I React to Japanese Spider-Man Clips and the Honest Trailer, and It Explains So Much

I had no idea what I was about to watch. Joined by Achara Kirk, I sat down with a handful of short clips that I could only guess were tied to Japanese Spider-Man, and then we watched the Honest Trailer for it to see if that explained anything.

If you have never heard of this show, it matters because it is a genuinely real, official 1970s Marvel and Toei licensing deal, and it is nothing like the Spider-Man most fans grew up with. It is the kind of forgotten pop culture footnote that, once you see it, changes how you think about things like Power Rangers.

The first clips left us guessing whether Spider-Man even knew the girl he failed to save

The first clip showed Spider-Man running to save a woman, arriving too late as her shoes fell off and she ended up crying and looking oddly pristine. I could not tell if this was some random civilian or someone he actually cared about, and Achara floated the idea that maybe this was his version of Gwen. Whoever she was, watching him fail to reach her in time felt strangely intense for how goofy everything else around it looked, right down to random elephants showing up on screen.

The Adam West Batman comparison clicked for us instantly

Once the tone settled in, the comparison that made the most sense to both of us was Adam West's Batman. The music, the randomness, the way action just happens without much explanation, it all lined up. My favorite single moment was Spider-Man punching a hole through the bottom of a bus and popping his head through it like, as I put it, "the bus was giving birth to him," before he started punching people. All it needed was onscreen Japanese sound effects like whack, biff, and punch to complete the look.

The layered costume and giant robot fight raised real questions about how he could even see

Later footage showed what looked like a costume within a costume, prompting us to joke that it was "the Russian doll of Spider-Man." We could not figure out how he was supposed to breathe or see through that many layers, though Achara pointed out he probably does not need to see at all since he has spider sense. There was also a moment built around pure spider strength, and then a full transformation sequence into a giant robot, which is the detail that ties directly into the Honest Trailer's biggest joke later on.

Honest Trailers frames this as Spider-Man dropped into an alternate dimension of 1970s Japan

The Honest Trailer opens by saying that before Into the Spider-Verse, there was an even weirder alternate dimension: 1970s Japan. It describes the show as a loose adaptation, and I mean very loose, where instead of a whiny high schooler with a spider bite, the hero is a motocross racer with the enchanted blood of a dying alien from the planet Spider, who gets a flying car that docks into a giant robot and is sent on a mission of lethal revenge. As the trailer puts it, it is like American Spider-Man if Uncle Ben's dying wish for Peter had been for him to become the Punisher.

Weirdly, that description made sense to me. If you have played a lot of Hideo Kojima games or watched a lot of anime, this premise feels about right, with the kind of twists and turns you would expect from a Japanese take on the character. Achara compared it to a show remembered from Thai terrestrial television growing up, a hero with a motorbike and a cool costume whose fight scenes were corny in exactly this way.

Honest Trailers points out the show is basically identical to Power Rangers, and it came first

The trailer calls this a show virtually identical to Power Rangers, with the hero transforming after yelling into a handheld device, getting into fights that resemble beating up putties, until a cloaked villain makes a monster grow, only for it to get beaten down by a Voltron style robot. Because Japanese Spider-Man actually came first, the trailer notes you can technically say the Megazord is a cheap ripoff of Leopardon, though as it jokes, they will not make any friends saying so.

We also both noted that the constant transforming after shouting into a device is not that far off from where Marvel took Spider-Man on screen up until the end of No Way Home, given how reliant he became on nanotech suits doing the work for him.

Honest Trailers highlights the show's rough effects, reused monster suits, and a stolen costume mid-production

The trailer describes special effects made with a rope and a dream, monster of the week designs built from fur suits and garbage, and basic gymnastics looped to look more impressive. It even claims the same suit had to keep getting reused because someone stole it partway through production, which drew a genuine "no way" out of me.

Some episode titles and one specific line got translated in a way that turned deeply uncomfortable

The trailer runs through poorly translated episode names, and one moment in particular, tied to what seemed to be Spider-Man's catchphrase, translated into something that read as wildly inappropriate. Achara guessed it was probably meant to convey the love a parent feels for a child and was simply a translation disaster, but visually the moment reminded me of the 1992 French film The Lover, right down to the tone of that specific scene.

Why I still think this is charming rather than just bad

Despite everything, I said flat out, "there's something raw and amazing about it, it's charming." Because there was clearly no big budget, from costumes that looked like they came from a party store to stunt dummies thrown off cliffs, there is a rawness to it that polished modern effects do not have. I loved the poses in particular, calling out how flexible and strong the performer playing Spider-Man looked in every shot.

I do not think I could binge a full hour of this, but it feels perfect for a party

I admitted I am not sure I could sit through a full hour of Japanese Spider-Man in one go, but agreed with Achara that it would make a great Friday night watch with friends and drinks, or something to throw on in the background at a party because of how kitschy and cute it is.

The show gets surprisingly dark, and it reframes how I think about Into the Spider-Verse

One thing that stood out to both of us is how regularly this version leans into darkness, including a hero who is, as I put it, "straight up murdering people with his machine gun." I compared that emotional weight to my own reactions across Spider-Man films, saying Uncle Ben's death never hit me in the original trilogy and that I actually laughed when Tobey Maguire cried, whereas Into the Spider-Verse made me feel devastated because the film let us actually know Miles's uncle before he died. Seeing this darker Japanese version also made me connect the dots on the animated film's robot spider character, joking that it explains why that design showed up in Into the Spider-Verse, even if the animated version is much cuter.

With the multiverse wide open, I would not mind seeing this version explored again

With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opening the door to different versions of Spider-Man alongside Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, I said I do not see why a Japanese Spider-Man with this kind of edginess could not be explored again, just updated, machine guns and all. Achara joked that the way to actually watch the original today is the same way people already access region locked shows, by turning on a VPN and watching Disney Plus Japan.

Would you want an updated, edgier take on Japanese Spider-Man now that the multiverse is open, or should this one stay a wonderfully weird relic of the 1970s?