TokuTexas Cosplay (aka, @TokuTxCosplay, aka Dan, self-named after Ultraseven’s human host Dan Moroboshi) is a tokusatsu cosplayer, blogger, reviewer, diorama builder, and memorabilia collector from Laredo Texas. He’s best known for cosplaying Ultraseven on his social media, documenting his worldwide adventures alongside his Ultraman action figure, and uploading tokusatsu-related videos on his YouTube channel. Most importantly, he is a very active member of the Ultraman Connection community!
Something I found very cool about Dan’s story is that unlike most Ultraman fans, he didn’t grow up watching the series. In fact he only came across the franchise in 2014. After having engaged with other tokusatsu shows and films, Dan found himself searching for more action-packed Japanese monster content and boy did he hit the jackpot!
Starting with Ultraman Ginga and Ultraman X, Dan was immediately roped in by the special effects, fun characters, thought-provoking messages, and family-friendly nature. Although he wishes he could’ve seen more of Ultraman earlier in life, he expresses a lot of gratitude toward Tsuburaya Productions and Ultraman Connection’s recent efforts to bring Ultraman to the west.
“I wanna give a big shoutout to Tsubaraya for making the newer Ultraman series available on YouTube… Thank you so much for letting us in other countries enjoy Ultraman!”
Later in 2015, Dan began an Instagram account where he posted tokusatsu related photos and news. After having grown the account for a year he decided to start cosplaying in 2016 and going from convention to convention as Ultraseven. He then expanded his presence to Twitter and YouTube after engaging with other toku enthusiasts’ posts, livestreams, and videos.
“For me, it’s not about popularity, it’s about spreading the joy of Ultraman.”
Through keeping up with the tokusatsu niche, especially the Ultraman community, he was introduced to UltramanConnection.com where he has since enjoyed having so much content in one place, and the Ultraman Connection Discord server where he could interact with other fans of the same interests.
“Unfortunately, where I live there aren’t many people who are into tokusatsu and Ultraman. The people l work with and see regularly are mostly into sports, cars, and other mainstream things. Ultraman isn’t as mainstream yet so most of the toku fans I know are friends I’ve made online.”
Sharing different perspectives, discussing their thoughts on the shows, trading recommendations and bonding over a love for the franchise has kept TokuTexas, and many others like him, on the roster as well-known fan contributors.
“I work as hard as I can to make sure I don’t miss an Ultraman Connection Live event!”
When asked what his favorite Ultraman series is so far, Dan stated that as a rule he has always been a fan of series that feature monster attack teams like Ultraman X, the original 1966 Ultraman, or Ultraseven. However, Ultraman Orb is his overall favorite because in his opinion it stays the truest to the essential elements of Ultraman.
“Ultraman is about being the best person you can be and trying to help others despite the challenges that we as people face.”
Dan also made a point of identifying how part of the beauty of Ultraman is that every main character (and even many secondary characters) begin as foundationally good people but they all grow to learn that being a good person goes beyond having good values. Being truly good means taking action and putting yourself on the line to defend others using said values.
“Just like the Ultras, we gather strength in ourselves, get help from others, use the power of friendship to upgrade ourselves into new forms, and are able to make it through the day.”
He admires in Ultraman the fact that characters do make mistakes and are faced with difficult decisions but at the end of the day are able to make peace with themselves.
“We all have our own struggles in life. We may not have to fight giant Kaiju like Ultraman does but in a metaphorical sense, some of our problems can be like monsters that rampage through our lives.”
As someone in my 20s who has only recently discovered the beauty of Ultraman, it was very inspiring to hear that Dan began his journey at my age and in only a few years has already come so far in cultivating a community. In recent years Dan even traveled to Ultraman Town in Japan where he documented his trip to the Ultraman Café, the various Ultraman statues, and many other amazing Ultra-sights!
You can see all of it and more for yourself on his various social medias linked below. A big thank you to TokuTexas Cosplay for being such an active member in our community. Stay tuned here on UltramanConnection.com for more fan profiles to come!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokuTxCosplay
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tokutexascosplay/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsJzdYe04q3VqWAObJxZy-Q
The Noob is Evangelia Artemis, a New York-based writer and otaku who works on staff at Ultraman Connection. She recently guest-starred on Ultraman Rising! on TokuSHOUTsu, and has been writing fan profiles here on the site.
