Welcome back to Tokusatsu Gesundheit, where this week we are celebrating today’s release of Spider-Man: Far From Home by watching the first Spider-Man movie ever intended for theaters!
![](https://gobacktothepast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Poster-650x1024.jpg)
PLOT RUNDOWN
BRIEF BACKGROUND
This flick was produced for the Toei Manga Matsuri festival (much like the previously covered Metalder movie). As such, it is a glorified episode of the TV show. Agent Mamiya actually took part in a short arc on the TV series the week after the festival.
And unlike the Spider-Man TV movies that were released into overseas theaters around the same time as this one, it was 100% intended to be screened in a theater – meaning it is the 1st official theatrical Spider-Man movie.
![](https://gobacktothepast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Amazoness.jpg)
HIGHLIGHTS
- The monster of the week is called Sea Devil (say, I thought they were DC characters…) And he is a humanoid shark that vomits torpedoes. Still not as silly as some comic book Spidey villains.
- Spider-Man’s acrobatics are largely accomplished via jump-cut, though what is actually physically accomplished is very impressive.
- Spider-Man one ups his title of “Emissary of Hell” with “Iron Cross Killer”. Japanese Spider-Man does not screw around.
- Not really directly something from the flick, but I just mentally change Amazoness’s name to Man-Killer to pretend there is a comics connection.
![](https://gobacktothepast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Marveler.jpg)
REVIEW
Like the Metalder movie, it’s basically just a glorified episode of the TV series (Marvel streamed it as Episode Zero, which is emphatically not where it fits in continuity). Unlike the Metalder movie, it tells a more complete story and even introduces a new ally for Spidey – making it feel more like a standalone tale than a glorified commercial.