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| "Defeat the Needle Shooting Terror-Beast Needlar"
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September 17, 1973
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"Defeat the Needle Shooting Terror-Beast Needlar" (針を撃つ恐怖獣ニードラーを倒す) is the 24th episode of Zone Fighter. Directed by Ishiro Honda, written by Yuji Amamiya, and with special effects by Yoshio Tabuchi, it aired on September 17, 1973.
Plot
Deciding to commit another heinous plot against the humans of Earth, the Garoga developed a light that put anyone that saw it into a trance and a sound frequency that would put anyone to sleep that heard it. The Garogas first utilized the light in Asagiri Village, causing all of its villagers to walk through the forest towards the light. While this was happening, an old man living on his own saw the light as well, but suffered a heart attack and died while writing about the light he was seeing. While hiking in the forest, Hiroshi, a worker for Yoichiro Sakimori, injured his leg due to the harsh weather out and attempted to find shelter near the village with a colleague. They would happen upon the old man's house, ringing his doorbell and after repeated silence, peered through the window to see him sitting in a rocking chair. They would then make their way in, only to find out he was a corpse after shaking his chair, with the body slumping to the ground. Panicking, the duo quickly fled the house before noticing the entrancing light created by the Garogas, before noticing a group of villagers following after the light. Seeing this as strange, they both remarked the scenario was strange and made their way to the hospital where Hisroshi was dropped off. After having his leg bandaged, Hiroshi was greeted by the Zone Family and told them about what he saw along with the old man's dead body, leading Hikaru and Hotaru to investigate and finding the notebook the old man wrote in before his death, detailing his viewing of the light. Back at the Zone Families household, Yoichiro, Raita, Tsukiko, and Akira began to speculate the Garoga were behind the plot, while Hikaru and Hotaru drove back in Mighty Liner. Before they could reach their destination however, a Garoga general began to play the sound frequency again, attempting to kill the siblings in a car crash by making them fall asleep. Although the plot succeeded in getting Mighty Liner to careen off a cliff, Hikaru and Hotaru survived the crash. Not knowing of their survival, the Garogas launched a Terror-Beast Missile towards the planet containing Needlar. The Zone siblings made their way up the cliff to witness the light entrancing the villagers again, leading them to a hidden mountain base where the Garogas were developing the Super Teleki-Star, a solution that could be injected into a human's ears and force them to obey orders, with their next step of the plan being to convert them into cyborgs. As the Garoga general and his subordinate talked about the plan, Hikaru and Hotaru snuck in the base with the entranced villagers and pretended to be hypnotized as well. However, the general immediately recognized them and explained directly that their plot this time was converting every human on the planet into cyborgs. The duo attempted to transform after this, but due to their injuries from the crash, were unable to do so and subdued by Garoga grunts. As the Zone Family realized Hikaru and Hotaru were gone for too long, and that the Terror-Beast Missile was still approaching, Yoichiro hesitantly allowed Akira to go find his siblings and save them. Right before the duo could be turned into cyborgs, Akira arrived on time as Zone Junior and freed his siblings with his Maser Shot, while also destroying the mechanisms responsible for turning the captured humans into cyborgs. Now freed, Hikaru and Hotaru transformed into their hero forms and battled the Garogas, while also ushering the now freed humans to safety.
While the chaos was going on, Needlar's missile finally landed, exploding right next to the hidden Garoga base and releasing the horse-like kaiju. Now outside, Angel and Junior led the villagers out of view from Needlar while Fighter pulled out his Maser Shot and began to blast the beast. However, this was highly ineffective and only angered Needlar, with the monster continuing to lumber towards them. Tired of being fired at, Needlar unleashed his flamethrower on the human sized Zone Fighter, forcing him to back away before transforming into his giant form. Fighter immediately uppercutted Needlar upon transformation, sending the kaiju sprawling to the ground, before running up and assailing Needlar's head and chest with his fists at the kaiju got up. Noticing the wiring on Needlar's chest, Fighter got a hold of them and began to tug, before eventually ripping them off and sending sparks flying from the cyborg's body. Undeterred, Needlar pulled out his blowgun, known as Needla Might, and began to fire explosive darts at the hero who was able to dodge them all. After noticing the destruction caused by the blowdarts, Zone Fighter charged towards Needlar, who simply spun out of the way, and shoved him to the ground when Fighter to charge him a second time. Needlar then pulled out another explosive weapon, his Missile Shuriken, and began tossing them at Zone Fighter who was successful in dodging the explosions caused by the shuriken. The horse-like insectoid would suddenly switch back to physical combat, clashing with Fighter in a shoulder charge, before flipping the hero on his back after the Meteor Man attempted to jump on him. To add insult to injury, Needlar helped Zone Fighter to his feet before slamming him back into the ground and began to slam his fists into Fighter's body, even sending him flying backwards with one particular gut punch. Seeing the hero weakened, Needlar fired Gamma Beams from his hands, constricting and electrocuting Fighter while worsening his pain. After seeing Zone Fighter on all fours panting, Needlar ran up and kicked the hero in his head, launching him back and revealing that Fighter's energy was running out. Angel and Junior immediately noticed this and boarded Smokey in order to recharge their brother, however Needlar proved smarter than he looked and targeted the spacecraft with his flames and shuriken to stop them from doing so. However, Needlar proved unable to hit the craft, and Smokey was able to recharge Zone Fighter who overpowered the shocked Terror-Beast with a Meteor Kick. While beating on the kaiju, Zone Fighter ripped off the spotlight on his head, before tossing it away and continuing his assault on the dazed Needlar. Panicking, Needlar pulled out his shuriken once more and started to fling them at Fighter in a desperate attempt to win, only for the Meteor Man to backflip out of the way of each one. Seeing the hero effortlessly dodge his attacks, Needlar summoned in a giant sword-like shuriken as a last resort, and hurled it at Zone Fighter, only for it to be blown up by Fighter's Meteor Proton Beam. Out of options, Needlar began to back away in fear as we witnessed Zone Fighter charge up his Meteor Windmill, before being knocked to the ground by it. Ready to finish it, Zone Fighter summoned in his Meteor Gauntlets and unleashed two volleys of his Meteor Missile Might at Needlar, who writhed in pain from the blasts. Although initially seeming fine after the attack had ended, Needlar stumbled back to reveal his head had been severed, with geysers of blood spraying out from his stumped neck, before falling back and exploding. After Needlar's demise, Angel and Junior celebrate within Smokey while the villagers are shown to be relieved. His mission not yet over, Fighter then turned his attention towards the Garoga mountain base and used his Meteor Proton Beam, firing it at the base and engulfing it in a massive explosion. Aboard the Garoga Space Station, Baron Garoga is infuriated yet another plot has failed and swears to Fighter that his defeat is inevitable. Zone Fighter then de-powers into his regular form, and is later shown hiking with Hotaru, Akira, Yoichiro, and Raita, while overlooking Asagiri Village.
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
Appearances
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Characters
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