Zone Fighter (1973)

Zone Fighter Air date April 2, 1973 - September 24, 1973 Producer(s) Tomoyuki Tanaka, Kimihiko Eto, Shunji Takahashi, Yoshio Nishikawa Distributor Toho Channel(s) Nippon Television Genre(s) Kyodai Hero Episodes 26 Rate this series! 4.00 (6 votes)

Zone Fighter (流星人間ゾーン,   Ryūsei Ningen Zōn, lit. Meteor Human Zone) is a Japanese tokusatsu kaiju series co-produced by Toho Eizo and Man-Nen-Sha which ran from April 2, 1973 to September 24, 1973. The series is notable for including appearances by Godzilla, Gigan, and King Ghidorah, placing the series in the Showa canon. NTV cancelled the series after 26 episodes due to poor ratings, leaving the story's central conflict unresolved.

Plot

The evil Garogas plan to take over Earth with their army of giant Terror-Beasts. They are opposed by the Zone Family, hailing from a planet called Peaceland that was destroyed by the Garogas. The family uses a variety of exotic vehicles and weapons, but their best defense against Garogas is their oldest child Hikaru, who is able to transform into the giant Zone Fighter.

Godzilla occasionally helped Zone Fighter battle the Terror-Beasts, and even sparred with him in their spare time.

King Ghidorah appeared in the show, controlled by the Garogas. He was able to avoid death at the hands of Zone Fighter, unusual for a villain on the show.

Gigan also appeared, having been captured by the Garogas after fleeing from Godzilla and Jet Jaguar. He did not share King Ghidorah's luck; he was dramatically killed by Zone Fighter's Meteor Missile Might bracelets.

Production

Main articles: Toho Monster TV Film Project: Zone The Meteor Man, Toho Special Effects Terror-Beast Series: Zone The Meteor Man - Production Memo.

Episodes

No.	Title	Director	Writer(s)	Director of special effects	Air date
1	"Destroy the Terror-Beast Missile!"	Jun Fukuda		Teruyoshi Nakano	1973/04/02
2	"Attack! Destro-King"				1973/04/09
3	"Strike! The Garogas' Underground Base"	Ishiro Honda	Masaru Takesue	Koichi Kawakita	1973/04/16
4	"Invasion! The Garogas' Grand Army: Godzilla Appears"		Shozo Uehara		1973/04/23
5	"Attack King Ghidorah!"	Jun Fukuda	Juro Shimamoto Akira Ishikari	Teruyoshi Nakano	1973/04/30
6	"King Ghidorah's Counterattack!"				1973/05/07
7	"The Zone Family's Critical Moment!"	Kengo Furusawa	Satoshi Kurumi		1973/05/14
8	"Defeat the Invader of Fear!"	Akiyasu Kikuchi		Koichi Kawakita	1973/05/21
9	"Find the Secret of the Red Spider!"	Kengo Furusawa	Juro Shimamoto	Teruyoshi Nakano	1973/05/28
10	"Zone Fighter, Destroyed!"	Akiyasu Kikuchi	Motoo Nagai	Koichi Kawakita	1973/06/04
11	"In a Hair's Breadth: The Roar of Godzilla!"	Jun Fukuda	Kazuhisa Hattori	Teruyoshi Nakano	1973/06/11
12	"The Terror-Beast Base: Invade the Earth!"	Ishiro Honda	Norio Komata	Yoshio Tabuchi	1973/06/18
13	"Hair-Raising! The Birthday of Terror"		Jun Fukuda		1973/06/25
14	"Rampage! The Garoga Boys Attack Force"	Akiyasu Kikuchi	Masaru Takesue	Koichi Kawakita	1973/07/02
15	"It's Sinking! Godzilla, Save Tokyo"	Kengo Furusawa	Kohei Oguri Norio Komata		1973/07/09
16	"Terrifying Attack! The Garoga Robot"	Akiyasu Kikuchi	Susumu Takeuchi		1973/07/16
17	"Go! Fighter, Scramble"	Jun Fukuda	Satoshi Kurumi	Teruyoshi Nakano	1973/07/23
18	"Command: "Destroy the Japanese Islands""	Ishiro Honda	Yuji Amamiya	Yoshio Tabuchi	1973/07/30
19	"Order: "Destroy the Earth with Comet K""				1973/08/06
20	"Fierce Fight! Can You Hear Fighter's Song?"	Masao Minowa	Shiro Ishimori	Teruyoshi Nakano	1973/08/13
21	"Invincible! Godzilla Rages"	Kohei Oguri	Shinichi Kamisawa		1973/08/20
22	"Counterattack! Defeat Super Jikiro"	Masao Minowa	Masaru Takesue	Shinichi Kamisawa	1973/08/27
23	"Secret of the Great Terror-Beast Bakugon"	Ishiro Honda		Yoshio Tabuchi	1973/09/03
24	"Defeat the Needle Shooting Terror-Beast Needlar"		Yuji Amamiya		1973/09/10
25	"Carnage! Zone & Godzilla vs. the Allied Terror-Beast Forces"	Kengo Furusawa	Yoshihisa Araki	Koichi Kawakita	1973/09/17
26	"Pulverize! The Garoga Gamma-X Strategy"	Kohei Oguri	Satoshi Kurumi	Shinichi Kamisawa	1973/09/24

Staff

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

• Supervised by   Tomoyuki Tanaka
• Organized by   Kunmei Takahashi, Hiroshi Domon
• Directed by   Jun Fukuda, Ishiro Honda, Kengo Furusawa, Akiyasu Kikuchi, Masao Minowa, Kohei Oguri
• Written by   Jun Fukuda, Masaru Takesue, Shozo Uehara, Juro Shimamoto, Akira Ishikari, Satoshi Kurumi, Motoo Nagai, Kazuhisa Hattori, Norio Komata, Kohei Oguri, Susumu Takeuchi, Yuji Amamiya, Shiro Ishimori, Shinichi Kamisawa, Yoshihisa Araki
• Produced by   Kimihiko Eto, Shunji Takahashi, Yoshio Nishikawa
• Music by   Go Misawa
• Theme song "Zone Fighter" and insert song "Meteor Victory"
  • Performed by   Masato Shimon
  • Lyrics by   Akira Ishikari
  • Composed and arranged by   Go Misawa
• Cinematography by   Yoshio Nakao, Masaru Kakinuma, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Motoyoshi Tomioka, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takao Tsurumi
• Edited by   Hisashi Kondo, Yoshio Tamura, Isao Takeda
• Production design by   Kazuo Takigasaki, Kinya Uchida, Hiroshi Komura
• 1st assistant directors   Masao Minowa, Kohei Oguri, Masahiko Yamamoto
• Directors of special effects   Teruyoshi Nakano, Koichi Kawakita, Yoshio Tabuchi, Shinichi Kamisawa
• 1st assistant directors of special effects   Kiyotaka Matsumoto, Shinichi Kamisawa

Cast

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

• Kazuya Aoyama   as   Hikaru Sakimori
• Kazumi Kitahara   as   Hotaru Sakimori / Zone Angel
• Kenji Sato   as   Akira Sakimori / Zone Junior
• Shoji Nakayama   as   Yoichiro Sakimori
• Sachiko Kouizuki   as   Tsukiko Sakimori
• Shiro Amakusa   as   Raita Sakimori / Zone Great
• Hideaki Obara   as   Takeru Jo
• Munemaru Kōda   as   Gold Garoga (voice)
• Kinichi Kusumi   as   Zone Fighter (giant)
• Tatsumi Nikamoto   as   Garogas / Zone Fighter (human size / voice)
• Isao Zushi   as   Terror-Beasts / Godzilla
• Toru Kawai   as   Godzilla
• Kiyoshi Kobayashi   as   Narrator

Appearances

Heroes and monsters Zone Fighter Zone Angel Zone Junior Red Spark Jikiro Destro-King Dorola Godzilla Wargilgar Spyler King Ghidorah Dragon King Gilmaras Gelderah Garoga Spider Garoga Gorilla Spideros Shadorah Shipdraw Gigan Barakidon Garoborg Detragon Zandora Mogranda Balgaras Gundarguirus Goram Jellar Kastam-Jellar Super Jikiro Bakugon Needlar Kabutogirah Grotogauros

Weapons, vehicles, and races Garogas (Gold Garoga; Silver Garoga; White Garoga; Red Garoga; Cobalt Garoga) Garoga Space Station Terror-Beast Missile Garoga Spacer Garoga Car Mighty Liner Smokey Bolt Thunder Zobot Pandora Capsule

Gallery

Video releases

• 

  Zone Fighter 2001 DVD volume 6

• 

  Zone Fighter 2001 DVD box set

• 

  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 1

• 

  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 1

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 2

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 2

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 3

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 3

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 4

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 4

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 5

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  Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 5

Trivia

• The suits reused and constructed for the kaiju and Terror-Beasts in the series are of considerably better construction and design than Toho's previous tokusatsu series.
  • In addition, the sets are also in better condition, and have a quality about them which is almost identical to Toho's late Showa era films.
• Supplementary material issued by Toho after the series' conclusion revealed that it is included in the Showa era continuity, taking place between Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.

References

This is a list of references for Zone Fighter (series). 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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