So the earliest influence Japanese culture had on me, even before the 10 year old ‘I want to be a ninja’ phase, was through monster shows and anime. Sure there were movies, but the same thing was being done in late ’60’s television, then a few years later we got the rerun’s (most likely because they were cheap). It was an era before cable, you wippersnappers, and most households got the three main networks, TBS in ATL of course, and perhaps one or two other local indie channels. That was TV. But children are easily impressed.
Early Saturday morning, just before or after the animated Spiderman, there was live action Ultraman. Seeing the American intro again (though this actually comes from Italian or Spanish TV and is low quality), with that backward, split screen swirling paint and insane sound intro took me ALL THE WAY BACK, as well as the graphics and theme song. No wonder I was destined to experiment with psychedelics, but like the Beatles I was actually turned on by my dentist years later - nitrous oxide, liberally dispensed in offices before pillhead Nancy became first lady.

Space Giants(Japanese title ‘Ambassador Magma’) came a few years later to the Americans, though the shows were created at the same time, and was after school afternoon programming during the week. The show itself was rather lame, but watch a few episodes linked to the intro in youtube to see how far your disbelief could be suspended with the lofi changeover of Gam from boy to rocket, not to mention Rodac’s ‘Fro. But I suppose it was the idea of having a whistle which could summon robo-saviors that could carry the show in a young boy’s mind. Love the jazz themesong and the way everyone is caught up with the story idea during the intro.