Clockwork Sushi

Giant Red Squid is about to envelop a pretty engineering student. Evil Professor Gill of Planet Dark has ordered him to steal her brain. But before Squid gets his tentacles on her, deliverance appears in the mild-mannered person of Jiro, a clean-cut guitarist who declaims "Change! Switch-on! One-two-three!" and turns into Kikaider (Mechanical Man), with see-through electronic circuits jutting above his head and Kung Fu at his fingertips. With savage kicks and karate blows, Kikaider wipes out Squid, rescues student, then rides off into the Japanese sunset. Banzai!

This is Kikaider--the monster show that has just finished its triumphant first season on Hawaiian TV as the No. 1 children's program. Aired originally over Japan's educational network, Kikaider was brought to the islands by KIKU-TV, the Japanese-language station. Says KIKU General Manager Joanne Ninomiya: "I thought, this will do it. The plot was simple, the monsters were ugly, the actors were young, and the theme song was catchy." She was right. Hawaiian kids of all ages were soon singing Kikaider's song: Tatakae Jinzo Ningen Kikaider (Go and Get 'Em, Kikaider)--whether they knew Japanese or not. Kikaider drew as much as 26% of the viewing audience on Saturday nights; it spurred the purchase of more monster shows from Japan, which regularly outdraw such tame competition as the English-language Sesame Street.

Kikaider is all action, and the English subtitles are not really needed. Indeed, Kikaider's influences are mostly Western. Jiro is the creation of a genial Frankenstein who programs him to keep peace. His enemies include Japan's would-be conqueror Gill and as many as 43 horror-comic monsters such as Green Sponge, whose head shatters into pieces when hit, Black Needle Mole and child, and Evil Red Crab. Gill's single trump is right out of A Clockwork Orange: by playing the flute, he can prevent Jiro from turning into Kikaider because of the robot's "incomplete conscience circuit." When foiled in this manner, Jiro can be released only by a very, very loud noise.

Playground Poundings. Quite a lot of noise is now coming from dazed Hawaiians. The islands are swamped with Kikaider records, T shirts, belts, dolls and masks. Teachers have asked parents to stop sending their kids to school in Kikaider gear in order to cut down on Kikaider-type playground poundings. Preceding the show, a message has been inserted urging children not to copy Jiro's chops and kicks: "We don't want anyone to get hurt."

Americans already anxious about violence in children's TV had better brace themselves. In two weeks Kikaider will make his continental debut over KWHY, a Japanese-language station in Los Angeles, in one of his typically uninhibited adventures--"Violet Top Shell Attacks Jiro," perhaps, or "Return of Yellow Ant Lion."

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