Announcer: "Hey Kids! Are you having a good time at the giant mall/ amusement park/ festival today? That's wonderful! Oh no! Generic Villain has appeared!"
Generic Villain: "Mwahahaha! Awesome Hero Man isn't here, so I'm going to take you all hostage!"
Announcer: "Gasp!! What do we do? If you yell really loud, I bet Awesome Hero Man will appear to save us! Alright kids, on three, let's shout, 'Awesome Hero Man, come save us!' Alright? One, two, three! AWESOME HERO MAN, COME SAVE US!"
The Hero Stage Show is a filler event where-in the main characters get sucked into taking younger siblings (or secretly for their own enjoyment) to see cliché Heroes or Sentai groups (either Local Heroes
or ones from popular in-universe kids shows) and Hilarity Ensues. Since the shows are parodies of simplistic characters aimed at kids, the names of the characters are usually Bland-Name Product type names or just silly ones. Will probably take place at a mall, festival or amusement park and there's an extremely good chance the protagonists will end up having to take the place of the actors on stage or take the show seriously and beat up the poor actors, who are just regular people. This trope is pretty much always a parody, and nothing serious ever comes out of it in the end.
A Hero Stage Show can figure into the plot in a few ways. One is that the protagonist(s) went to the show to see it, in which case there's a chance they'll have to get involved in it in some way, shape or form. These examples can include things like the protagonist being pushed onto the stage by the crowd and having to play along, or the protagonist noticing something is amiss onstage and having to intervene, which some might try to do discreetly from backstage so the other actors don't notice. Another is that the protagonist(s) are hired to work as actors for the show, in which case, they will have to deal with instances where the show goes off the rails, be it either by other actors flubbing their lines or some part of the set getting damaged, or if someone storms the stage and they have to improv a way to get the guy off so they can continue the show as planned.
Compare Live on Stage!, Show Within a Show, All Part of the Show.
Examples:
- Ace Attorney: In the manga chapter "Turnabout Showtime", Phoenix and Maya go to a theme park called Sparkle Land and decide to watch the Sparklestar Show, in which actors in costume perform onstage as the park's mascots. During the performance, the actor portraying Twinklestar stumbles onstage and apologizes for being late. Then he collapses with blood coming out of the costume.
- Action Heroine Cheer Fruits revolves around a group of highschool students putting together a sentai stage troupe in order to promote tourism for their town.
- Air Master: Maki gets dragged into stage for Sakiyama's part time job in the High Rangers hero show as the villainess Empress Cockroach, and gets a little too much into the role of defeating the heroes.
- Happens in Beelzebub Where Oga takes Beel to see one, but he gets angry after being picked on by some of the actors and electrocutes them. Toujo is working in the show for some reason and drafts Oga and his other delinquent friends as actors in the show and proceed to take it too seriously and have an actual fight during the stage show.
- Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: Don Patch fights one of the Hair Hunt villains, T-500, during a hero stage show at a amusement part. Naturally it's All Part of the Show for the crowd and Don Patch tries to make himself the center of attention during it.
- Case Closed: A filler episode of the anime starts with Conan and the Junior Detective Club attending a hero show for a superhero named Yaiba at a local shopping mall. The events of the episode kick off when Genta/George leaves behind a autograph of Yaiba at the snack stand in the mall and goes to retrieve it just as the place closes.
- There's a Hero Stage Show going on in the manga Chocolat by Kubonouchi Eisaku when Chiyoko is being spied on by her adoptive, ex-yakuza father when she goes on a date at an amusement park. Her father and his ex-yakuza workers, beat up the actors from the Sentai Show and put on their costumes as poor disguises.
- The Devil is a Part-Timer! uses one of these as a plot point. Soon after the protagonists adopt Alas Ramus, a strange baby with stranger powers, they bring her to an amusement park that has a Sentai stage show. Alas Ramus identifies each hero by their colors, naming them as the Sephirot of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, which also correspond to colors. Maou picks up on the reference, and realizes that she is a fragment of one of the Sephirot. Specifically, she's part of Yesod, the yellow.
- The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: In the anime episode "Summer Break! A Date With Teruhashi", Yuki Teruhashi invited Kusuo Saiki to the fair grounds for a date. To keep it from becoming that, Saiki brings along Yuuta, his neighbour's son, so they can watch the live performance of Cider-man Ramune going on there. The actor playing the monster L. Ginger kidnaps Teruhashi and brings her on-stage, but can't bring himself to attack her after she uses her charms to stop him. When the actor playing Cider-man Ramune beats him, L. Ginger gets angry at looking weak in front of her and kicks him away. Saiki is ultimately forced to become Cyborg Cider-man No. 2 (because that's who Yuuta thinks he really is) and go up onstage to beat L. Ginger, much to his chagrin.
- INVADERS of the ROKUJYOUMA!?: In book 6, Koutarou, Theia and Kiriha play the roles of villains in a Hero Show to entertain the neighbourhood kids, complete with "kidnapping" an oddly-enthusiastic Harumi. Things take an unexpected turn when the Sun Rangers show up, a real (if incompetent) sentai who detected Kiriha's use of Underworlder technology, and have to be yelled at by "Baron Demon" (Koutarou) until they give up and go home. The Sun Rangers reappear later in the series as far, far more impressive heroes (and valuable allies against Underworlder terrorists), but they still have immense respect for Koutarou for giving them the kick they needed - continuing to affectionately call him "Baron Demon" and considering him something of an honorary Sixth Ranger.
- In the official Neon Genesis Evangelion parody manga Tony Takezaki's Evangelion, a Flashback chapter depicts Gendo Ikari's plan to win support for taxpayer funding of NERV by putting on a Hero Show, featuring himself as costumed mascot NERV-tan, his deputy Kozo Fuyutsuki in costume as an angel, and a teenage Ritsuko Akagi as the Ms. Fanservice M.C. Kozo recalls in anger how Gendo forced him to wear an especially heavy costume during a typical post-Second Impact heat wave and took great relish in pummeling him during their "mock" battle.
- Go, Go, Loser Ranger! bizarrely does this for what's in-universe an actual war. Every Sunday, the local sentai squad, the Dragon Keepers, fight a group of the Kaijin Army's mooks and their apparent leader . The thing is that the Keepers have staged this, and in reality have struck a deal with the remaining mooks for the latter group to keep doing these shows so humanity's morale doesn't lower—and by the beginning of the manga, this has been going on for 10 years. The audience simply thinks that the Rangers are fighting a real battle, unaware of the deal.
- In a side story of K, Misaki has a part-time job playing a monster in one of these, in a mascot suit.
- In New Game!, Hajime is a big fan of these despite being at least twenty years old, to the point of spending not a small amount of her income into it. Two series of such shows are featured in the series: Signal Three is about stoplight-themed crime fighters, Insect Five is about insect-themed crime-fighters.note
- Perfect Blue begins with a short excerpt of a hero stage show, blatantly inspired by Super Sentai (our protagonist is shortly to perform on the same stage); some kids watching remark that the special effects aren't nearly as impressive live as they are on TV.
- "Sailor Moon" has an episode with Usagi, Naru and Umino attending a show for a character known as Redman (renamed “The Wacky Wrestlers” in the dub), with Zoisite arriving and turning the lead hero into a Monster of the Week.
- Shinryaku! Ika Musume: Squid Girl is distressed to learn that "Devil Squid" is supposed to be the bad guy in the beach hero show, and decides to even the odds.
- The Tatami Galaxy: In the episode "Hero Show Association Circle", the main character works in The Moguchiman Show as a particularly pacifistic hero, White Moguchiman, in one timeline. The plot of the show is that the villain would hit White Mochiguman once, get deflected, and immediately surrenders and vows to change his ways. The character he plays is present in all timelines as a toy.
- Zatch Bell!: Zatch goes to see a stage show starring his favourite hero, Praying Mantis Joe, on the roof of a department store while his friends go shopping. Zatch's friends and other customers fall for scam purchases set up by the department store's unscrupulous manager, so Zatch and the kids at the stage show encourage Joe to save the day by fighting the manager's bodyguard. The normally weak-willed actor overcomes his fear and stands up to the manager, refusing to back down even as the bodyguard repeatedly beats him up. Mrs. Nakata (the teacher's wife) ends up defeating the bodyguard herself, but Zatch attributes the victory to Joe and everyone gets refunds for their bad purchases.
- In Before Watchmen, Dollar Bill's day job is performing in a heroic stage show to entertain kids and promote a bank. At one point, he convinces Nite-Owl to join him.
- In Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers first takes the Captain America mantle as part of a USO show to raise war bonds, only to become a real superhero under the Captain America name later on.
- Jingle All the Way: Howard's quest to find a Turbo Man doll for his son culminates in him accidentally being cast as Turbo Man (with a fully functional costume including jetpack) at a Christmas parade. Unfortunately, crazed postal worker Myron invades the show as Turbo Man's nemesis, Dementor, leading to a slapstick battle.
Live-Action TV
- The focus of an episode of Voicelugger has the heroes working at one of these shows, with Akito as the announcer and Takeshi as the suit actor for the monster. Things get derailed when Eyelash Line modifies the monster costume to transform Takeshi into an actual monster when he puts it on.
- Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak has the Ham Rangers. In order to see a show as it's announced, Hamtaro and Bijou have to go around Fun Land and talk to five brightly-colored hamsters. However, one major part focuses on the actor playing Ham-Red having stage fright, forcing Hamtaro and Bijou to find a replacement in a depressed ghost who wants her son back. After that one show, the mother and son ghosts reunite while the son is in awe about his mother being Ham-Red.
- In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, you are forced to help film a movie at Pokemonéstar studios by playing as a rather cliched costumed hero who must stop the evil Brycen-man from attacking an amusement park. There are later optional movies you can film featuring different plots that don't fit the typical Hero Stage Show set up, though.
- In Princess Maker 5 you can take your daughter to see hero stage shows at the amusement park. This will increase her otaku stat.
- The Touhou Project doujin Life of Maid features a "Big Headed Task Force Yukkuringer" hero show during the SDM crew's visit to Gensouland. Meiling knocks out the giant flower monster the Yukkurangers were set to battle (and promptly gets knifed for it by Sakuya). After the show, Flandre and Patchy head backstage to see the Marisa Yukkuranger (since Patchy has a big crush on Marisa), but both of them get scarred for life when the Yukkuranger in question turns out to be Cool Old Guy Youki Konpaku.
- Persona 5 Strikers: When the Phantom Thieves infiltrate the Osaka Jail in the Metaverse they are forced to leave because Akira Konoe's Shadow, who dresses like a Sentai hero, is about to put one on for the other Shadows he has brainwashed. Outside, they find the real Konoe is giving an interview about how he intends to bring the Thieves to justice for crimes he framed them for, casting himself in a heroic light.
- Mighty Magiswords: In "Action Comedy", a live performance by Broccoli Punch, a broccoli-themed Tokusatsu Superhero (for extra points, voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch), is interrupted by Flonk, who knocks out the actor playing Broccoli Punch, dons his costume, and starts beating up the other actors while making Puns. Prohyas and Vambre are called in to deal with him.
- Rugrats: Happens a lot with Reptar.
- In "Reptar on Ice", Tommy's dad decides to take the babies to see a Reptar on Ice show at the local County Coliseum, based on the character from the film series they love. Stu and Didi are nearly comatose from boredom while Grandpa Lou is captivated. In a subversion of the trope, the babies don't even care about watching the show — they just want to return the baby lizard they believes is Reptar's baby to him.
- In "Reptar's Revenge", Tommy's family takes the babies to their first carnival, where a man dressed up as Reptar is working the fair. His job has been threatened because he keeps eating the free samples of Reptar Cereal. When he is blamed for Angelica stealing the samples, he goes on a real rampage throughout the fair, acting just like the real Reptar.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: In "Slugfest", Plucky drags Hamton into not only attending a Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs live show but also wearing appropriate slug costumes — which becomes a problem when the Slugs' actual villain takes the place of the fake one, and on top of that Plucky and Hamton can't get out of their costumes...
- Voltron: Legendary Defender: In "The Voltron Show!", Coran starts organizing promotional appearances for the paladins across the galaxy. Under the influence of a Puppeteer Parasite, he leads a real monster to one of the shows for the paladins to fight.
