Spider-Man (1978)

TheNFScave
Sep 12, 2025
1 min read

Spider-Man (Japanese: スパイダーマン, Hepburn: Supaidāman), also referred to as Japanese Spider-Man or Toei Spider-Man, is a Japanese live-action tokusatsu superhero television series produced by Toei Company, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name through a contract negotiated by producer Gene Pelc.

The series aired for 41 episodes on Tokyo Channel 12 from May 17, 1978, to March 14, 1979. A theatrical episode aired at the Toei Manga Matsuri film festival on July 22, 1978. From March 5 to December 24, 2009, Marvel uploaded English subtitled versions of the episodes to their website.

While Toei's version of the character, Takuya Yamashiro/Spider-Man (portrayed by Kōsuke Kayama (Shinji Tōdō), wore the same costume as his Marvel Comics counterpart and had similar powers, the series' storyline and the origin of his powers differed from the source material.

In addition to fighting, he piloted the giant mecha Leopardon, which he would summon to fight off enlarged versions of the show's monsters; the giant robot concept would later be used in Toei's Super Sentai franchise. Yamashiro later appeared in the comic storylines Spider-Verse and Spider-Geddon.

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