Assault! Human!! (1972)

Assault! Human!! Air date October 7, 1972 - December 30, 1972 Producer(s) Mo Buru Distributor Toho Channel(s) Nippon Television Genre(s) Tokusatsu Episodes 13

Assault! Human!! (突撃！ヒューマン！！,   Totsugeki! Hyūman!!) is a Japanese tokusatsu series co-produced by Toho and Nippon TV that aired from October 7, 1972 to December 30, 1972.

Plot

Junichiro Iwaki, an alien from "Human Planet" and famous gymnastics coach, suddenly resigns from his job after sensing an impending invasion of Earth. Junichiro quickly begins travelling Japan to train children in martial arts, equipping them with the skills to combat the malevolent monsters and aliens. Soon after, Junichiro's prediction proves true, and the Flasher Corps begin to invade, lead by their overlord King Flasher. Together, Junichiro and the children begin defending their planet, with the children utilizing mysterious devices known as Human-Signs to transform Junichiro into the superhero Human No. 1. Along the way, the reporter of "Monster Newspaper" Rumiko Hoshiyama, cameraman Yasubee Hirai, and Junichiro's brother Junjiro pitch in to the cause.

Together, Junichiro and his allies are able to fight through the hordes of kaiju to eventually destroy King Flasher once and for all. However, a new being named Grand Flasher emerges to replace the king, and battles Junichiro to the point of death. With Junichiro unable to continue, Junjiro bravely steps forward to confront Grand Flasher, and is transformed by the Human-Signs into Human No. 2. Eventually, Junichiro was miraculously transported to a dimension known as the Miracle Zone, which revives and fully heals him, allowing him to return to the front lines. The two brothers then continued their battle with the Flasher Corps, again battling monsters, including a mob of revived kaiju which Junichiro had previously defeated, until their ultimate battle with Grand Flasher. Ultimately, Grand Flasher was defeated in a duel of epic proportions, and the Flasher Corps' invasion was thwarted.

Episodes

1. What is the Human
2. Monster Shibiretta 3,000 Animals!
3. Suck Blood! Monster Dragonda
4. Flying Monster Blanca!
5. Kill!! Monster Red Rock
6. Death of Kaijin Gegil!!
7. Kaijin Megahertz Blows Up the Television Station!!
8. Devil's Boy Flasher!!
9. Last Moment of King Flasher
10. Last Moment of the Hero Human!!
11. The Return of Human!
12. Human Brothers Big Activity!
13. Goodbye Human

Staff

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

• Directed by   Mochi Sunuma, Fumihiko Kanbe, and Osamu Shigematsu
• Written by   Keisuke Fujikawa, Shunichi Yukimuro, Shozo Uehara, and Maru Tamura
• Produced by   Mo Buru
• Music by   Kenichiro Morioka

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

• Kai Natsuyube   as   Junichiro Iwaki and Voice of Human No. 1
• Akihiko Nishijima   as   Junjiro Iwaki and Voice of Human No. 2
• Yoshiko Tanaka   as   Rumiko Hoshiyama
• Shun Yashiro   as   Yasubee Hirai
• Keiko Aramaki   as   Kyoko Hanawa
• Ritsuo Sawa   as   Flasher, Flasher Red Eye, and Flasher Black Mask
• Miki Kageyama   as   Queen Flasher and Flasher Pink Mask
• Ichiro Murakoshi   as   King Flasher and Voice of Grand Flasher
• Yasuo Yamada   as   Narrator

Appearances

Characters and Monsters Junichiro Iwaki Junjiro Iwaki Rumiko Hoshiyama Yasubee Hirai Kyoko Hanawa King Flasher Queen Flasher Jairock Kabutonga Shibiretta Zarizon Dragonda Blanca Sibilegon Red Rock Seguro No. 1 King Takoras Gegil Megahertz Bulguerrilla Gyaron Dunket Alien Dorok Valingar Grand Flasher Stock Giringa Spider Danbaraki Garamedon Girudogira Antguirus Impulse

Weapons, vehicles, and races Flashers (Flasher; Flasher Red Eye; Flasher Black Mask; Flasher Pink Mask) Human-Sign Regeneration Monster Corps

Trivia

• Most of the kaiju suits that appeared in Assault! Human!! were reused for Go! Greenman.
• All of this series' footage was unintentionally lost at some point following the series' first and only rebroadcast. It is commonly theorised that the reason for this loss is as a result of Nippon TV accidentally overwriting the master tapes for the show. As a result, finding any footage of the series has been incredibly difficult, and as of 2017 only a single piece of footage roughly one minute long is known to survive, having been recorded on a Betamax tape around the time of the series' airing.
• Because of this series being filmed live as a stage show using a method known as "Public recording of the stage", it utilized many innovative techniques incorporating smoke, stage lighting, and special effects wizardry and is now praised for its advanced nature.
  • For these reasons, Toru Narita hand crafted a bronze statuette of Human No. 1 in 1987 using wax casting, in commemoration of the series. The original is currently held in a personal collection, however 40 copies of it were created and as of 2016 are up for sale in an extremely limited run.
  • Toru Narita also created statues of Ultraman and Ultraseven, and when all three were displayed along side one another, it was purportedly referred to as the "Trinity".

References

This is a list of references for Assault! Human!!. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

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