If you're into Godzilla movies or shows like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, you're a fan of the Japanese tokusatsu genre. And now tokusatsu lovers have a streaming service to call their own. We can exclusively reveal the first details of TokuSHOUTsu, a new streaming channel being added to Pluto TV.

TokuSHOUTsu Brings Kamen Rider and Ultraman to America 30 IMAGES

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A joint effort between Pluto TV and Shout! Factory TV, TokuSHOUTsu is aimed at making Japanese shows like Ultraman and Super Sentai (the basis for the many incarnations of Power Rangers) more widely available to US audiences. Perhaps the biggest selling point is that TokuSHOUTsu will bring the wildly popular Kamen Rider to US shores for the first time.Beginning at midnight PT on Tuesday, March 17, TokuSHOUTsu can be found on Pluto TV Channel 681 (in the Tech + Geek section). The channel will offer a mix of live, curated content and on-demand episodes of Kamen Rider: Season 1, Ultraman Leo and Super Sentai. The channel will include other original content such as Let's Talk Toku, a weekly talk show hosted by Squall Charlson, and relevant episodes of the documentary series Backlot that provide behind-the-scenes looks at franchises like Godzilla and Power Rangers.We had a chance to talk with both TokuSHOUTsu Channel Manager Ari Schonfeld and tokusatsu expert/former Mighty Morphin Power Rangers star Jason Narvy about what this new service has to offer fans of the genre."TokuSHOUTsu came about because Shout! Factory is always looking for ways to diversify how fans enjoy content," said Schonfeld. "After all of the success we’ve had with physical releases of Super Sentai, this is just the natural progression. When Pluto TV reached out about wanting to collaborate on a new streaming channel, basing it around tokusatsu became a no-brainer because of our mutual interest in the genre."Narvy told us how exciting it is to finally have a resource making previously hard-to-find tokusatsu material accessible for American viewers. "Much more than other genres, toku fans outside of Japan had to work just to get their hands on the material. It has not (until now) been easy to acquire. The fans really were explorers who had discovered something unique. And there's a real desire to know Japanese culture as a result. Coming from America, where we tend to think the world revolves around us, it's refreshing to see fans who make their fandom something akin to being cultural ambassadors."Despite premiering way back in 1971, Kamen Rider didn't need much in the way of restoration or remastering work, according to Schonfeld. "TOEI did a great job keeping Kamen Rider in fantastic shape, so we did not need to restore the series, but we did add brand-new subtitles. It’s the first time the series has ever had English-language subtitles, so for American audiences, the series is going to look truly fantastic."Check out an exclusive clip from Kamen Rider's first episode below:In addition to having major toku cred after playing iconic bully Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and several follow-up series, Narvy also happens to be a certified expert on the subject. He holds a PhD in Theatre Studies and currently teaches at Chicago's Concordia University. That expertise is what led to his current collaboration with Shout! Factory, and fans can look forward to his presence on upcoming episodes of Let's Talk Toku."Look, I'm a fan of toku, as an actor I've become a storyteller of toku, and outside of that I'm an academic who deals with both pop culture heroes and canonical tragic ones--from the Gene Autry to Hamlet," said Narvy "Shout! Factory wanted me involved because they know I'm the crazy professor who could frame this genre as important, cross cultural, mythic storytelling in a fun as hell package. We have talked about future collaboration and just this morning I did my first appearance on Let's Talk Toku!"We couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask if Narvy has any plans to reprise his role as Skull (with his most recent appearance being in the series finale of Power Rangers Super Samurai in 2012). He told us, "Man, there's a guy you want out of your life, isn't he? Look, to see Bulk and Skull together again, to grow that character would be too much fun."Narvy continued, "It was strange when I did that cameo for Samurai and Paulie [Schrier] and Felix [Ryan] and I had that one little scene together, we really thought the scene gave more questions than answers. I mean, how do you do a comic moment between two best friends who are no longer hanging out? That's too close to depressing. And preparing for that scene, I thought it was really odd to think of those guys grown up. They were such juvenile delinquents. And it was hard to envision that those idiots could survive into adulthood. Shouldn't they have suffered some horrible accident that only the truly Walking Braindead would have? Or if they survived, would they be just middle aged criminals? And what does that say about Darwinism if the dumbest survive? No one from the old days in Angel Grove is around except Bulk and Skull??? I guess it's like Paulie and I always say: Heroes come and go, but idiots are forever."Finally, we asked Schonfeld why he feels the tokusatsu genre has seen such a resurgence in popularity lately. What's fueling the renewed obsession with all things Power Rangers or demand for that lavish Godzilla box set from The Criterion Collection "I think the Internet plays a big part in it," said Schonfeld. "It’s easier than ever to find others with mutual interests and whenever that occurs, fringe movements that might have been shunned in the past have a chance to see more light. It’s just natural for barriers to erode over time when you have a product that is as special as tokusatsu is. It’s also a genre where even if you’ve never seen the original shows, you’ve seen the influence of them because it’s absolutely everywhere. The truly great always finds a way to shine through."TokuSHOUTsu will be available on all platforms that support Pluto TV, including Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV. Let us know if you'll be checking out this new streaming service in the comments below.For more on the ever-shifting streaming TV landscape, find out everything coming to NBCUniversal's Peacock and everything coming to WarnerMedia's HBO Max

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter