Anthropoid

Anthropoid Alternate names King Kong, apeman Species Humanoid primate Controlled by Magonojo Go Relations Senbei (former owner) Enemies Hyoe Toba Written by Daijo Aoyama Modeled by Fuminori Ohashi Played by Ryunosuke Kabayama First appearance The King Kong that Appeared in Edo

An anthropoid (類人猿,   ruijin'en), referred to in the title as a King Kong (キングコング,   Kingu Kongu), is the monstrous antagonist of the lost 1938 tokusatsu jidaigeki film The King Kong that Appeared in Edo. Initially owned by a former prisoner named Senbei, the anthropoid was employed by a man named Magonojo Go to carry out various deeds, including the kidnapping of Chinami, the daughter of Go's wealthy boss Hyoe Toba.

Name

Due to the unavailability of the anthropoid's debut film, it is unclear how it was referred to in dialogue. The film's title bills the ape as a "King Kong," with an advertisement published in Kinema Junpo declaring, "The kaiju King Kong appears in Edo!" (怪獸キングコング江戸に現はる！,   Kaijū Kingu Kongu Edo ni araharu!). As an alternative to "anthropoid," apeman (猿人,   Enjin) is also used.^{[citation needed]}

Developement

The anthropoid was modeled by tokusatsu pioneer Fuminori Ohashi. According to author Kento Tomoi, Ohashi created the ape because he was deeply uplifted by the 1933 King Kong, and worked on the project as a follow-up to the original. Additionally, Ohashi decided to portray the character himself under the stage name Ryunosuke Kabayama, taking advantage of his near-2 meter height. Ohashi would later go on to model and portray a similar ape-like creature in the 1955 Toho film Half Human.

Design

In available promotional materials, the creature is covered in typical long mammal hair and has a humanoid face, with its top row of teeth visibly sticking out of its mouth along with human body features, such as five fingers.

History

The King Kong that Appeared in Edo

The anthropoid was the pet of Senbei, whose son Magonojo Go ordered the creature to kidnap Chinami, the daughter of Hyoe Toba, who had once imprisoned Senbei. The ape assisted Go with exchanging Chinami's location for the 3,000-ryō bounty that Toba offered for his daughter's return, and locked Toba in his cellar. The ape then attacked and killed Toba, but suffered deadly injuries itself. Afterward, Go departed Edo with the reward.

This summary is derived from the March 1, 1938, issue of Kinema Jumpo, as translated by Classic Horror Film Board user bakeneko. It leaves the fates of Chinami and Senbei ambiguous, although the film itself may have addressed them.

Gallery

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  Advertisement featuring the anthropoid that was published in the April 14, 1938 issue of Kinema Junpo

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  Production still of the ape (center) with Magonojo Go (left) and the hunchback Kuroami (right)

Trivia

• One of the promotional stills featured in the April 14, 1938 issue of Kinema Junpo shows the creature in a gigantic state that dwarfs the minka surrounding it, and Fuminori Ohashi even once referred to it as a "giant gorilla". If true, this would make the ape one of the first, if not the first, giant monster to appear in a Japanese film. However, no such scene is mentioned in the sole surviving synopsis of the film from Kinema Junpo, which was published a little over a month prior on March 1, 1938.
• A video uploaded to YouTube in 2012 claimed to offer "surviving footage" of The King Kong that Appeared in Edo featuring the anthropoid. In actuality, it merely uses edited footage of the Yeti from the 1977 film Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century.

See also

• King Kong
• Snowman

References

This is a list of references for Anthropoid. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

Bibliography

• Bessatsu Eiga Hiho: "Denjin Zaborger" & P-Pro Tokusatsu Encyclopedia. Yosensha. 14 November 2011. ISBN 978-4-86248-805-3.
  • Tomoi, Kento. "Kaijin of the Tokusatsu World: Fuminori Ohashi". In Yosensha (2011), pp. 86–87.
• Ryfle, Steve; Godziszewski, Ed (3 October 2017). Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0819577412.CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Takatsuki, Miki (27 March 2014). Genesis of Prewar Japanese SF Films: What is Godzilla Made Of?. Kawade Shobo Shinsha. ISBN 978-4-30927-477-5.

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