I just remembered that Namco funded a ridiculously cheesy, mostly forgotten, film: Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD from Troma Studios of Toxic Avenger fame
When I was a teenager, I was kind of obsessed with Troma’s flavor of trash-flicks and even though I thought the title was funny, I never liked Sgt. Kabukiman. A lot of the humor comes from “lol, those Japanese folks sure are wacky and weird” or “what if he becomes a clown? are clowns still funny?” and it just… doesn’t have any appealing qualities beyond the goofy premise and title. Namco wasn’t happy with it because they wanted a character who could appeal to children (they probably wanted a better movie too). I’m pretty sure ownership of the character now resides with Troma since they’ve used him in various later films like The Toxic Avenger IV. But Kabukiman’s definitely not in the same league as The Toxic Avenger, which I still consider to kind of be a guilty pleasure.
Here’s Siskel & Ebert reviewing it:
It even had an animated pilot that never became anything more
I definitely don’t recommend anyone actually watch the movie but that Namco connection is interesting!
