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Zone Fighter (TV 1973)

From Wikizilla, the kaiju encyclopedia
Zone Fighter
Opening of Zone Fighter
Air date April 2–September 24, 1973
Producer(s) Kimihiko Eto, Shunji Takahashi,
Yoshio Nishikawa
Funded by Toho Eizo, Man-Nen-Sha
Production company Toho Eizo
Channel(s) Nippon TV[1]
Genre(s) Kyodai Hero
Episodes 26
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Zone Fighter (流星人間ゾーン,   Ryūsei Ningen Zōn, lit. "Meteor Man Zone") is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero/kaiju television series produced by Toho Eizo in collaboration with Man-Nen-Sha. It aired on Nippon TV in Japan every Monday at 7:00 PM from April 2 to September 24, 1973. The series is notable for including appearances by the Godzilla, Gigan, and King Ghidorah from the Showa Godzilla series, placing it in those films' canon.[2][3] Nippon TV canceled the series after 26 episodes due to poor ratings, leaving the story's central conflict unresolved.[1]

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 the Garogas is their oldest child Hikaru, who is able to transform into the giant hero named Zone Fighter.

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

King Ghidorah appeared in the series, controlled by the Garogas. He was able to avoid death at the hands of Zone Fighter, unusual for most of the show's villains.

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

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 Directed by Written by Special effects by 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 Grand Garoga 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.

  • Directed by   Jun Fukuda, Ishiro Honda, Kengo Furusawa, Akiyasu Kikuchi, Masao Minowa, Kohei Oguri
  • Supervised by   Tomoyuki Tanaka
  • 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
  • Planned by   Kunmei Takahashi, Hiroshi Domon
  • 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
  • Edited by   Hisashi Kondo, Yoshio Tamura, Isao Takeda
  • Production design by   Kazuo Takigasaki, Kinya Uchida
  • First assistant directors   Masao Minowa, Kohei Oguri, Masahiko Yamamoto
  • Directors of special effects   Teruyoshi Nakano, Koichi Kawakita, Yoshio Tabuchi, Shinichi Kamisawa
  • First assistant directors of special effects   Kiyotaka Matsumoto, Shinichi Kamisawa

Cast

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

Appearances

Heroes and monsters

Weapons, vehicles, and races

Gallery

Concept art

Production

Screenshots

  • The first shot of Zone Fighter's opening sequence
    The first shot of Zone Fighter's opening sequence

Video releases

  • Zone Fighter 2001 DVD volume 6
    Zone Fighter 2001 DVD volume 6
  • Zone Fighter 2001 DVD box set
    Zone Fighter 2001 DVD box set
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 1
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 1
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 1
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 1
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 2
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 2
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 2
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 2
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 3
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 3
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 3
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 3
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 4
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 4
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 4
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 4
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 5
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 5
  • Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 5
    Zone Fighter 2016 DVD volume 5

Magazines

  • Various Zone Fighter gadgets
    Various Zone Fighter gadgets

Trivia

  • The series has two opening sequences, one for its first 13 episodes and one for the remaining 13, which differ only in the footage that plays beneath them.
  • Zone Fighter is the second kyodai hero tokusatsu show that Toho Eizo worked on, having earlier produced the special effects for the Tsuburaya Productions show Ultraman Ace.
  • The series' third and fourth episodes mark the only time that longtime Godzilla director Ishiro Honda and special effects director Koichi Kawakita, who would go on to lead the franchise's effects for six years, co-directed a project.

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]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 SciFi Japan: ZONE FIGHTER Series Guide
  2. ↑ Godzilla Movie Studio Tour. Windows 95, Premier Systems, 1998.
  3. ↑ Nomura, Kohei (7 August 2014). Godzilla Dictionary [New Edition]. Kasakura Publishing. p. 264. ISBN 978-4-7730-8725-3.

 

Zone Fighter
Series
Episodes
"Destroy the Terror-Beast Missile!" • "Attack! Destro-King" • "Strike! The Garogas' Underground Base" • "Invasion! The Grand Garoga Army: Godzilla Appears" • "Attack King Ghidorah!" • "King Ghidorah's Counterattack!" • "Zone Family's Critical Moment!" • "Defeat the Invader of Fear!" • "Find the Secret of the Red Spider!" • "Zone Fighter, Destroyed!" • "In a Hair's Breadth: The Roar of Godzilla!" • "The Terror-Beast Base: Invade the Earth!" • "Hair-Raising! The Birthday of Terror" • "Rampage! The Garoga Boys Attack Force" • "It's Sinking! Godzilla, Save Tokyo" • "Terrifying Attack! The Garoga Robot" • "Go! Fighter, Scramble" • "Command: "Destroy the Japanese Islands"" • "Order: "Destroy the Earth with Comet K"" • "Fierce Fight! Can You Hear Fighter's Song?" • "Invincible! Godzilla Rages" • "Counterattack! Defeat Super Jikiro" • "Secret of the Great Terror-Beast Bakugon" • "Defeat the Needle Shooting Terror-Beast Needlar" • "Carnage! Zone & Godzilla vs. the Allied Terror-Beast Forces" • "Pulverize! The Garoga Gamma-X Strategy"
Terror-Beasts
Characters
Staff
Cast
Music

Episodic series
 
Godzilla series
TV/streaming
Godzilla (1978–79) • Adventure! Godzilland (1992–93) • Godzilla Kingdom (1996–97) • Godzilla Island (1997–98) • Godzilla: The Series (1998–2000) • Godzilla TV (1999–2000) • "Shinnosuke vs. Shin Godzilla" (2016) • Godzilla Singular Point (2021) • Chibi Godzilla Raids Again (2023–) • Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023–26)
Web shows
Short Movies of GODZILLA Wall Painting (2014) • Godziban (2019–25) • I'm Home! Chibi Godzilla (2020–21) • Godzilla Tales (2020) • Godzilla CHOMP (2021–22) • Godziburst (2025–)
Direct-to-video
 
King Kong series
TV/streaming
The King Kong Show (1966–67) • Kong: The Animated Series (2000–01) • Kong: King of the Apes (2016–18) • Skull Island (2023) • King Kong [working title] (TBA)
Web shows
 
Other Toho series
Shōwa period
Monster Booska (1966–67) • "Beat the Monsters!" (1967) • Go! Godman (1972–73) • Warrior of Love Rainbowman (1972–73) • Zone Fighter (1973) • Kure Kure Takora (1973–74) • Diamond Eye (1973–74) • Go! Greenman (1973–74) • Nippon Chinbotsu: Television Series (1974–75) • Go! Kotaro Ushiwaka (1974–75) • Flying Saucer War Bankid (1976–77) • Megaloman (1979) • Forbidden Mariko (1985–86) • Cyber Cop (1988–89)
Heisei period
Guyferd (1996) • Sorcerer on the Rocks (1999) • Star Bows (2000–01) • The Gransazers (2003–04) • The Justirisers (2004–05) • Super Fleet Sazer-X (2005–06) • Kawaii! JeNny (2007) • The Always-Selfish Prince Gama (2008) • Attack on Titan: Signal to Strike Back (2015) • I Am a Hero: The Day It Began (2016)
Reiwa period

 
 
V • T • E

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