Shin Super Robot Sunday: Go! Greenman (1973)

Twice I've tried to write this post, and twice the power went out for multiple hours making it impossible. That finally ends today. 

 

Before Zone Fighter, Toho's first tokusatsu superhero was a red and white alien who could grow to gigantic size and defended Earth from monsters. No, of course he's not an Ultraman ripoff, he's Godman. 

He has a blue visor and a giant mane of platinum blonde hair. 

See? Completely different. 

 

Go! Godman ran for 26 episodes comprised of multiple five minute segments segments from October 5, 1972 to April 10, 1973. The plots were simple affairs centered around monsters threatening people, the people calling on Godman for help, and then Godman arrived to pummel the monster into the dirt.

          

 

On November 12, 1973, the spiritual sequel to Go! Godman aired: Go! Greenman (Ike! Greenman). 52 eight minute episodes comprised of 3 parts each ultimately aired, and this time there was more of a plot tying everything together. 

Deep underground, the devilish monster Maoh, the lord of the underworld awakens, learning that God has exiled him below the Earth. Plotting revenge, Maoh needs the blood of children to power himself up, and summons an army of minions to hunt them on the Earth's surface for him. 

Standing in his way is Greenman, an envoy of God sent to protect the innocent children of the world from Maoh's depredations. After losing initially, Maoh escalates things (literally) by turning his minions into stronger minions that can also grow to gigantic size. With the phrase “Greenman Giant Machine Change!”, Greeman himself can grow gigantic and battle the demons on equal footing. 

Greenman is a robot from Planet Green, and can grow to a height of 45 meters (148 ft). Designed by Tsuguo Murase and refined by a committee that included his brother, veteran monster designer Keizo Murase, the costume was modeled after Buddha statues from Southeast Asia. The similarity is most noticeable in the head, and the whole design was intended to be bright and ostentatious. Like most all tokusatsu heroes of the era, Greenman has an array of weapons, including flight, super speed, energy attacks, a staff called the Greenman Stick, Leg Arrow, chest missiles called the Greenman Breaster (probably influenced by Mazinger Z), and Ear Boomerangs (which are self-explanatory). Greenman also gave the children a box called the Green Call with a button that, when pressed, would summon him to their aid. 

 

A notable feature of the show was recycling costumes (and monsters) from Toho movies, including Gaira and Sanda from The War of the Gargantuas, Gabara and Minilla from All Monsters Attack, and the King Kong costume from King Kong Escapes. Kong could only be called “Gorilla” in Greenman because Toho no longer had the rights to the King Kong license. If you ever wanted to see an evil version of Godzilla's son get thrown around and laughed at, then here you go.

          

Go! Greenman had a successful run, but the character went dormant after the show ended. In 2008, Toho released a 22 minute direct-to-video short movie called Go! Godman that brought back Godman to fight against a group of monsters. At a critical moment, one of the human characters finds a Green Call box, presses the button, and Greenman arrives to aid Godman save the day. As a surprising bit of trivia, the Greenman mask and most of the costume remained intact after thirty-plus years and were re-used for this movie. 

 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: A new sub-feature that looks at some series that aren't about giant robots per se, but are worth mentioning in context. Get ready for Shin Super Robot Sunday Gaiden. 

 

You can blame Space Battleship Yamato getting into a Super Robot Wars game for this.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ike!_Greenman

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%91!_%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Go!_Greenman

https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/Go!_Greenman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ike!_Godman

https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Go!_Godman_(film)

Shin Super Robot Sunday: Super Robot Red Baron

Coming off the success of tokusatsu shows like Iron King and the non-giant robot Silver Kamen, Senkosha Productions would follow up with Super Robot Red Baron, which began airing on Nippon Television on July 4, 1973.

       

 

Perhaps the most notable staff member who was involved in the creation of the show was Ryu Noguchi (the pen name of manga artist and illustrator Masaru Noguchi). After working as an assistant for Shotaro Ishinomori for a time, he went independent and illustrated the manga adaptation of Alistair MacLean's 1955 novel HMS Ulysses for Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Red Baron was his first television work, where he created character designs. It was the start of a long and successful career in tokusatsu production, and he would work on the Kamen Rider, Metal Heroes, and, most significantly, Super Sentai series. He even did creature designs for Resident Evil in the 90s. 

As for the show itself, Red Baron tells the tale of the the evil Iron Masked Party led by Dr. Deviler/Devilar, who have stolen a bunch of giant robots from around the world and their designers and plan to use them to conquer/destroy the Earth. Kenichiro Kurenai, the designer of the the titular Red Baron (the last robot not stolen), makes it so only his younger brother Ken can operate it, before being kidnapped and killed by the Iron Masked Party. Ken, already a member of the Secret Science Investigation (SSI) group of crimefighters/spies/ninjas, takes control of the robot and uses it to defend the Earth, first against the Iron Masked Party, then against the Space Iron Party, commanded by Giras Q. 

 

After a slow start, the show was a success and was extended from its initially planned 26 episodes and introduced an entire new faction (the Space Iron Party). Ultimately the show ran for 39 episodes, apparently only ending when one of the main sponsors went bankrupt. Senkosha Productions would make spiritual sequels, but those are stories for another time. 

       

 

The comparisons to Mazinger Z are unavoidable. A hot blooded hero inherits a powerful robot made of a special metal (in this case Baronium) that he has to use against a secret society bent on world conquest. What's different here is the presence of the SSI. They're an Ultraman style support team of agents in snappy uniforms and their own character arcs and personalities. There's the strict but kind captain Daigo, the hot-blooded marksman Tetsuya, comic relief brawler Daisaku, Mari, a high kicking photographer and sort-of love interest for Ken. Aiding them is Inspector Kumano, a somewhat silly police officer on a bicycle who has a sword-cane in his umbrella and a gun in his bicycle pump.

       

As for the Red Baron itself, its a 40 meter (131 ft) tall, bright red colossus with a staggering array of weapons ranging from missiles, to beams, to kicks, to a rocket punch (called the Baron Punch). Its powered by a nuclear reactor, can fly at Mach 10, and after an upgrade, is capable of space travel. Fairly standard kit for a super robot. 

 

While overshadowed by bigger contemporary tokusatsu franchises, Red Baron did get a western DVD release in 2010 that included the entire series in one cheap boxed set. For whatever reason, the sequels did not. 

 

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Things get spooky as Mazinger Z runs across some deviltry.

Sources:

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

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AD%E3%83%9C%E3%83%83%E3%83%88_%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%83%90%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%8E%E5%8F%A3%E7%AB%9C

http://classichenshin.com/kewalaka/redbaron/index.htm

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: Jumborg Ace

The third of Tsuburaya Productions 10^th anniversary shows, Jumborg Ace was different from Ultraman Taro and Fireman in that it was chock full of robots. Jumborg Ace began airing on January 17, 1973 on Mainichi Broadcasting System, the show ran for 50 episodes and was primarily produced by staff who had previously worked on Mirrorman under the direction of Yoshiyuki Kuroda. While the show debuted in 1973, a prequel manga, Jumbo X, was serialized in 1970, with a number of elements that initially tied it to the Ultraman franchise before it was ultimately spun off into its own project.

      

Naoki Tachibana is an air delivery boy who flies a Cessna. When the evil alien Anti Go-Ne from the planet Groth invades with giant monsters, Naoki's brother, Shin'ya, a member of the Protective Attacking Team (PAT), dies in battle with a giant monster. In revenge, Naoki tries to ram his plane into the monster on a suicide run, fails, and is transported to an energy dimension where an alien named Emerald from Planet Emerald, saves Naoki's life, modifies his wristwatch, modifies his plane, and sends him back home. Guided by Emerald's voice, Naoki uses the watch and the command phrase “Jum-Fight!” to transform the plane into the giant mecha Jumborg Ace.

Giant robot it most certainly is. Naoki pilots Jumborg from inside the robot's head using a movement control suit to mirror his own actions (a feature that would show up in later Mecha shows like Daimos and G Gundam). 

The 40 meter (131 ft) tall robot features the standard tokusatsu giant hero fighting abilities: grappling, flight (Mach 11, which is not bad at all for a souped up Cessna), strength, and an emphasis on beam and energy weaponry.

      

But that's not all. During the course of the show, Naoki meets the brother of Emerald, Kain, who gives the hero a second robotic ally: Jumborg 9. Instead of a plane, Jumborg 9 is disguised as a Honda Z minicar called the Jum Car Z, and can transform into a 50 meter (164 ft) tall half silver, half reddish-orange powerhouse. 

Jumborg 9 can't fly, but he can run at 900 kilometers an hour (560 mph), and hits like a truck. He's also piloted like a regular car, with gearshifts, pedals, and steering wheels.

      

The minions of Planet Groth also numbered quite a few robots, among them Airdolmen (a flying robot); Giant Robot Zero (which was recycled from Mirrorman's Noah robot costume); Flight King (a quadrupedal missile launching robot with a drill on its head); an imitation Jumborg Ace (armed with a whip and rocket punches, see above); Honest King (a king-themed robot that can transform into a dog disguise); Gold Dragon (a two-headed golden dragon robot); Mirrorking (a robot that can invade dreams) and two more that deserve a little more attention:

      

Dump Kong is a 46 meter tall robot made from a dump truck that looks like King Joe if it had been made from scrap parts, and can shoot hooks and tires at Jumborg Ace. Its awesome. 

      

The other one is Jum Killer. Much like Ace Killer, Jum Killer is a robot designed specifically for destroying the hero of the show, and actually defeats Jumborg Ace. Jum Killer is ultimately defeated by the newly acquired Jumborg 9. A second robot, Jum Killer Jr., was a bigger challenge, but still also defeated by Jumborg 9.

DUMP KONG

Reflecting the growing trend of super robots in a post-Mazinger world, Jumborg Ace did well with a piloted transforming super robot protagonist and would see a follow up the following year, but that deserves its own entry.

      

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: Toho brings out its heavy hitter.

Sources:

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

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

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Jumborg_Ace_(mecha)

https://ultra.fandom.com/wiki/Jumborg_9

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B0A

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BCX

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

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

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: 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: 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: Ultra Seven

Eiji Tsuburaya has come up a few times already for his work with Toho Studios as a special effects director with a long and storied career that began in the 1920s. Arguably most famous for his work on the original Godzilla films and his pioneering work in “Suitmation” (the technique of putting an actor in a monster costume and destroying a miniature set), he was a mainstay at Toho during the company's rise in the 50s and 60s. In 1963, he founded his own visual effects studio, Tsuburaya Productions. While still continuing his work with Toho, the new studio would release Ultra Q, a black-and-white 28 episode long horror series in the vein of The Twilight Zone (with a significant presence of monster costumes), which led directly to Ultraman, released that same year.

Ultraman ran for 39 episodes (40 when factoring in a pilot episode) and was in color. Wildly successful, the show featured an extraterrestrial giant merging with a human to save his life, who could then transform into the giant superhero Ultraman to defend Earth from giant monster threats.

In October of 1967, the sequel series to Ultraman would air: Ultra Seven. Originally intended as a standalone show, it was folded into the Ultra series in pre-production and featured suit and monster designs by Tohl/Tohru Narita, who worked with Tsuburaya during the late 60s.

The plot is similar, but different from the original Ultraman. Instead of merging with a human host, this show's Ultraman came to Earth from the Land of Light in Nebula M78 (an actual nebula and part of the Orion constellation) and rescued a guy, then took his form and calling himself “Dan Moroboshi” joined the Ultra Garrison, an organization dedicated to defending the planet from alien invaders as its sixth major member. Using an eyepiece called the Ultra Eye, he can transform into his true form, a 40 meter (131 ft) tall red and silver giant superhero dubbed Ultraseven because he was the unofficial “seventh member” of the Ultra Garrison. Equipped with a staggering array of special attacks and abilities typical for a tokusatsu superhero, the show was an even bigger success than Ultraman. It ran for 49 episodes and featured even better ratings than the previous series. Ultraseven is one of the most popular characters of the entire Ultraman metaseries, and holds a high rank as one of the Ultra Brothers. Dan Moroboshi's actor, Kohji Moritsugu is still active and frequently reprised the role in more recent Ultra shows.

Cool guy status notwithstanding, Ultraseven is like all the other Ultras: a giant dude, not a robot. Unlike the original Ultraman, Ultra Seven introduced giant robots into the mix.

Nurse, or Narse, is a giant robotic space dragon that serves Alien Wild, a collector of human souls. The dragon can transform in a flying saucer form, but was ultimately ripped to pieces by Seven.

Crazygon is an asymmetrical scavenger robot built by the Alien Banda race to collect machinery. In practical terms, the robot rampages around a city and puts cars into its torso with a giant claw arm.

A race of near-humans called the Alien Salome built an imitation robot Ultraseven in their scheme to conquer Earth. Eventually the real Seven would escape captivity and defeat the robot with the help of Agira, a capsule monster ally.

What's a capsule monster? In the show, its a series of three artificial monsters that Seven can summon from a capsule to help him fight. Two of them, Agira and Miclas, are more bestial in form, while Windom is a more obviously robotic creation. Windom was reprogrammed by the Alien Kanan race into fighting Seven before being rescued, and then later fell in another battle. The entire concept of monsters that could be miniaturized in a portable storage device and then deployed to fight on behalf of the owner would be one of the major influences on Pokemon years later.

Lastly, and probably the most iconic of Ultra Seven's giant robots is King Joe. Deployed by the warlike Alien Pedan race in an attempt to conquer Earth, King Joe was deployed as four piloted ships that could combine into a 55 meter (180 ft) tall mecha that trounced Seven in their first fight until it was knocked over and unable to get back up, like a turtle, and transformed into flight mode to get away, like a different turtle, until eventually being defeated by Seven in a harbor. The robot's odd name was in reference to the lead writer of Ultraman and Ultra Seven, Tetsuo Kinjo.

Originally planned as the final Ultra series, Seven's success guaranteed that another show would get made, but it would be several years before another Ultraman series would air.

Next time on Shin Super Robot Sunday: He tried to kill me with a forklift!

Sources

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_78