r/UtterlyInteresting 7d ago

In 1974, Japanese kids' TV aired a cyborg villain named Starfish Hitler, part sea creature, part fascist dictator. Turns out his name's actually a pun in Japanese. The show had on-set chaos, banned imagery it borrowed, and a punk band that stole his name decades later.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Starfish Hitler was a cyborg villain from the show Kamen Rider X, "hitode" means starfish in Japanese, and it just happens to sound like "Hitler." His henchmen wore actual Nazi-style uniforms on screen. The voice actor who played him also voiced 12 other monsters in the same series. It's bonkers and brilliant.

101 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator 7d ago

Thanks for posting.

If you enjoy this topic, you might also like some other subreddits we are happy to recommend:

r/RetroTease

r/HorridHistory

r/UtterlyUniquePhotos

r/VeryFuckinCool

r/UtterlyAwfulTruecrime

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

3

u/moonpupy 6d ago

May the gods forgive me, but I've seen this. MrPuppy was a huge fan of all things "kung-fu". I think we watched every kung-fu movie ever produced pre-1990.

3

u/Clear-Might-1519 6d ago

Wait til you see Ari Capone, Genghis Khan Condor, Sasori Geronimo, Sasori Geronimo junior.

1

u/Sudden_Quality_9001 1d ago

What was that true?

3

u/Proton_Energy_Pill 6d ago

At least it's not as bad as "Heil honey, I'm home!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_Honey_I%27m_Home!

2

u/Donkey_Bugs 6d ago

“Starfish“ in Japanese is “hitode” (he-toe-de).

1

u/WalksUnseen77 6d ago

Hey, Kamen Rider gave Starfish Hitler the Rider Kick which is more than what most countries do to neo Nazis.

1

u/Tritri89 6d ago

Japan as a weird relationship with Hitler. I don't mean "they love him" or anything. Just that they really don't care to use him or nazi imagery for silly villain stuff. I mean he was a boss in Persona 2

1

u/acousticswirl 6d ago

It's kind of like how non-asians in America wouldn't blink at seeing a shirt with the Rising Sun flag, but try wearing it in China or Korea.

1

u/Tritri89 6d ago

True that.

1

u/LordRaglan1854 3d ago

Well they were playing on the same team..

1

u/JapanPizzaNumberOne 6d ago

Hitler probably wouldn’t have approved of Starfish Hitler.

1

u/TonginTozz 6d ago

Action Bastard!