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

  

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Mazinger Z

Throughout the course of this survey, giant robots have appeared in two forms: an enemy to be defeated by the hero, and a powerful external sidekick to the hero. 

Mazinger Z would add an entirely new dynamic to the Mecha genre. 

Go Nagai, the pen name of Kiyoshi Nagai, began working as a manga artist in the 1960s. In 1968, he was invited to be a contributor to the very first issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (intended as a competitor to the already successful Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazines aimed at teenage boys). His contribution was Harenchi Gakuen (Shameless School) a high school sex comedy series that inadvertently created the ecchi genre of manga. Controversial at the time, it proved to be a big success for Nagai, because if there's anything teenage boys like, its sex jokes and boobs. Despite outraged PTO groups, the series would eventually spawn multiple live action and animated adaptations, and the success of the comic allowed Nagai to start up Dynamic Productions in 1969 to manage his business relations and contracts, and it evolved into a kind of studio, with Ken Ishikawa joining the same year as an assistant and becoming a major manga artist in his own right (more on him in a later entry).

     

In June of 1972, Nagai's Devilman manga began, and in July an anime based on it began airing. A horror-action series that would become one of his flagship franchises, the anime was significantly toned down for television. The same year, on October second, Mazinger Z debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump and a subsequent anime series from Toei Animation would begin airing on December third. 

 

A fan of Astro Boy and Tetsujin 28-go, Nagai added a significant twist to Mecha. The hero, a teenage boy instead of an adolescent or young adult, would pilot the robot from inside as a kind of alter ego. Giant heroes fighting monsters were not new. Giant robots with pilots were not new. Teenage heroes were not new. Combining all three of those element together was new. The pilot was now the superhero, and the giant robot was his costume. The Super Robot had arrived.

     

The hero in question is one Kouji Kabuto, a motorcyle riding average teenager with a kid brother Shiro, living with his grandfather Juzo Kabuto. Juzo is a scientist, and has been secretly building a giant robot, Mazinger Z, to combat the coming threat of Dr. Hell, a former colleague who went mad after discovering the ancient ruins of the Mycenae Empire and their mechanical beasts. 

Dr. Hell makes a power play to assassinate Dr. Kabuto, and succeeds, but not before Juzo gives Kouji control of the 18 meter (59 ft) tall robot, telling him he can have the power of a god or a devil with the robot. Without any training, Kouji's first attempts to pilot the robot are disastrous, until he teams up with Professor Gennosuke Yumi, the leader of the Photon Power Laboratory and former colleague of Juzo, and Yumi's tempestous daughter, Sayaka.

     

Sayaka has her own robot, first the Aphrodite A and later the Diana A, and Kouji is later joined by high school rival/biker/braggart/comic relief Boss, who gets his own robot later, the comical Boss Borot. 

Kouji fights his way through Dr. Hell's army of mechanical beasts and the mad scientist's lieutenants like Baron Ashura (a man and a woman merged together through bizarre superscience into a literal half-man half-woman), Count Brocken (a Nazi officer with a monocle whose body carries around his disembodied head), and the anime exclusive Viscount Pygman (a muscular tribal warrior with the upper torso of a pygmy where the head would normally be). 

Dr. Hell's into some weird stuff.

     

The manga and anime would bake a number of story tropes directly into the genre. Kouji is a hot-blooded hero with more courage than sense, which gets him into, and subsequently, out of danger. Sayaka is equally hot-blooded and she and Kouji bicker constantly, mixing arguments where they slap each other with moments of genuine care for each other. Kouji calls out most of his attacks, with his most signature move, the rocket punch (itself drawn from Giant Robo) becoming a signature element in mecha stories moving forward. Mazinger Z gets an upgrade partway through the series (the Jet Scrander, which allows him to fly). Sayaka gets an entire new robot after the Aphrodite A is trashed too many times. Not to mention things like a super metal alloy that allows the robot to survive punishing combat, and the oppai missiles, which are literal boob missiles. 

Mazinger Z was a smash success. The manga would run in both Weekly Shōnen Jump and Boken Oh (another shōnen magazine) until 1947.The anime itself would air for a staggering 92 episodes, concluding in September of 1974. Mazinger Z toys brought a new level of merchandising synergy to an animated franchise, The anime industry, which was in a general decline at the time, would rev up in response to the success of Mazinger, and the Super Robot boom of the 70s would follow.

     

Mazinger Z would see significant overseas success, as well. The show was exceptionally popular in Spanish speaking regions, from Spain to Mexico. So popular, that in the 1980s, a 40ft tall statue was built in Tarragona, Spain at the entrance of a planned suburban development. The suburb never materialized, but the statue still stands. 

     

In the US, a cut down version would be aired in Hawaii with an English dub for about 30 episodes. Notably, it had an English version of the theme song sung by the original singer, Isao Sasaki.

     


The anime would see a second release in 1985 as the heavily edited Tranzor Z, by Three B. Productions Ltd. Only 65 of the 92 episodes were aired, and everyone's names were Americanized, which was typical for the era. Hence, Kouji Kabuto became Tommy Davis, and so on. 

Releases of the actual show have been hard to come by over the years, with an infamously bad Hong Kong subtitle lovingly referred to as the "Crabstick Sub" as one of the few ways to watch the show in the past. In 2013, Discotek Media announced a Western DVD release for the series (along with other Go Nagai-created series like Devilman and Cutie Honey).

     

As the functional equivalent of Superman for the Super Robot genre, Mazinger Z has become a staple of the Super Robot Wars series of crossover strategy games from Banpresto. Super Robot Wars deserves its own entry because of how complicated it can get, but in brief, its a long-running series of tactical strategy games (in the vein of Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics) that features multiple Mecha series and their plotlines colliding in a crossover storyline. Mazinger, in one form or another, has appeared in every installment of Super Robot Wars, not counting the Original Generations series (again, its complicated).

     

Its not an exaggeration to say that Mazinger Z was a sea change for Mecha as a genre. Its success led to an immediate shift in giant robot storytelling and most subsequent Mecha series were an imiation or reaction to the kind of stories Mazinger Z was telling. This includes the birth of the Real Robot genre at the end of the 1970s. 

Go Nagai hit a goldmine with a combination of pure heroism, cool robots, freaky monsters, and beautiful women.

     

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Mitsuteru Yokoyama returns. Again.

Sources:

https://infogalactic.com/info/Mazinger_Z

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

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%82%B8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BCZ

https://mazinger.fandom.com/wiki/Mazinger_Z_(TV_Mecha)

https://infogalactic.com/info/Go_Nagai

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mazinger-z

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Iron King

Last time I hinted that the next entry would be a Go Nagai story, which turned out to be wrong. I was looking at an outdated chart and for that, I apologize. There's one more tokusatsu show to cover before that. 

Iron King was produced by Nippon Gendai and Senkosha, and aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) starting on October 8, 1972 and running for 26 episodes. A spiritual follow-up to the previous Silver Kamen show, both shows had former Tsuburaya Productions employees working on them. Iron King's design in particular resembles a bunch of Ultraman designs, particularly Ultra Seven.

     

The plot revolves around secret agent Gentaro Shizuka of the National Security Organization, who dresses like a singing cowboy (this makes some sense because pop singer Shoji Ishibashi played him) and his sidekick Goro Kirishima (who's dressed like a mountain climber) investigating terrorist threats. These threats take the form of the Shiranui Clan, descendants of a race of nomads that were exiled 2000 years ago by the Yamato Clan, the ancestors of the modern Japanese people. The Shiranui Clan are back and they want REVENGE. To that end, they deploy armored ninjas who can summon and control giant robots to overthrow the government. 

Naturally, to stop a giant villain you need a giant hero; in this case the titular Iron King, a 45 meter (148 ft) tall red and silver cyborg who can can brawl and produce energy blasts and beams. Surprisingly, its not the heroic Gentaro who transforms, but rather the goofy Goro, who activates the transformation by touching the medals on his hat and shouting “Iron Shock!” 

The Iron King form is powered by water, and Goro can only maintain that form for about a minute before becoming dehydrated. Human form Goro is incredibly thirsty as a result. Gentaro isn't helpless against the giant enemies, and wields the Iron Belt, which can turn into a sword or a whip, and is capable of damaging giant enemies. 

 

After the Shiranui Clan are defeated, a new threat arises in the Phantom Militia, who use dinosaur-themed giant robots, and subsequently the alien Titanians, who can assume giant insect forms. 

      

The most obviously robotic enemies were the Shiranui Clan's, with names like Vacumira (who has a powerful vacuum hand), Jairoges (who has a cutting hand), Silver Rider (who's got wheels instead of legs), and Double Satan (who can make duplicates of itself). 

Yes. DOUBLE SATAN. 

While the show was one of many, many tokusatsu series from the 1970s, it managed to see two video releases in the west. First in 2007, from BCI Eclipse, and a 2010 release from Mill Creek Entertainment.

 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Crabsticks.

Sources

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

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

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AD%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Astroganger

The first full-color animated giant robot anime debuted on October 4, 1972: Astroganger, from an up and coming studio founded by former employees of Toei Animation and Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production called Knack Productions.

  

Astrongager is notable for not being based on an existing manga (unlike Testujin 28-go), and follows the adventures of Kantaro Hoshi, a young boy who comes into possession of the eponymous giant sentient robot made of “living metal”: Astroganger (or Ganga for short). It turns out his deceased mother, Maya, was an alien scientist who fled her planet's destruction by the evil alien race known as the Blasters. She and her husband, Dr. Hoshi, built the robot to protect against the Blasters should they ever make Earth their next target. 

Naturally, the Blasters make Earth their target, and Kantaro learns the secret of his heritage and teams up with the robot to defend his planet.

  

Astroganger himself is a 40 meter (131 ft) tall blue and red robot with a flesh-colored, expressive face. With no onboard weapons, he fights spaceships and enemy robots in hand-to-hand combat and can fly (similar to Tetsujin 28). Unlike Tetsujin, Ganga can talk, think, and feel pain. When the robot is summoned, Kantaro merges with the badge/gem on Ganga's chest, enhancing the robot with human reflexes and intelligence. 

The show would see international releases in Korea, Italy (as Astroganga), Spain (as Astro Gungar), and in the Middle East (as Jongar), where it seems have been quite popular.

(This is a fan tribute remake of the show's opening) 

The show ran for a modest 26 episodes, but was immediately overshadowed by the show we'll look at next time, and largely became forgotten, aside from a few curiosities.

In 2017, an animated .gif of Ganga running toward an enemy turned into meme. Also in 2017, a deluxe (read: expensive) Soul of Chogokin style figure was released in Medicom's Carbotix line.

Weird memes and expensive collectibles aside, the most surprising Astroganger news is the most recent. On April 10 of 2020 (nine days before this post was written in an amazing bit of coincidental timing), Discotek Media announced that Astroganger would see a release of the entire series on a Standard Definition Blu Ray with English subtitles on June 30, 2020. 

Knack Productions would go on to a long history in anime, working with many major figures in the industry, including other super robot shows. However the studio earned a reputation for lower quality work, especially with Chargeman Ken!, a non-super robot show about alien invasions being fended off by a child hero with notoriously low budget animation.

  

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: The Golden Age of Super Robots begins with a man named Go.

Sources

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

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%AD%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC

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

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/running-ganger-%E6%AD%A2%E3%81%BE%E3%82%89%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84

https://www.facebook.com/Discotekmedia/posts/3352060024823068

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Ultraman Ace

1972 would prove to be a watershed year for Mecha as a genre, as the Giant Hero tokusatsu subgenre exploded with competitors to Tsuburaya Productions while Toei Animation would usher in a sea change for the genre at the end of the year. 

But first, on April 7, the next installment in Tsuburaya's Ultraman franchise would launch: Ultraman Ace.


 

Once again, giant monsters threaten the Earth, however this time, they are being orchestrated by an extradimensional entity known as Yapool. Blurring the line between collective and individual, Yapool is a cunning and intelligent shapeshifter, with more than a little demonic aspects to the character. 

Yapool, conquerer of dimensions

In an initial attack, two civilians, Seiji Hokuto and Yuko Minami, are killed while saving a bunch of orphans, and are given a new lease on life by the newly arrived Ultraman Ace. Ace merges with both of them and grants them a pair of Ultra Rings, which can summon the hero in times of need. Together, the two humans join the Terrible-monster Attacking Crew (TAC) to defend the Earth from terrible monster attacks. 

The show marked a number of changes to the series, most obviously a pair of humans being able to form an Ultraman, including the first female human host of an Ultra. She would be written out of the show later, leaving Seiji to be sole host, but a deuteroprotagonist was a bold move. Yapool would be the first of many overarching series villains for the franchise, and would himself/itself return in future installments. Also notable is the appearance of the other Ultras. Whereas previously, one or two would show up occasionally as guest characters for an episode here or there, the previous four Ultras; Ultraman, Ultraseven, Jack, and Zoffy (who appeared in the last episode of the original Ultraman and hadn't had his own show), made much more frequent appearances as supporting characters. 

It also introduced the Father of Ultra, who outranks all of the previous Ultras, has a pair of sweet horns and sideburns, and is also a giant Santa Claus.


 


As for robots, one of the franchise's most iconic moments comes during episodes 13 and 14. Yapool uses a fake Ultra Sign to lure the Ultra Brothers to a desolate planet called Golgotha in an anti-universe while a monster is sent to Earth. Ace is sent back to Earth to deal with the threat, but the other four Ultras are captured and crucified by Yapool. Yapool then deploys a red and gold robot called “Ace Killer.” 

Ace Killer was built specifically to kill Ultras, and drains the powers from the captured Ultra Brothers, destroys a robotic replica of Ace, and is ultimately destroyed by the real Ace, who has been powered up by the remaining energy of his captured brothers.

 

Ultraman has always reflected strong Christian themes thanks to series creator Eji Tsubaraya being a devout Catholic, and the crucifiction of the Ultra Brothers goes all-in on the Christian imagery and symbolism, and would remain deeply baked into the franchise. Ultraman Ace would be the last Ultra series overseen by Eiji's son Hajime Tsuburaya, who would die of a cerebral hemorrhage in February of 1973. The company would continue onward, with Ultraman firmly entrenched as its flagship series. 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: The first full-color super robot anime.

Sources

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

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Ultraman_Ace_(series)

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Ultraman_Ace_(character)#1-piece%20Type

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

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Mirrorman

By 1971, tokusatsu was firmly entrenched as a genre. The consistent success of Ultraman led to competitors and imitators. Shotaro Ishinomori's Kamen Rider, which debuted in April of 1971, was about a masked, motorcycle riding crusader of justice with a grasshopper themed costume, and would spawn its own massive franchise as a result. However, Kamen Rider is regular sized, and it will be a while before one of those series gets the spotlight on Shin Super Robot Sunday. 

In December of 1971, Tsuburaya Productions would debut a spinoff of Ultraman, which was based off a manga from 1969. More serious in tone than (most) of the Ultra series, Mirrorman, told the story of Kyôtarô Kagami, a photojournalist who learns he's the half-human son of a fallen hero from the 2nd Dimension: Mirrorman. Set in the 1980s, this new Mirrorman must grapple with his destiny as Earth's only hope against a hostile alien race known as The Invaders.

     

Mirrorman takes place in its own self-contained universe, and wasn't part of the Ultra franchise per se. Armed with powers similar to Ultraman's, but with the ability to reflect attacks, travel through mirrors, and other light and mirror themed abilities. He doesn't fly, but he can run at the speed of light. Fighting alongside the Science Guard, the first half of the series focuses more on investigations and serious storytelling. 

Much like Mighty Jack, the ratings began slipping, partly due to a boom in other superhero shows like Silver Mask, which was a direct competitor for viewers. The course of the show was changed to a more traditional tokusatsu show with fewer recurring monsters, stronger themes of good vs. evil, and Mirrorman himself got an equivalent of an Ultraman's color timer; meaning he had an operational time of three minutes before a bomb implanted in his superhero body would explode. 

Alongside an array of giant monsters that challenged Mirrorman, there was also the robot kaiju, Noah. A female robot disguised as a human to infiltrate and brainwash a marching band into being agents of the Invaders. Naturally, she can transform into a giant robotic beast form standing 45 meters (146 ft) tall that can shoot missiles and energy beams.

     

Mirrorman would run for a very respectable total of 51 episodes, but it didn't catch on like Ultraman, and the character wouldn't be revisited until 2005, with a three episode direct-to-video miniseries called Mirrorman REFLEX (which was later edited into a movie). This series had a brand new Mirrorman with a design closer to the manga's and a darker tone similar to the first half of the show's. The series taps into Japanese mythology, so no giant robots, but it was worth mentioning because he looks damn cool. 

Mirrorman would get revisited yet again, but we'll get to that when we get to that. 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Tsuburaya plays an Ace. 

Sources:

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

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

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3

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

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Mirrorman_REFLEX_(film)

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Return of Ultraman

Eiji Tsuburaya may have passed away in 1970, but the production company he founded continued on under the leadership of his son, Hajime Tsuburaya. Ultra Seven was intended to be the last of the Ultra series, but the young franchise's popularity ensured that it would be revisited, and on April 2, 1971, that took the form of Return of Ultraman (Kaettekita Urutoraman).

Originally planned to focus around the return of the original 1966 Ultraman, it was decided early in the production for the main character to be a New Ultraman, just one with a very similarly designed costume. He would eventually get the official name “Ultraman Jack” in 1984 for licensing and merchandising reasons. He's not referred to as Jack in the series itself, but that's what I'll be using for simplicity's sake. 

It begins simply enough: giant monsters emerge and start fighting each other, and young race car driver Hideki Goh sacrifices his life saving a kid and a dog from falling wreckage. Touched by his heroics, Ultraman Jack bonds with the dead man, reviving him in a manner similar to the first Ultraman. Together, they join the Monster Attack Team (MAT) dedicated to protecting the Earth from increasing kaiju attacks. 

Able to transform into Jack by sheer force of will instead of a talismanic device like the previous Ultras. Armed with a similarly large set of powers and abilities, this new Ultraman would also be the first one to interact with Ultras from the previous series, officially unifying the franchise. Ultraseven would even give Jack his signature piece of equipment, the Ultra Bracelet, which could produce a variety of specialized weapons such as shields, spears, whips, bombs, boomerangs, and a cross (remember that Eiji Tsuburaya was a devout Catholic).

        

While not as robot heavy as Ultra Seven, this show did add one new giant robot to the franchise: Builgamo. 

A 55 meter (180 ft) combining, piloted robot, it was used by Alien Baltan Jr., the son of a Baltan alien who was killed by the original Ultraman. Builgamo was disguised as a building before beginning its assault, and was able to fight Jack until the MAT team members inside the robot were able to escape. The robot could fly, shoot destructive beams from its antennae, but by far its most useful feature was its incredibly tough armor.

         

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Tsuburaya holds a mirror up to Ultraman.

Sources

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

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

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

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

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

Shin Super Robot Sunday: The Flying Phantom Ship

By 1969, Japan had advanced quite far in terms of animation. Especially when a studio would put real effort behind a project, such as when Toei Animation released Sora Tobu Yuureisen in July of that year. Known in English as The Flying Phantom Ship or The Flying Ghost Ship, the film is a 60 minute full-color adventure into suspense, conspiracies, and super science with a few important creators involved. 

Like most anime of the era, it was an adaptation of a manga. In this case, the 1960 manga of the same name by Shotaro Ishinomori. Ishinomori began his career in the 1950s and was an assistant of Osamu Tezuka's for a time before establishing a name for himself in the 60s and 70s with Cyborg 009, Kikaider, Skull Man (which was a one-shot comic that got heavily reworked into Kamen Rider), and the original Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, the first of the long-running Super Sentai series. The director was Hiroshi Ikeda, who was an anime director in the 60s and 70s, but also had a long career as a show writer as well. It also featured the work of a little-known key animator named Hayao Miyazaki.

 

The plot itself revolves around Hayato, an adventurous young boy with a loving family who, along with his father, rescues his dad's boss and wife from a car crash and take them to a spooky mansion to avoid the rain. There, they encounter a mysterious skeletal sea captain and his flying dutchman, who's looking for revenge against the people who betrayed him and killed his family. 

After being rescued by the authorities, a giant robot attacks the city proclaiming itself to be a golem, the messenger of the Ghost Ship, and destroys large chunks of the city. Hayato's parents are killed in the destruction, but not before his father tells him they're not his real parents. 

After a mourning period, Hayato wants revenge, and accidentally uncovers corporate and government conspiracies, underwater bases, a plot to take over the world, giant talking robot crabs, the truth behind the mysterious sea captain and his flying Ghost Ship, and the sinister truth behind soda. Its all very Deus Ex, only wrapped up within the trappings of 60s super science fiction. As a curious footnote, the movie was one of the first anime to be dubbed in Russian and shown in the Soviet Union. 

The Flying Phantom Ship is a mix of horror, mad science, secret societies, and a ghost ship that gets into an aerial battle with a giant robot. The robot itself is merely a step on the ever escalating weirdness of the plot, but it shows the capability to fly, smash buildings, fire missiles, and broadcast threats. Its far, far, far from the weirdest thing in the movie (that would be a giant crab trash talking a guy before dissolving him with soda). 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Ultraman Returns 

Sources:

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

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

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065021/

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Mighty Jack

Tsuburaya Productions' next series would be a significant departure from the Ultraman format. Eschewing the giant monster format, Mighty Jack would be about an elite team of superspies called Mighty Jack and their giant flying battleship/submarine Mighty/Mighty-Gō and assorted smaller specialist ships. Mighty Jack does battle with the evil secret organization Q, which is bent on world domination. Eiji Tsuburaya himself was apparently quite proud of the show because it focused on the human characters instead of weekly giant monsters. Aimed at an older audience than the Ultraman series and drawing heavy inspiration from Thunderbirds, Mighty Jack began airing in April of 1968.

   

The Mighty itself is a 235 meter (771 ft) long and 41 meter (135 ft) tall behemoth that can fly at Mach 2.8, powered by a mix of nuclear and solar plasma engines and a bunch of conventional and super science weapons. It does not, however, transform into a giant robot.  

Originally planned as a 26 episode series, poor ratings led to its cancellation after 13 of the 45 minute long episodes aired.

That wasn't the end of the show, though. Staff and cast were changed, and the show's format was radically changed. Mighty Jack was still an organization that fought against Q, but the target audience was now younger kids, and this time, there would be giant monsters and a generally lighter tone. The show would be reborn as Fight! Mighty Jack and picked up immediately after Mighty Jack ended. Episodes were shortened to 24 minutes, but this revamped version of the show successfully ran for 26 episodes, wrapping up in December of 1968. 

What makes this entire show relevant to this project is one of the monsters from Fight! Mighty Jack was the Big Q (or Big Queen) from episode 22. A 55 meter (180 ft) tall silver robot with super strength and a big pair of floodlights on its head. Built by the widows of Q agents who were killed by Mighty Jack (I'm working from a translation of the Japanese Wiki page, so some of the details might be off), the plan was to stomp around the city and plant a white flag on the top of Tokyo Tower to signal Mighty Jack to surrender. It was eventually blown up in battle. 

 American audiences will be more familiar with the 1986 adaptation by Sandy Frank Productions. Frank, a veteran sales executive who had worked for Paramount and NBC, was also responsible for bringing Science Ninja Team Gatchaman to the US as Battle of the Planets in 1977. His company has multiple licensing deals for localizing Japanese movies in the United States, most notably the Gamera series. 

The Mighty Jack “movie” was one of the company's lesser efforts. It took the first and sixth episodes and slapped them together with little context, poor pacing, and bad dubbing. This would be prime fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the show was riffed twice, first in 1989 on KTMA (during “Season 0” and next in 1991 during Season Three of the show proper. 

Mighty Jack would be one of studio founder Eiji Tsuburaya's final projects, and the last one covered by the scope of this project. He would pass away in 1970 at the age of 68. 

 Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: A Flying Dutchman and her ghost captain.

 Sources:

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

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Mighty_Jack_(series)

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF

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

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

https://mst3k.fandom.com/wiki/MST3K_314_-_Mighty_Jack