BOOSKA!!

The big, orange, bucktoothed Booska is one of Japan's kaiju (giant monsters), who first appeared in a self-titled 1960's science fiction TV series. While the show hasn't had the lasting appeal of, say, Ultraman, the character still evokes nostalgic memories with Japanese baby boomers, and repeats have recently been shown on TV Tokyo on Saturday mornings.

Booska is the creation of the series' child hero Daisuke, a precocious ten-year-old with a flair for odd scientific experiments that invariably go wrong. In the first episode Daisuke attempts to mutate a baby iguana into a huge Godzilla-like kaiju by giving it a homemade food he calls "kuropara." The experiment fails, creating instead the cute, two-meter tall Booska.

The crown on top of Booska's head is called the "boo-kan" and is filled with "booskanium," the animal's source of energy. His powers include super strength, the ability to fly, super-sensitive hearing and eyesight, and invisibility. Booska's other notable feature is a voracious appetite for ramen. He has been known to eat thirty bowls of the stuff at one sitting, often leading to trouble in Daisuke's household. When hungry, the bucktoothed beast loses his strength and mournfully cries "shio shio no pa" (no energy). Other notable Booska-speak heard in the series is "sarasa barasa" when happy, "puri puri no kiririnko" (when angry) and "nai nai no pa" (when becoming invisible).

Tsuburaya Productions produced the series for NTV and it ran continually from November 1966 to September 1967. In the series, Booska was the protector of Daisuke and his friends and family. Romping through wobbly cardboard sets with cheesy special effects that made the original TV Star Trek look like The Matrix, he battled creatures from space and unfriendly kaiju such as the fearsome Imora from jigoku dani (hell valley) or the villainous Mechatoro, who wanted to capture and exploit Booska for his own purposes. Booska was last seen boarding a rocket to take him to the planet R-Star, ten light years from Earth, in search of the mysterious "Z-Energy" and promising to return one day.

While waiting for his imminent homecoming, Booska fans can visit Barasa de Kiririnco on Omotesando near the Aoyama Dori crossing, a shop devoted to the cuddly kaiju and selling all kinds of memorabilia. Aficionados can also catch his reruns every Saturday morning from 7:30-8am on Channel 12. Perhaps one day the ramen-munching monster will find fame and fortune like his cuddly compatriots.