Henshin



Henshin (Japanese for "transform") is a type of dramatic/action show prevalent in Japanese media. Typically, Henshin is a crime fighting show about a person or persons with certain powers that he/she/they use to fight evil and corruption. A "Sentai" is a fighting team of typically 5 members, mixed gender sometimes. The best example of this in American society is Power Rangers, which was actually a Japanese creation (Saban took out the Japanese live action and replaced them with American actors; many of the action scenes you see are actually Japanese people, so the stories changed slightly from the original). Masked (Kamen) Rider BLACK is another example of this. The video game Viewtiful Joe, released by Capcom in 2003, is a tribute to the genre. The game was quite popular in the United States. With a lot of Henshin drama, there is a group/syndicate of villians that create and send out monsters to fight the protagonists. The hidden identity of the villians is sometimes known by the fighters, sometimes they're total strangers, possibly even demons from another plane. A lot of henshin involves a transformation sequence. This is a very special part that involves the hero striking a series of poses, or saying a transformation word (in Masked Rider, he says "henshin" itself, and Viewtiful Joe says "Henshin a go-go, baby!" ). This comes about mid episode, and is crucial to the destruction of the monster. A special attack is commonly used. The type of cinematography used is called tokusatsu. It was pioneered by Japanese companies Toei, Toho and Tsuburaya.

Related Articles

 * Kamen Rider
 * Ultraman
 * Viewtiful Joe