One of Japan's First Masked Superheroes

I'm going to blend the Pics from the News and Karaoke Posts a bit this time around. Also, the best video in this post is the last, for those of you that are busy. First off, seeing this classic pic reminded me that I've been wanting to post about 月光仮面 (Gekkou Kamen: Moonlight Mask) since I saw it playing outside of a yakitori place on the street. Surprisingly, one of the villains seemed to be be a Japanese-speaking American in the video I saw. Always intrigued by old-school foreigners, I am.

[article and full pic]

Here we see a little dude dressing up like him in 1958, during a shichi-go-san shrine visit. Much more stylish than the traditional kimono, especially with a furoshiki for a cape.


As for that karaoke action... I couldn't find a version of the theme with the lyrics attached, but here is the OP:

And here is a very easy, in terms of listening discernment,version.

This song is unofficial, but pretty funny.
I encountered another series by the same creator, 7 Color Mask. Here is the OP for that one.

But, what I really wanted to seguay into is Tiger Mask! A mysterious pro-wrestler with a mask, the shape of which I think you can guess. Lyrics are there for proper karaoke studiers!


--
words that I ran across:
ごっこ遊び, playing make believe, as in dressing up like a hero