Shin Super Robot Sunday: Zone Fighter

Toho Studios wasn't done with 1973 after Godzilla vs. Megalon. The studio had successfully ventured into tokusatsu television programming in 1972 with Warrior of Love Rainbowman (a name that will come up again later), and 1973 saw a new live-action superhero series with direct ties to the Godzilla franchise: Zone Fighter. 

The show famously included Godzilla as a recurring guest character, but also Godzilla villains King Ghidorah and Gigan, and a number of episodes were directed by Toho feature film directors Ishirō Honda and Jun Fukuda. The show began broadcasting on Nippon Television on April 2, 1973, but despite its pedigree, only lasted 26 episodes before cancellation. 

Zone Fighter, or Ryūsei Ningen Zone (literally “Meteor Human Zone”), tells the story of the Zone family, fugitives from the destroyed planet of Peaceland who fled to Earth and disguised themselves as the Sakimori family. However, the aliens who destroyed their planet, the Garogans, have come to Earth, and the Sakimori children, take up the fight to save their adopted planet.

       

 

The primary hero is the eldest son Hikaru Sakimori, who can transform into the masked Zone Fighter by shouting “Zone Fight Power!” He can additionally transform into a gigantic 62 meter (204 ft.) tall form by shouting “Zone Double Fight!” His sister, Hotaru Sakimori, can transform into Zone Angel, and their kid brother Akira Sakimori, can turn into Zone Junior. Neither Angel or Junior could become gigantic. Their dad, Yochiro Sakimori, is an inventor who works for a toy research institute, providing the heroes with various gimmicks and weapons. 

 

Zone Fighter himself takes obvious design cues from Ultraman, but with a predominantly silver and blue color scheme with red trim. Abilities include flight, defensive and offensive energy projection, grappling, wrist-mounted missiles, and even teleportation. Like contemporary giant heroes, he has a time limit on his giant form before he runs out of energy. And like the Ultras, Zone Fighter is not a robot, but a dude who can get huge. 

 

The Garogas are skull-faced aliens who aren't huge either. Instead, they launch their dreaded terror-beasts from space to Earth in rocket pods, like a kaiju ODST. The terror beasts are usually giant monsters or cybernetic mixtures of monsters with various metal parts bolted onto them. 

One of the terror-beasts, Jikiro is a full robot. Appearing in the second episode, Jikiro is launched to Earth to attack a weakened Zone Fighter, and nearly succeeds in killing him. Jikiro is a 78 meter (256 ft) tall metal monster with a hunchbacked, reptilian head and magnetic powers. It also has an adorable parachute that deploys after he hits atmosphere, allowing him to land safely.

       

 

Being a monster-of-the-week, Jikiro was destroyed, but he was rebuilt later in the series as Super Jikiro, with more powerful armor and weapons before being destroyed once more. 

Zone Fighter is an interesting side story of the Showa-era Godzilla franchise. Cancelled amidst poor ratings and an oil crisis, it nevertheless exists as an official part of Godzilla continuity taking place after Godzilla Vs. Megalon. After fleeing Earth, Gigan was captured by the Garogas and used to attack Earth, and he was killed by Zone Fighter. There were a few manga that ran alongside the show, but after its run the show drifted into obscurity. 

       

Curiously, in 2015, the YouTube channel Daikaiju Legends began a fan project/sequel series to Zone Fighter (called Zone Fighter) which uses American actors for the human cast and stop-motion action figures to represent the monsters and heroes including Zone Fighter and a bunch of Ultraman characters. Its odd, and the acting leaves no question that its a fan-film, but the stop motion effects are an interesting workaround to not having suit actors and miniature city sets, and the production quality jumped several levels of sophistication in the intervening five years.

 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Senkosha Productions goes from a King to a Baron.

Sources

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

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%81%E6%98%9F%E4%BA%BA%E9%96%93%E3%82%BE%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Zone_Fighter

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Zone_Fighter_(series)

https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/Zone_Fighter_(Series)

https://www.tohokingdom.com/kaiju/tv/jikiro.html#jikiro

https://fan-made-kaiju.fandom.com/wiki/Zone_Fighter_(Daikaiju_Legends_series)

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Godzilla vs. Megalon

 

For this titanic twentieth entry in Shin Super Robot Sunday, its fitting that the King of the Monsters should get the spotlight. 

 

Toho Studios unleashed Godzilla upon the world in 1954 through director Ishirō Honda and special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya (both well-represented in this survey through The Mysterians, King Kong Escapes, and the Ultraman series). By 1973, Godzilla had already been the star of 12 feature-length movies, going from a metaphor for the shadow of nuclear annihilation to a grumpy wild-card monster that mostly wants to be left alone, to an unlikely superhero that defends the Earth from the likes of King Ghidorah, to a single dad trying to raise his son on Monster Island. It was a long, strange trip through the Shōwa era (named after the era of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito), and the 13th Godzilla movie would be a high point for the kid-friendly, lovable superhero version of the character: Godzilla vs Megalon. 

 

Released on March 17, 1973 and directed by Jun Fukuda (himself a veteran director of several Godzila movies such as Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Son of Godzilla, and Godzilla vs. Gigan) and the special effects direction of Teruyoshi Nakano (a former apprentice of Eiji Tsuburaya's who became the primary effects director for the later Shōwa Godzilla movies).

       

 

In 197X, underground nuclear testing near the Aleutian Islands causes significant seismic disturbances that cause havoc on Monster Island. Unbeknownst to the surface world, the tests have devastated the scientifically advanced underground kingdom of Seatopia, which sank below the surface thousands of years ago like the mythical continents of Mu and Lemuria. In Japan, inventor Goro Ibuki, his kid brother Rokuro Ibuki, and buddy Hiroshi Jinkawa get caught up in a plot by Seatopian spies who hijack Goro's recently completed robot, Jet Jaguar, to guide the underground monster Megalon on a path of destruction across the surface. 

 

A lot happens on in the first half of the movie, with fistfights, car chases, Hollow Earth-style civilizations, and the giant insectoid Megalon laying waste to Japan. Its all very pulpy in its sensibilities. After some close calls, Goro is able to regain control of Jet Jaguar and sends him to Monster Island to summon Godzilla to defend the Earth. Godzilla can't fly, though, and Jet Jaguar's AI overrides external control and he grows to giant size to confront Megalon to buy time for the King of the Monsters to swim to shore. In the meantime, the Seatopians sent a signal to the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens, who send Gigan to Earth as backup for Megalon. 

Godzilla really only features in the climactic fight scene of the movie: a two on two tag battle of Megalon and Gigan against Jet Jaguar and Godzilla. Gigan first appeared in 1972's Godzilla vs. Gigan, but Megalon and Jet Jaguar were new entrants to the series.

       

 

Megalon is a 55 meter (180 ft) tall giant beetle-like insectoid with a horn that shoots energy beams and two massive drill hands for digging through the Earth's crust. Viewed as a godlike protector by the Seatopians, Megalon isn't very smart, but he is durable, and a well-rounded battler. 

      

The real interesting story, though, centers around Jet Jaguar and his real-world origin. Initially the result of a contest held by Japanese department and grocery store chain Seiyu (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart) to design a kaiju for the next Toho Studios movie, the winning design was for a brightly colored robot monster called Red Alone which subsequently underwent significant redesigns by Teruyoshi Nakano into Jet Jaguar, with a deliberately garish/obnoxious appearance to set him apart from the many, many, many Ultraman-like giant heroes of the early 70s. The movie project was initially to be called Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon, but in the crowded tokusatsu hero market of the time period, production was halted to add Godzilla and Gigan to the movie for added star power. 

 

Jet Jaguar doesn't have many powers at his disposal compared to an Ultraman (in this movie, at least), but he does have flight, super strength, and incredible durability, as well as the ability to speak with giant monsters and can grow to a height of 50 meters (164 ft). 

 

The movie was successful, making about $20 million at the box office for a cost of $1.2 million, and it would see significant foreign releases, most notably in the US in 1976 where it became a mainstay of home video and matinee TV showings. It earned a divisive position in the Godzilla fanbase for its frequent goofiness, which is also a large part of its cult classic status. In 1991, the movie was featured as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (the first of two Godzilla movies featured on the show, the other being Godzilla vs The Sea Monster AKA Ebirah, Horror of the Deep), and added to the movie's goofy reputation. In the modern era, the movie has a Criterion Collection release (alongside all of the Shōwa era Godzilla entries), which solidifies the Godzilla vs. Megalon as not just a movie, but as a film.

       

Haters gonna hate. 

 

Jet Jaguar and Megalon have not made any subsequent movie appearances, but have appeared frequently in multiple Japanese manga, American comics, and video games.

        

 

Mexican heavy metal band Jet Jaguar (founded in 2014 in Cancún) released their first full length album, Endless Nights, in July of 2020. Mixing 80's aesthetics, power metal, and a dash of synthwave, the name can't be a coincidence considering Godzilla vs. Megalon's significant international distribution in the 80's and 90's. After all, what's more metal than a giant robot? 

 

      

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Toho explores a newer zone: the small screen.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_vs._Megalon

https://infogalactic.com/info/Godzilla_vs._Megalon

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Godzilla_vs._Megalon

https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/Godzilla_vs._Megalon

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Teruyoshi_Nakano

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Jun_Fukuda

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Jet_Jaguar

https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/Jet_Jaguar

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

https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/Jet_Jaguar_vs._Megalon

https://mst3k.fandom.com/wiki/MST3K_212_-_Godzilla_vs._Megalon

https://www.criterion.com/films/29349-godzilla-vs-megalon

"Let them fight."

Now, I'm no Godzilla expert, but I do appreciate giant monsters wrecking cities, so obviously I had to see the new Godzilla movie opening weekend. I tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but in trying to look at it meaningfully, I probably drew close. The short version is this: The 2014 Godzilla is TOTALLY a Godzilla movie, and if you're into a giant monster rampage, it is well worth your time. 

So there you go. You've been warned of any potential spoilers.

Story

Something terrible happened in 1999. No, not Roland Emmerich's Godzilla, that was 1998. Here some...thing attacks a nuclear power plant in a Japanese city following strange, focused earthquakes, forcing its evacuation. Fifteen years later, a disgraced former engineer at that plant-turned conspiracy nut and his estranged Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician of a son discover that it was a giant atomic monster that destroyed the plant, just in time for it to come out of dormancy and feeding off of radioactive materials...

Characters

Joe Brody: Bryan Cranston (the dad from Malcolm in the Middle and some apparently critically acclaimed crime show). He was pretty high-up at the Janjira power plant and tried his best to contain the disaster. It didn't end well, and he lost his wife Sandra (Juliet Binoche) in the process. Now he's almost a crackpot obsessed with the mystery of whatever it was that destroyed the power plant. Except instead of those Chemtrails guys, he's actually right. His scenery chewing/screentime ratio could have been higher.

Ford Brody: Aaron Taylor-Johnson from Kick-Ass is our standard hero type of guy. Forthright and honest, he mostly just wants to go home and spend time with his wife and son. But his dad's antics in Japan drag him into this mess, and his Navy bomb disposal skills come in handy a few times, but not nearly as handy as his exceptional luck at surviving Kaiju attacks. Seriously, put this man in a Jaeger. This also means he has the horrible luck of being present for Kaiju attacks. Not a lot to the character, unfortunately, but he does some, er, kickass things.

Elle Brody: Elizabeth Olsen is Ford's wife back in San Francisco. She works in a hospital. She cares for her son. She misses her husband. She doesn't like when monsters attack her city. That's...about it. (Amusingly/unsettlingly, Olson is set to play the Scarlet Witch in Avengers 2 and Johnson is going to be Quicksilver. So they're brother and sister in that film, and married here.)

Dr. Ichiro Serizawa: Ken Watanabe (Hollywood's go-to “Japanese Man with Gravitas”) plays a scientist working with the high-clearance/low profile organization Monarch. He studies Kaiju events and tries to work out ways to prevent and/or stop them. His main strategy is “Let Godzilla deal with it.” He is a wise man.

The MUTOs: Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms. Except the smaller male of the species has wings and can fly. The, uh, military gave it that name before they knew it could fly (hooray for sexual dimorphism in monsters!). Anyway, the female is much larger and land-bound, but both can emit powerful EMP blasts, and they literally eat atomic bombs for breakfast. Giant prehistoric parasites, they are a big, big problem.

Godzilla: Sadly, not a man in a rubber costume, but still incredibly well-realized. He's freaking huge in this movie (well over 300 feet tall) and is described as a primordial alpha predator. Discovered/awakened in 1954, most (if not all) Pacific atomic “tests” during the Cold War were aimed at trying to kill or stop him. Obviously they didn't work or we wouldn't have a movie. Oh, and if you're wondering, he definitely has his Atomic Breath.

Visuals

Directed by Gareth Edwards and with effects work involving John Dykstra, the movie is visually very impressive. Most impressive is the Kaiju slobberknocker in San Francisco, but even before that there's plenty of rampaging and destruction. The monster designs are great. Godzilla's update is beefy and monstrous, while still maintaining all of his signature elements. The MUTOs are wonderfully bizarre insectoid creatures.

Interestingly, the movie has a gigantic Spielberg vibe going on, and not just because of the many, many shots of people staring up in wonder at something off-screen. Jaws comes to mind. Much of Godzilla's presence in the film is implied and teased before we see the full deal, and it works well (now true, the original movie did that too). The hero's last name is Brody for crying out loud. Nor is it a boating accident. There's also a great deal of Jurassic Park thrown in, and even one bit near the end that calls to Saving Private Ryan. A curious thing, and maybe I'm imagining it, but if you're going to throw stylistic nods to another director, you can do far worse than Steven Spielberg.

Writing

Story by Dave Callaham and Screenplay by Max Borenstein. The dialogue and human characters aren't amazing, nor is the plot particularly deep, and yet it still works very well because it “gets” Godzilla, who in turn becomes the most fleshed out and complex character (largely through inference). At first, he's thought of nothing more than a predator, a gigantic force of nature, a walking god that can destroy us with a mere step. Then, he's an ally by default, hunting something that hunts us. The enemy of our enemy. Then...Well. I don't want to spoil anything, but the Godzilla movies have a deserved reputation for going in some pretty crazy directions over the years, with all sorts of weird monster relationships. This movie doesn't go into those sorts of things, but as it progresses, more and more hints of that heritage seep into the story. At the end of the day, Godzilla is a good guy, after all (of sorts).

Sound

The music by Alexandre Desplat isn't very noticeable. Only a few major scenes have it swelling to powerful heights. Mostly it goes unnoticed in the background, adding to feelings of unease and dread. Which works perfectly fine. There are quite a few moments of earth-shaking WHHHHHHHHMMMMMM that show we still haven't gotten past Inception, but its not that bad. The signature Godzilla roar is present and reworked a bit to sound meatier and more animalistic.

Conclusion

This year's Godzilla had to prove that the West could make a good Godzilla movie. Legendary pictures succeeded by playing it with a straight face. Yet in doing so, it allows the absurd elements of the series (a bipedal, somewhat clumsy dinosaur thing with atomic breath) to stand proud. Hell, there is a scene where the United States Navy is literally running escort for Godzilla as he swims towards the mainland, and the overhead shot of Godzilla's back surrounded by a fleet of much smaller, friendly warships is probably my favorite shot in the whole movie. If the 90's version was a deconstruction (let's try to take Godzilla seriously and completely redesign him so its not a dude in a silly suit), this version is a reconstruction, which says let's make Godzilla look and act like Godzilla, and have the world react to it and go from there. As someone who opposes rampant deconstructionist narratives, I can give it no higher praise than calling it a legitimate Godzilla movie.

That trailer lies. The Statue of Liberty is nowhere near the Pacific Ocean.

 

Huh. The Asian trailer is way better.

“It's too bad Mothra has no alarm clock.”

1966. Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster AKA Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto. Godzilla fights a giant prawn on an island owned by spy movie villains.

Story
So, we open with a ship getting sunk by…something. Next, the brother of one of the missing sailors wants to go search for him. He and his generic, interchangeable buddies sneak onboard a fancy yacht and run into a shady fellow who doesn’t admit to being, but pretty clearly is, a famous jewel thief. They wake up the next morning out at sea since the brother decided to take the boat looking for his missing brother and they reach an island ruled by the terrorist group Red Bamboo. The island also has a giant prawn named Ebirah that sinks ships when they come close. Our heroes get stuck on the island but hook up with a slave resistance movement. And for some reason Godzilla is asleep on the island. The big guy wakes up eventually and fights the sea monster, the island, which is volcanic, becomes unstable and the giant moth Mothra shows up because the good guys need some kind of way to leave the island.

Visuals/Effects
Directed by Jun Fukuda. There’s not really much to recommend this movie. Godzilla vs. Megalon has better production values. Ebirah isn’t exactly A-Class when it comes to Godzilla foes because, let’s face it, there’s little intimidation to be had from a giant, delicious-looking prawn. And then we get Mothra, one of the other Major kaiju, but she just kind of feels tacked on as a deus ex machina to get the humans to safety. The monster fights are also fairly dull, with Godzilla and Ebirah tossing a rock back and forth at one point.  I’ve read that originally this was supposed to be a King Kong movie, so a shift in the production of the film probably didn’t help either.

Writing
Written by Shinichi Sekizawa and there’s quite a few dashes of James Bond in this movie. Secret island stronghold run by a terrorist organization? I’d say it qualifies. Easily the most interesting character is the jewel thief, because he’s a competent crook who gets thrust into a position of leadership and ends up rising to the challenge. It’s rather neat and he is essentially the only character to get some actual characterization. The rest of the movie though…rather forgettable and rather random. Mothra’s presence? Random. Godzilla’s presence on the island? Also random. Godzilla fighting a giant condor? Very random. Godzilla kind of taking a fondness to one of the main females? Random and creepy.

Sound
Original music by Masaru Satô (who worked with Akira Kurosawa on, lets be honest, much better films than this). The music channels the James Bond vibe, which is actually kind of cool hearing a groovy spy-sound in a Godzilla movie.

Conclusion
The few interesting moments in Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto don’t really overcome the general blandness of the film. I had to watch it twice to really figure out the plot, and even then a lot of stuff doesn’t make sense (Mothra is on the island Because, for instance). Certainly a lesser Godzilla film.



*Note* Classical music not actually in the picture.

“It's a pity we can't send Jet Jaguar to go and get Godzilla!”

Ah Godzilla. Haven’t really discussed any of his films here yet, which is a shame, since I’m a fan of giant monster movies. 1973 Gojira tai Megaro (Godzilla vs. Megalon), is considered one of the lesser Gojira films, though.

Story
So, we’re obviously in Japan and the boring human characters we have to follow are an annoying kid, his inventor older brother and another guy who… I don’t really know what he does. Anyway, the inventor has created a robot, Jet Jaguar (he has nothing to do with jaguars), that can fly and do other robot stuff. Unfortunately, the subterranean civilization of Seatopia is pretty angry about nuclear experimentation below the surface of the earth, and they decide they’ve had enough of our nonsense, so they send a giant beetle monster named Megalon up to teach us a lesson by destroying model tanks and buildings. Jet Jaguar is useful to the Seatopians because if controlled, he can help guide Megalon. Naturally, Jet Jaguar breaks free of that control and gets a message to Godzilla on Monster Island. And then suddenly he becomes sentient, taking control of his own programming, decides he has to take things into his own hands, and then grows to kaiju size because he subscribes to the Megatron school of Physics (where the laws of conservation of mass are optional), and he fights Megalon. It goes well too, until another Godzilla foe, Gigan, shows up and he & Megalon double team our hero. Can Jet Jaguar hold out long enough for Godzilla to show up and even the odds?

So its really a Jet Jaguar movie and Godzilla only shows up near the end.

Visuals/Effects
Directed by Jun Fukuda, it provides about what you’d expect from a Godzilla movie, though production values seem a little lower than some others. Regardless, we do get four monsters in a tag team match by the end of the movie, so you can’t say they didn’t deliver on the kaiju. The designs themselves are also fairly interesting. Megalon and his drill hands and Gigan with his hook hands and buzz saw belly are both really damn weird, but that’s why they’re likable. Godzilla doesn’t get much screen time at all, but when he shows up he wrecks some faces and does a really goofy tailslide kick that is so insane that they show it to the audience twice to prove to you that it just happened. And as for Jet Jaguar, I dunno. I just really like the guy, with his Ultraman-like body and giant hammy grin. That grin really adds a lot.

Writing
Written by Jun Fukuda, and story credits to Takeshi Kimura (for "Gojira tai Uchu Kaiju") and Shinichi Sekizawa. The plot is ridiculous, but then again, who watches a kaiju film for the plot? The human stuff is boring, the military tries to stop the giant monster of the week, fails and then Godzilla shows up (in this case with an ally). Its not complicated, just thoroughly formulaic.
Sound
The score by Riichiro Manabe is totally suitable for the movie. The sound effects work is fine, but I just wish Jet Jaguar had more than just futuristic clanks for when he talks to the monsters. I know R2-D2 was still four years in the future, but something that sounded like robot speech would’ve been preferable.

Conclusion
I know its considered one of the lesser Godzilla movies, but I have an incredible level of fondness for Gojira tai Megaro that I don’t really have an excuse for. No, Godzilla’s not really in it all that much, but Jet Jaguar is a perfect blend of goofy and badass and the two vs. two battle at the climax is really damn entertaining.

I make no excuses for myself.



And then there's this:

How can you hate that??