WATCHING Carpioman — a new tokusatsu “show” (and we’ll explain the quotation marks later) currently free to watch on YouTube — is like stepping into a time portal.
Hit the play button, and in short order, you’re transported to an innocent, pre-internet childhood, when there was no work, no mobile phones, no social media; just long, blazing summer afternoons ruled by Tagalog-dubbed Japanese superheroes on TV.

Speaking for an entire generation of older millennials, Mihk Vergara, co-creator and co-director of Carpioman, recalled: “Lahat naman tayo, same, diba: Ultraman, Magmaman, lahat yun, bago mag-Anna Luna. Tapos may break ka sa gitna na Three O'Clock Prayer.”
Co-creator Miko Livelo agreed. “Natatakot ako sa Jesus na yun, yung may rays na lumalabas sa kamay.”
From the get-go, Carpioman takes the look and feel of those shows and transports it into the twenty-first century. Indie stalwart and man of a million expressions Jerald Napoles plays Nardo, a farmer and a surrogate father to Tonet (Miel Espinosa). Nardo has the unlikely ability to transform into Bernado Carpio, the Filipino folklore hero from Montalban who, in this show, is reimagined as a brightly colored giant hero of the Ultraman mold.
Watch the first episode of Carpioman below:
You get all that in the first few minutes, in a lean intro that wastes no time in getting to the heart of the story. Later on in the half-hour “episode”, an elementary school teacher played by Kat Galang lays out more world-building, in a comedic scene where giant monsters are likened to typhoon signals.
“This is a Philippines na nagkaroon na before ng mga giant monster attack. Sinadya talaga namin ni Mihk na tanggap na ng mga tao na may ganung mga calamities,” explained Livelo.
Unlikely hero
Nardo is clearly reluctant to play the part of a superhero. He’d much rather be the doting father, the struggling farmer — anyone but the guy who has to put on a purple suit and fight off a giant mustached robot in the show’s battle scene.
It was a role that Napoles got a handle on right away, according to Carpioman’s creators.

“When this project was being presented to him, gets niya rin. He also enjoys the Ultraman types of shows,” Livelo said of the Ang Pangarap Kong Holdap star. “Gets niya rin kung saan nanggaling yung character. Di pa rin siya sure if he's doing the right thing to be a father to this kid. Sadya rin na gaano siyang ka-kengkoy.”
Vergara added, “May dinadala rin si Jerald na pagka-blue collar. Everyman dapat yung dating ni Nardo, especially sa context ng Pinoy [tokusatsu]. Kasi si Ultraman, diba science officer siya? Wala tayong ganyan! We just have a bunch of people who look like Jerald, just trying to get by. Di sila science officers, di sila secret agents, [they’re] just single dads and moms.”
Pinoy tokusatsu. It’s a term the creators sling often during their hour-long interview with SPIN Life. Livelo even calls it “Third-World Tokusatsu” — a concept he’s been thinking hard about since his first stab at this kind of film, 2013’s Blue Bustamante.
Both Blue Bustamante and Carpioman are loving homages to the tokusatsu genre — the Ultramans, the Maskmans, the Fivemans, the Biomans, the Machine Mans that became popular in ‘90s Pinoy TV. Vergara first met Livelo on the set of Blue Bustamante, and over the years, the two would often talk about how they could dip their feet again into the genre.

An international contest calling for pilot episodes and concepts for an Asian tokusatsu show gave them the motivation to get Carpioman off the ground.
“From conceptualizing to shoot to release, it's been two years,” said Livelo. As part of their immersion, he and Vergara hunkered down to rewatch some old childhood faves. “Isa sa mga natatandaang effect nun was nung tumatakbo si Carpioman, meron siyang trail, yung parang lineart niya. That's obviously from Shaider, yung Babylos [transformation] effect. Hinalo namin lahat ni Mihk, aesthetic-wise, yung [aming influences].”
The research paid off. The effects in Carpioman are as gloriously cheesy as you remember them, though some concession to modern-day aesthetics was made with CGI effects on every landed punch or kick. Everything else — from the bulky costumes to the agonizingly slow movements — seems ported straight out of a late-afternoon '90s programming block.
But of course, their take on Third-World Tokusatsu isn’t just a slavish imitation of the look and feel of those shows. Those are just the genre trappings. The core of the story is essentially a very Pinoy story about a father and a daughter.

“Yun naman yung puso ng series, yung relationship ng dalawa. Icing yung mga labanan. Sa lahat naman ng mga work namin ni Miko, dinaanan namin sa puso, para kumapit yung tao,” said Vergara.
He added that there was a reason giant monster attacks were likened to typhoon signals. “In any toku show, may metaphor yung mga giant battles na yan,” he said. “They're the personification of fears. Like the '50s Godzilla was a representation of the atomic tests. You expect a monster movie, but it's not! It's about the bomb!”
In the same way, beyond its heart-on-its-sleeve humor and unironic cheese, Carpioman also touched on that. Vergara continued, “May mga frustrations about stuff that's happening in our country. There's a reason why the [enemy] robot is designed like it is. What is it? You tell me!”
Lifesaving hero
Carpioman was filmed over three days — two on location in the Antipolo countryside, one day in a studio to film the fight scenes and miniatures.
“Feel ko kelangan muna namin i-klaro na shinoot namin 'to before the pandemic,” said Livelo with a laugh.
In fact, during filming, news was already filtering onto the set about COVID-19. Thankfully, they were able to wrap everything up before the lockdown. When the pandemic hit, Livelo and Vergara were already deep in the weeds in post-production: editing the film, adding the effects and sounds.

“Sobrang happy kami ni Miko na everyone who worked on the project was super invested,” said Vergara. “Even during the pandemic, they were still giving input, at kung anumang pwede nilang gawin, ginagawa namin, especially the post guys at yung sound team namin. Sobrang appreciate namin ni Miko yun.”
In the middle of the dire things happening outside their doors, Carpioman gave the crew a creative outlet and a way to take their mind off things.
“Sobrang nabuhayan sila, because they were working on Carpioman,” Vergara said. “Carpioman saves lives, guys!”
The same, unfortunately, could not be said of the company or the competition that was looking for tokusatsu pilot episodes in the first place. The two could not share too many details, but during the pandemic season, the contest was canceled, and the first “episode” of Carpioman was suddenly left without a home.
Which is why we’ve been putting “episode” and “show” in quotation marks. While the video you can watch right now ends on a cliffhanger, with a “To Be Continued” tag on the corner in true toku style, there’s actually no second episode.
“Supposedly, kung manalo kami, saka siya magiging full series,” explained Livelo.
Thankfully, at least, the pilot was able to find an audience, thanks to producer Chris Cantada, who came onboard after watching a rough cut of the “episode.” The YouTube creator (whom we interviewed before when he was one of the lucky few Pinoys who got to watch the Lakers during the bubble conference) decided to host Carpioman in his massive channel, Chris Cantada Force.
“Sobrang thankful kami kay Chris. Kasi siya yung may audience of not only the local, but also international, tokusatsu crowd,” said Vergara. “[They would be the ones] to greatly appreciate this, so it seemed like the best way to gauge people's interest. One million subscribers club si Chris e. It's a good home for Carpioman.”
Barring a dump truck full of money pulling into their driveways, or a streaming platform suddenly giving them a call, this is likely all the Carpioman we’re going to see out of Miko Livelo and Mihk Vergara in the foreseeable future.
But if there were a second episode, what would have happened?
Vergara leaves us with this tease: “Walang clear villain sa Episode 1. Sa Episode 2, doon naming balak i-introduce yung mga antagonist for the series. Yung nag-Japanese sa dulo, siya yung magha-house sa mag-ama. Siya yung mad scientist. Kumbaga, siya ang may-ari ng Camp Big Falcon.”
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