Zone Fighter and Godzilla

After teaming up with Jet Jaguar in 1973, Godzilla guest starred in five episodes on the cool and action packed TV show Ryūsei Ningen Zone (流星人間ゾーン) AKA Zone Fighter here in the States.  I first saw pictures of this team up and show,  with no explanation, in a book on Godzilla by Jim Harmon, I think.  It was a neat book, though it had some strange off topic meanderings in some parts, plus some unexplained pictures from this show, which was very frustrating in the mid-80s at the time.

I mean, Zone Fighter looked kind of like an Ultraman, and I knew there were other giant superheroes, but since there was scant information available at the time, these pictures were a great mystery.  Here was Godzilla, with a new  superhero fighting monsters I had never seen before in my life.  I wanted to know more about it.

Finally I learned what the show was in the 90s, and got to see the entire run of the show.  It's a lot of fun, though it does seem to end rather abruptly.  One more set of 13 episodes might have provided a better ending, with Zone and Godzilla teaming up to defeat the Garoga aliens.

A lot of Godzilla fans don't like the show.  I know,  that doesn't make sense to me, either.  I also wonder why no fansub group has released this show for the daikaiju fandom.  Especially now, since there's some new movie with a giant monster coming out.