is the name and title character of a

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, War film, war, fantasy, or Horror film, horror media featuring such te ...

TV series, later called . It was created by

Kōhan Kawauchi (February 26, 1920 – April 6, 2008), also known as Yasunori Kawauchi, was a Japanese screenwriter who created various tokusatsu series, including the first, ''Moonlight Mask'', in 1958. He was originally from Hakodate, Hokkaido. His series ''W ...

, who also created ''

Moonlight Mask (a.k.a. ''The Moonbeam Man'') is a superhero appearing in Japanese tokusatsu and anime television shows and movies since his TV debut in 1958. The six theatrical films were made (between 1958-1959) in black and white/ToeiScope format. Created by ...

''. This B&W TV show was the first superhero TV series by

Toei Company Ltd. () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by i ...

It was broadcast on NET (now TV Asahi) from June 3, 1959 to June 30, 1960, with a total of 57 episodes divided into 7 segments. Aside from being Toei's first TV superhero show, this series was also the debut of actor

Sonny Chiba , known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience. Born in Fuku ...

, who was 19 at the time, who took over the title role from Susumu Namijima after Episode 32.

Summary

The hero of this series is a young detective named Kotarō Ran, unknown to anyone (even his friends), is a master of disguise, utilizing seven different personalities. Most of his disguises are odd characters, like a magician and a cigar-smoking Indian, but Kotarō's 7th disguise is the 2-gun-toting caped, golden-masked superhero, Seven Color Mask! In the first story arc called the ally of justice Seven Color Mask must confront the evil Cobra Mask who terrorizes Japan. In the second story arc an armored car loaded with 80 million yen is attacked by the . The police and Seven Color Mask must hunt down King Rose. The third story arc is called . The fourth story arc is called {{Nihongo, Three Ace, スリー・エース, Suri Esu. This series was "remade" by creator Kawauchi in 1972 as ''

Warrior of Love Rainbowman is a tokusatsu series created by Kōhan Kawauchi. This was the first superhero TV series produced by Toho Company Ltd., and was broadcast on NET (now TV Asahi) from October 6, 1972 to September 18, 1973, with a total of 52 episodes. Mitsuru ...

'', and it is also considered an inspiration behind

Go Nagai , better known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with ''Meakashi Polikichi'', but is best known for creating popular 1970s ...

's ''

Cutey Honey is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. First appearing in ''Weekly Shōnen Champions 41st issue of 1973, the series ran until April 1974. It follows an android girl named Honey Kisaragi, who transf ...

''.

Staff

*Creator: Kōhan Kawauchi *Planning: Masahiro Sato, Yoshifumi Ohga *Screenplay: Kōhan Kawauchi, Saburo Yuki & Yoshinari Matsubara *Music: Hiro'oki Ogawa Toei tokusatsu Tokusatsu television series 1959 Japanese television series debuts 1960 Japanese television series endings TV Asahi original programming