Shin Super Robot Sunday: Fireman

In 1973, Tsuburaya Productions released several shows as part of the company's 10th anniversary. The first one to see release was Fireman (or Magma Man in some markets), which began airing on Nippon Television on January 7, 1973, running until July for 30 episodes.

         

 

In Fireman, a string of natural disasters strikes the Earth, and giant mutant dinosaur appear and wreak havoc. Standing against them is the Scientific Attack Force (SAF) and their young archaeologist recruit Daisuke Misaki. Misaki is actually a member of an underground race of humans from the lost continent of Aban, which sank below the surface 12,000 years ago. Scientifically advanced, Misaki can use an object called the fire-stick to transform into the 50 meter (164 ft) tall Fireman to battle against threats to the Earth, both native and alien. 

 

Fireman himself is something of an inversion of the Ultraman formula. Red with silver highlights, he fights with similar flight and grappling abilities. Naturally, his energy attacks are all fire themed, and instead of a color timer limiting his giant form, his people have lived underground for so long that he can only sustain his giant form for three minutes at a time before sunlight will kill him. 

 

What's interesting is that the actor for Daisuke Misaki, Naoya Makoto, would later play a more famous red suited tokusatsu hero in 1975: Tsuyoshi Kaijo AKA Akarenger in Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, and the very first Red Ranger in the storied history of Super Sentai. 

More important than that (for our purposes here at least), is episode 10 of Fireman: The Iron Monster that Attacked Tokyo. In the episode, an alien from the Baranda race attacks (naturally) Tokyo with the Baranda V robot. Baranda V is a 51 meter (167 ft) tall piloted robot. In addition to general stompiness, the robot features an array of weapons from powerful chest guns, finger lasers, electromagnetic levitation, a force field, and most interestingly in a post-Mazinger Z environment, a rocket punch attack. 

         

 

The biggest show from Tsuburaya's big anniversary year would be Ultraman Taro (which has a lack of giant robots), but Fireman had a respectable run and would eventually see a spiritual successor of sorts several decades later. As for the third Tsuburaya Productions show from 1973, that's the topic for the next Shin Super Robot Sunday. 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Aces and Nines.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireman_(TV_series)

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A4%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Fireman_(character)

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Daisuke_Misaki

https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Tsuyoshi_Kaijo#1975

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Baranda_V

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Babel II

Mitsuteru Yokoyama wasn't done with the giant robot genre after Tetsujin 28-go and Giant Robo. In July of 1971, Babel II began publishing within the pages of Weekly Shōnen Champion, another shōnen adventure manga, that ran until May of 1973. On January 1st of 1973, an anime adaptation directed by Kozo Morishita and produced by Toei Animation began airing on NET. 

 

       

5,000 years ago, an alien named Babel crash landed on Earth. Equipped with advanced technology and psychic powers, he constructed a gigantic tower to send a distress signal to his home planet. Unfortunately for him, it was destroyed just before completion. Forced to give up, Babel settled down and married an Earthling girl and used what remained of the Tower to create three protectors who would aid his descendants.

In contemporary times, Koichi Yamano is an ordinary Japanese student who is plagued by strange dreams that are affected by signals from the Tower of Babel. Koichi is one of the strongest descendents of Babel, developing a multitude of psychic and physical powers ranging from ESP to regeneration to super strength, and more. The Tower recognizes Koichi as being the second coming of Babel due to his power (a Babel Junior or Babel II, if you will), and dispatches the three guardians to aid him, because another, evil, descendent of Babel, Yomi. Yomi was summoned to the tower previously, but the computer judged him unworthy, and he tries to take over the world by infiltrating governments with robotic humans to exert his influence. He's also got an army of larger robots for general destruction.

 

Koichi's three guardians are: Rodem/Lodem, an agile, shapeshifting creature that is the smartest of the three and most commonly takes the form of a black panther; Ropross/Lopross, a giant robotic pterodactyl that can fire beams and rockets; and Poseidon, a giant silver humanoid robot that is primarily built for aquatic combat but can stomp around on land too. Poseidon carries a lot of visual similarity to Giant Robo, with a regal face and finger missiles, and a rounder barrel-shaped body reminiscent of Tetsujin 28. 

 

The show ran for a successful 39 episodes. Yokoyama wrote a sequel in 1977 called His Name Is 101, in which Koichi is imprisoned in a secret CIA facility where his blood is used to infuse agents with psychic abilities (which is not the most far-fetched thing the CIA has done). Registered as Subject 101, Koichi escapes and has to fight various evil “Espers” (psychics) on his own, since his three companions are locked up in a vault by the CIA. This sequel was noted as a darker story, and didn't receive an animated adaptation. 

        

 

While not a huge impact on the Mecha genre like Yokoyama's previous works, Babel II was still significantly influential. Hirohiki Araki of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fame homaged Koichi's school uniform with Jōtarō Kūjō's outfit in the Stardust Crusaders (AKA "the one everybody knows about") story arc. Rugal Bernstein from the King of Fighters fighting game series, is accompanied by a black panther named Rodem in another direct homage. The only Western release of the show seems to have been Babil Junior, an Italian dub which The show received a Blu Ray video release in Japan in 2015.

       

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Tsuburaya Productions brings the heat. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_II

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%83%93%E3%83%AB2%E4%B8%96

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2015/09/18-1/babel-ii-tv-anime-receives-japanese-bluray-boxed-set