A few hours ago in Tokyo was presented the Women Fall/Winter 2022 collection of UNDERCOVER, broadcast live on the Instagram profile and website of the Japanese brand.
I take advantage of the show staged today to tell a very interesting and little known story related to the brand founded by Jun Takahashi and that personally recalls an imagery to which I am very attached.
But let’s start from the beginning.
This is a story about superheroes, and it is undeniable that they have always had a decisive importance in the imagination of children and not only. The incredible fascination of narrative related to superheroes comes directly from comics and then also from Japanese manga to continue to cascade through anime (movies or TV series) and, in our contemporary times, with the cinecomic – see the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the latest transposition of Batman to the cinema.
Let’s go back to 2011 when Jun Takahashi, photographer Katsuhide Morimoto and art director Tetsuya Nagato came up with a unique campaign to promote UNDERCOVER’s Spring/Summer ’11 collection.
The idea was to create a fictional character called UNDERMAN, on which the entire collection is also based, who would save the souls of people taken away by the forces of evil. In fact, the campaign slogan read: “The year is 20XX. The world, in which the souls of the people have been incapacitated by the forces of evil, is empty. UNDERMAN is born to restore these lost souls. The battle against sorrow wages on. UNDERMAN!!!!”.
The campaign was made by recording real action scenes, with explosions and fights, that clearly recalled the Japanese TV series of the late ’60s, and in particular one, the one starring the iconic and unforgettable Ultraman.
The series, in live action, debuted on Japanese screens in 1966 and was created by Eiji Tsuburaya and Akira Sasaki. Over the years the success of the series increased dramatically to become a franchise starring other Ultramen, and then arrive at the cinema, video games and of course the comics. In this way the hero has accompanied several generations over the decades becoming a true icon for the entire Asian continent.
Ultraman was initially Shin Hayata, a policeman who was killed during an alien attack but is brought back to life by an extraterrestrial from the Ultra Garrison, fusing with him.
From that moment on he can transform into Ultraman, a robot more than 40 meters tall with various powers, which defends the earth from hostile aliens and the classic kaijū (the giant monsters of Japanese fiction).
The idea for UNDERMAN came directly from Jun Takahashi’s passion for Ultraman, for action figures – of which three different versions of UNDERMAN were made to accompany the collection and the campaign – and for toys linked to classic Japanese superhero imagery.
The campaign photos were shot respecting those aesthetic canons that have made Ultraman immortal. From the sets to the costumes to the special effects, everything recalls the retro atmospheres typical of the TV series.
A work that is a heartfelt and strong tribute to our childhood and to what more than anything else arouses the imagination of children but not only, the superheroes who provide their skills and their powers at the service of the weakest fighting evil, in the noblest of intentions.
