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Friday, October 08, 2010

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8

For today's entry, I am looking for someone to solve the identity of some mysterious monsters from Japan. Below are some behind the scenes stills from a television series that looks to have been produced in Japan in 1973.

I would love it if someone would identify what television series these are from. I have pretty decent knowledge of most of the Japanese Tokusatsu shows produced in the 1970s, but this one defies me. All I know about it is that a Japanese co-worker of my mother's back in the early 1980s gave the stills shown below to me knowing that I was a big fan of monster movies. These were from a show that either her husband, or a relative had worked on, I believe as a producer.

The only identifying mark is this stamp which appears on the back of most of them, which I suspect is actually the mark of the printing place that developed them, and not anything to do directly with with production. Others say Boncolorlab Tokyo. One photo (the one of the orange monster kicking the hero) has some handwriting on the bottom as well as seen here.


Anyway, on to the monsters, heroes and fly-headed villains...


















If anyone knows what these are from, please let me know. If you know of a way I can watch this tv series, even better. Thanks!




   

10 comments:

  1. It's tough to make out, but I think the marker says "Butsu Color Print." ブツ カラー プリント I googled it to no avail.

    The characters look Kamen Rider. I googled Kamen Rider 1973 and the Lion-headed villain looks like one of theirs.
    Try contacting August Ramone
    http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2008/11/monster-of-week-destron-mutant-scissors.html

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  2. MYSTERY SOLVED! BY AUGUST RAGONE


    『突撃! ヒューマン!!』 (Totsugeki! Hyuman!!) or FULL CHARGE! HYUMAN!! was a filmed live action show from 1972 (running 7:30-8:00 pm from 10/7/1972-12/30/1972), but shot on stage in front of a live audience at NTV (or Nippon Television), and ran for 13 episodes. The characters were designed by Tohru Narita, who designed Ultraman, Ultra Seven, and the early Ultra Monsters, and produced by his own company, Mo Buru (モ・ブル). The series starred the late Yusuke Natsu (SPACE IRONMEN: KYODYNE and MOBILE INVESTIGATION: FRONTLINE). There was both a white and a red Hyuman form in the show. Recently, there was a published announcement that the 13-episode series is being prepped for a DVD release in Japan.

    Here's a link to the theme song:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSAI4v3bzBo&feature=player_embedded

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  3. John,
    Glad to be of help! Those interested in Japanese fantasy films and television (and my other monstrous interests) are welcome to check out my blog, "The Good, The Bad, and Godzilla" at http://augustragone.blogspot.com

    Cheers,
    August
    Author, "Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters"

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  4. I also highly recommend August's book, "Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters." A link is provided at the bottom of the post these comments are attached to.

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  5. Sheesh, you'd think I'd get a little credit for pushing you towards August.
    (Seriously, I like his blog a lot.)

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  6. Oddly, Michael, I posted a link to this post over at the Classic Horror Film Board, where August is also a member, and had planned to email him directly this morning, but he'd already answered my question at CHFB -- even before you suggested it.

    However it was an excellent suggestion, for which i give you high credit.

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  7. I figured as much.
    I have several Kamen Rider trading cards (from Potato Chip bags) that I need to showcase sometime.

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  8. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

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  9. Glad the mystery's solved. The stamp's stylized characters say "Fuji Color Print."

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  10. Does anyone happen to know the names of any of these monsters? I know that the top one is Spider, the second one is Gejiru, and the last four are of Garameddon. Anyone know the other two (the one spitting white mist and the one with the long arm)?

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