you still find her live-action face creepy, this will change your mind. I would post some of the art here but I couldn’t contact the artist (and I don’t know japanese). So again just LOOK AT HER, click that previous link or search images with her name in japanese (コーンジョ) and be delighted by the cutest evil kitsune main villain from an obscure tokusatsu show you have ever seen.
Finally, as I was writing this post I learned two things. First, that there are at least four kitsune villains in the Super Sentai series: Fox Evo from Kagaku Sentai Dynaman, 9-Tailed Kitsune from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, Isagitsune from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, and Kyuemon Izayoi from Shuriken Sentai Ninninger (pic). Second, that there is a fox monster called Vulpog in the book Scythian Frost And Other Stories, wich is part of the Daikaiju Yuki series. Turns out there are more kitsune kaiju than I expected. Wonderful!