Jitsu
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- Jitsu is also an abbreviation for the style of martial arts taught by The Jitsu Foundation
Jitsu is a character from the popular toy line Masters of the Universe.
A member of the evil warriors, he is an Asian (or more accurately, the Eternian equivalent of the Asian race) martial artist with a powerful, enlarged golden right hand which he uses to perform strong karate chops. He is also a master swordsman, and is considered to be the rival of the heroic warrior Fisto, although no official medium has ever developed this.
[edit] Character history
Jitsu was introduced into the Masters of the Universe toy line in 1984. However, he made his debut on the cartoon a year earlier, in one of the show's earliest episodes, "The Dragon Invasion", included to promote an upcoming figure. The character was still in the development stage at the time of this episode, therefore his appearance was slightly different (his right hand being made of flesh rather than gold), and his name in the script was Chopper[1]- clearly a working name, and thus he was never actually called by name in the episode. His role in this episode was a mere background appearance, accompanying Skeletor and his minions in an invasion of Castle Grayskull. Not only was his name never mentioned, but he had only one line and aside from a brief display of his karate-chopping abilities, was given no development whatsoever. He was never featured in the series again, even after his figure finally hit the market, due to the producers' fears that he would be perceived as a racial stereotype[2]
When his figure was released he was promoted as the 'Evil master of martial arts' and was presumably a rival to the heroic character Fisto, released in the same wave, based upon the similarity of their designs. However, although the mini-comic "The Clash of Arms", packaged with both their figures, hinted loosely at some kind of rivalry between them, no medium ever produced any official backstory between the two characters. Many comics and storybooks ignored the idea of any connection between them altogether, leaving fans to only guess at what the connection between the two characters may be.
In general, Jitsu's exposure throughout MOTU history has been minimal, for even most storybooks and comics gave the character only minor roles, and he has never been given an official origin or any real character development. It is possible that this character's underexposure may relate to the fears of racial stereotyping that led him to be mostly excluded from the cartoon. When the MOTU franchise was relaunched in 2002 with a new toy line and cartoon series, Jitsu was ignored altogether, the only character from his original wave not to be brought back for a new incarnation.
Promotional material by Mattel throughout the 1980s often depicted Jitsu riding atop the evil horse Night Stalker, once again drawing a parallel with Fisto who was usually seen atop the horse's heroic counterpart Stridor.
[edit] References
- ^ Masters of the Universe Series Bible p.49. He-Man.org.
- ^ Interview with Larry DiTillio. He-Man.org.
