, also known as and colloquially as the "Japanese Spider-Man", is a

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

portrayed by Kōsuke Kayama (Shinji Tōdō) based on the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

character of the same name. He is the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

of Toei's 1978 ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

, subsequently reappearing as a

supporting character A supporting character is a character in a narrative that is not the focus of the primary storyline, but is important to the plot/protagonist, and appears or is mentioned in the story enough to be more than just a minor character or a cameo a ...

in the 2014–2015 ''

Spider-Verse Spider-Verse is a comic book series issued by Marvel Comics since 2014. Its first major event/storyline started on November 5 in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' (2014) No. 9 along with an individual issue named ''Spider-Verse Team-Up''. This event ...

'' and 2018 ''

Spider-Geddon ''Spider-Geddon'' is a 2018 comic book Limited series (comics), limited series and Crossover (comics), crossover Story arc, storyline published by Marvel Comics featuring multiple alternative versions of Spider-Man that had appeared Spider-Man in ...

'' comic storylines. The success of Yamashiro and his giant

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...

robot Leopardon made Toei adapt the concept to their ''

Super Sentai The is a Japanese superhero team media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi. The shows are of the '' tokusatsu'' genre, featuring live action characters and colorfu ...

'' franchise in ''

Battle Fever J is a live-action tokusatsu TV series. The third entry of the ''Super Sentai'' series franchise, ''Battle Fever J'' was produced by Toei Company in partnership with American comic book publisher Marvel Comics. A total of 52 episodes aired on TV A ...

'', ultimately making the character the narrative forefather of the ''

Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an American media franchise created by Haim Saban, Shuki Levy and Shotaro Ishinomori built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise ''Super Sentai''. It is currently ow ...

''.

Character development and execution

The Takuya Yamashiro incarnation of Spider-Man is different from the traditional Marvel Comics version, with the former sharing the same name, costume, and primary superpowers. The series influenced later

Tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, ''tokusatsu'' mainly refers to science fiction film, science fiction, War fi ...

series and anime series, as Yamashiro's series introduced the concept of a superhero summoning a giant robot to fight a massive enemy for them. While series about heroes with a giant robot have been around prior to Yamashiro, it had yet to be combined with a superhero who also fights enemies himself. As a result, it became a permanent staple of the ''

'' franchise beginning with ''

''.

Fictional character biography

Takuya Yamashiro was a motocross driver, son of the astrophysicist Dr. Hiroshi Yamashiro, and the man who would become his reality's

. Whilst practicing on his motorbike, Takuya began to receive telepathic messages from an alien called Garia, who had been imprisoned in a cave by a vampiric warlord called Professor Monster. His sister, Shinko and girlfriend, Hitomi Sakuma asked for his assistance in investigating the crashed Leopardon but Takuya refused as he had a race to compete in. His father, who had been searching for Garia, accepted this and set out with Shinko and Hitomi. Later, before leaving for the contest, Takuya received more messages from Garia and went to investigate. In the mountains he found Hitomi and Shinko who told Takuya their father had been attacked. Takuya found his dying father, who had received fatal injuries from a creature working for Professor Monster called Boukunryu. After his father died, Takuya was attacked by the Iron Cross Army and gravely injured and he fell into the cave where Garia was imprisoned. Garia saved his life by giving him the Spider Bracelet and Spider Extract, which granted him spider-like abilities, and he then informed Takuya of the invasion of Professor Monster, as well as his personal history. Back at his house, Garia told Takuya of his new costume and abilities and tested them out, before discovering the Iron Cross Army had kidnapped Professor Fujita. Spider-Man set out to confront the group and freed the Professor. He was then attacked by Boukunryu and found himself unable to defeat the monster, until he summoned Leopardon and unleashed its Sword Vigor and destroyed Boukunryu, vowing to defeat the rest of the Iron Cross Army. After defeating Boukunryu, Takuya continued to operate as a superhero after reading a message from his father's diary which read 'always take responsibility for your actions'. After joining Interpol, he eventually confronted and seemingly killed Professor Monster, finally avenging his father's death. He also gave a young orphaned boy named Ichiro Murakami superpowers after a blood transfusion.

Comic appearances

''Spider-Verse'' and ''Spider-Geddon''

During the "

" storyline, Takuya was brought from Earth-51778 into the war against the Inheritors by Earth-616's

and

Spider-Girl Spider-Girl is the code name of several fictional Character (arts), characters in American comic book, comic books published by Marvel Comics. The most prominent version and first to receive an ongoing series is Mayday Parker from the Marvel Co ...

, as well as Earth-65's

Spider-Woman Spider-Woman is the code name of several fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first major version is Jessica Drew (and later impersonated by Veranke), the second major version is Julia Carpenter, and the third m ...

. As soon as the group arrived in their former safe zone, Earth-13, Takuya, who was already piloting the Leopardon, faced off against Solus, but the villain made quick work of the giant robot. Luckily, Takuya managed to escape the confrontation alive and join the rest of the spiders. Takuya stayed with the group of Spiders and during the final battle in Loomworld, he was reunited with Leopardon.

Spider-Man 2099 Spider-Man 2099 is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Peter David and Rick Leonardi in 1992 for the Marvel 2099 comic book line, and he is a futuristic re-imagining of the origin ...

and Lady Spider managed to fix the robot with "some future tech and some steam-power". After the Inheritors' defeat, Takuya safely returned to his world. Takuya remained on Planet Spider, where he had lived in a traditional Japanese house, and allowed Spider-Zero to stay with him until

Miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English f ...

came. Soon after, Spider-Zero and Miles began their journey to repair the multiverse. The Machine Bem Monsters that were created to stop Takuya attacked the new team of Spider-Men, and Takuya came through a portal from Planet Spider along with Leopardon. He participated in the final battle, and was later sent back to his home universe by Spiderling. During the "

" storyline, Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in a Proto-Clone body) and Spider-Man of Earth-1048 warn Takuya that the Inheritors have escaped. He talks with the alternate Spider-Men on how to defeat the Inheritors. He allows Superior Spider-Man to analyze the Multiverse to find new recruits to help fight the Inheritors like a Spider-Cop and a Tyrannosaurus. During the Spider-Army's attack on the Inheritors who are using the abandoned New U Technologies as a base, Takuya starts to have Leopardon transform until he is attacked by Daemos. When Miles Morales became the latest

Captain Universe Captain Universe is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden, the character first appeared in '' Micronauts'' #8 (August 1979). Captain Universe is the guardian and prote ...

, he used Leopardon's sword to attack Solus, Brix, Bora, and Daemos.

Powers and abilities

His powers include superhuman strength, speed, accelerated healing, being able to cling to most surfaces, heightened eyesight, and X-ray vision. He ages slower than regular humans, and is a skilled practitioner of ninjitsu. He also has the ability to communicate with spiders, and like many other versions of Spider-Man, he possesses a spider-sense which warns him of danger, in addition to having precognitive dreams. Similarly, he also uses his Spider Bracelet to shoot webs and nets, with the device also being able to magnetically unlock doors, identify aliens in disguise, and deflect lasers. The Spider Bracelet vanishes when it is not in use, in addition to being able to produce a spare version of his costume if his original is damaged. His powers can be transferred to other people via a blood transfusion.

In other media

Film

* In 2019, when asked on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

if Yamashiro was set to appear in a sequel to the film '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'', co-director

Phil Lord Philip Anderson Lord (born July 12, 1975) and Christopher Robert Miller (born September 23, 1975) are an American filmmaking and acting duo. Their films are known for subversion of genre and detailed visual sensation, spanning various styles of ...

confirmed that the character had been designed, although he did not appear in the second film '' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.'' However, a third film, '' Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse'' is also in development and is scheduled to be released on June 4, 2027; both the second and third films were originally written as one film before being split into two parts.

Merchandise

* Takuya Yamashiro was released as an S.H.Figuarts action figure in 2020. * A Takuya Yamashiro Funko Pop Vinyl figure was released as a Previews exclusive in 2021, with a second Funko Pop Vinyl figure bundled with a soda drink becoming available in 2022. * Takuya Yamashiro was released as a

Marvel Legends Marvel Legends is an action figure line based on the characters of Marvel Comics, initially produced by Toy Biz, then by Hasbro. This line is in the scale, with spin-off lines in the , , and scale. The line initially began in 2002 as a spi ...

action figure in 2022, as part of Marvel Legends Beyond Amazing wave. * A

Nendoroid The series is a brand of plastic figures created by the Japanese Good Smile Company since 2006. They typically depict characters from anime, manga or video games and are designed with a large head and smaller body to give them a cute appearan ...

figure of Takuya Yamashiro was released in February 2022.

Miscellaneous

* Apart from the costume and powers of the main character, this TV series is unrelated to

Ryoichi Ikegami is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He is best known for '' Crying Freeman'' (1986–1988), written by Kazuo Koike, and ''Heat'' (1999–2004), written by Buronson. The latter won the ...

's earlier manga adaptation of Spider-Man or the original

comics. However, several manga adaptations of the Toei version were published by different magazines, such as ''TV Land'', ''Tanoshī Yōchien'', ''

TV Magazine ''TV Magazine'' was a weekly French television listings magazine owned by Figaro Group. As a supplement for the regional press, it was France's leading television listings magazine from 1987 to 2022. ''TV Magazine'' became ''Le Figaro TV Magazi ...

'', and ''Bōken'ō''. * A version of Spider-Man's giant robot, Leopardon, appears in the

Ernest Cline Ernest Christy Cline (born March 29, 1972) is an American science fiction novelist, slam poet and screenwriter. He wrote the novels '' Ready Player One'', '' Armada'' and '' Ready Player Two'', and co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation ...

novel ''

Ready Player One ''Ready Player One'' is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality gam ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Power Rangers Alternative versions of Spider-Man Fictional characters from Tokyo Fictional characters with precognition Fictional ninja Fictional photographers Fictional racing drivers Fictional vigilantes Male characters in television Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds Marvel Comics characters with accelerated healing Marvel Comics characters with spider powers Marvel Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability Marvel Comics characters with superhuman senses Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength Marvel Comics martial artists Marvel Comics mutates Japanese superheroes Spider-Man characters Spider-Man in television Superhero television characters Television characters introduced in 1978 Transforming heroes