Invisible series
The Invisible series (透明シリーズ Tōmei shirīzu) is a retroactive grouping of four disconnected tokusatsu films produced by Daiei which star humans with the power of invisibility. The films, all produced in different decades, include The Invisible Man Appears (1949), The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly (1957), The Invisible Tengu (1960), and The Invisible Swordsman (1970). As the films were not produced with the intention of being a series, they do not share a consistent tone, genre, cast, or staff.
The first two films are science-fiction crime dramas set in the modern day which draw inspiration from H. G. Wells' 1897 novel The Invisible Man. In the former, a laboratory assistant is turned invisible by a newly-discovered chemical and commits crimes on behalf of a crooked benefactor, while in the latter, a scientist develops a machine that can turn anything invisible and uses it on himself to unravel a series of murders. The third and fourth films, meanwhile, are fantasies set in feudal Japan which incorporate elements of horror and comedy, respectively. In the former, a vigilante takes a drug to turn himself invisible and embarks on a killing spree to avenge a falsely-executed politician, while in the latter, a timid swordsman vows to defeat his father's killers with the help of a yokai's invisibility potion. All of them were produced by Daiei's Kyoto Studio, with the exception of The Human Fly, which was produced by the Tokyo Studio.
Though it shows up sporadically, the "Invisible series" label traces to at least 1984, when it was used by Daiei's successor, Daiei Film, to market its VHS and Betamax releases of the four films.[1] In the 1990s, the back cover of the company's second VHS release of Swordsman noted it as an entry in the "well-known Invisible series." The same phrasing has since been reiterated on that film's 2006 DVD release by Kadokawa, the current owner of Daiei's assets. The 1992 Daiei LaserDisc release of The Human Fly instead proclaimed it to be the "only VS. work in the Transforming Human Series (変身人間シリーズ Henshin Ningen Shirīzu)," though it did not define this.[a]
Films
| Title | Directed by | Written by | Special effects by | Studio | Release date | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Invisible Man Appears | Nobuo Adachi | Nobuo Adachi (script) Akimitsu Takagi (story) |
Eiji Tsuburaya | Daiei Kyoto Studio | September 25, 1949 | [2][3] |
| The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly | Mitsuo Murayama | Hajime Takaiwa (script) Toshikazu Yamano (story) |
Toru Matoba | Daiei Tokyo Studio | August 25, 1957 | [4][5] |
| The Invisible Tengu | Kazuo Hirotsu | Tetsuro Yoshida | Fujio Morita | Daiei Kyoto Studio | March 1, 1960 | [6][5] |
| The Invisible Swordsman | Yoshiyuki Kuroda | Yoshiyuki Kuroda (uncredited) |
March 21, 1970 | [7][8][9] |
Invisible characters
- Shunji Kurokawa (Invisible Man)
- Dr. Tsukioka (Invisible Man)
- Kazuma Aoe (Invisible Tengu)
- Sanshiro Yuzuki (Invisible Swordsman)
See also
Notes
References
This is a list of references for Invisible 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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Bibliography
- Ikeya, Noriyoshi (26 November 1984). Daiei Special Effects Collection: Daimajin. Tokuma Shoten.
- Shimizu, Takashi; Makuta, Keita; Motoyama, Sho (20 July 2010). Daiei Tokusatsu Movie Chronicle. Kadokawa Shoten Publishing. ISBN 978-4-04-854511-2.
- Iwahata, Toshiaki (25 February 2020). Character Complete Works: Special Effects Complete History – 1970s Hero Complete Works (4th ed.). Kodansha. ISBN 978-4-06-219821-9.
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