Diamond Eye- Warrior of Light (1973)

Kotaro Rai ends up with a magic ring that can summon the magical hero Diamond Eye.   This is fortunate, since Kotaro has stumbled onto a bunch of jewel thieves who turn out to be demons.  Kotaro can hold his own with humans, but against monsters?  He needs an ally.  Diamond Eye is as close to a genie or djinn as Japanese heroes got, so that makes him more unique than most of them.  That is saying something.  He carries the Diamond Stick, which has a wide variety of magical weapons in it.  He uses this to make the demons change back to their original forms.  King Cobra is the boss baddie, and it takes a good half year to stop him.

Fireman Opening

Here's a really cool non-Ultra Tsuburaya show from 1973. I think it only runs about 30 episodes, but out of the three they did- the other two being Mirrorman and Jumborg Ace this is the one I like best. It was offered for release here in English speaking territories as "Magmaman" which is a cooler name.

Aizenborg - Koseider

It seems to be dinosaur month here at Xeno, so I'll just go along with it. Here are two clips from fun Tsuburaya shows. The first one is from Aizenborg and features the jumbo hero from the later episodes. Most of us know this show from the compilation movie ATTACK OF THE SUPER MONSTERS, it's a shame they never used any more of the footage.

Mirror Man vsシャドウモンス

one of Tsuburaya's more obscure heroes, yet this one ran longer than the original Ultraman series. I never liked it as much as say, Fireman or Jumborg Ace, but it's pretty decent in it's own right. here we get to see about ten minutes- almost half an episode- of him fighting a nifty weird monster.

Garmin vs Mapasaurus

from 2007. I would buy one of these GPS systems just because of this commercial. there's several different versions out there, including a full length song version but I liked this one the most.  the song got a bit too annoying after a minute.

Spectreman opening/closing

I never saw Spectreman when it aired sporadically in the US in about 1978.  I wish I had, since I would like it more than I do now.  I enjoy it, but it doesn't have the impact of Ultraman or Johnny Sokko had on me.  it is a fun show.  I like that they used stop-motion for at least one of Spectreman's monstrous foes.

the dialog between Dr. Gori and Karis is usually pretty funny, thanks to Mel Welles.

Zone Fighter powers

how about a little live action now?



Zone Fighter is a really fun show.  I'm still surprised some fan sub group hasn't done this, since it would be popular to Godzilla nerds, even if they hate the "superhero" Godzilla, since they are completists and would deal with it just to have it.

their loss!

Mirror Knight

Mirrorman has returned, and is sort of part of the Ultra pantheon now.  it's from the movie Ultraman Zero The Movie: Super Deciding Fight! The Belial Galactic Empire which I will watch and review soon enough.  nice that he has returned, as well as Fireman and Jumborg Ace.

more Megaloman, right?

yeah, this will do nicely!  I'll have some more pictures tomorrow.

Megaloman real opening

yes, I love this show, for all the same reasons enumerated before.  check on the labels!  this is the rockin' cool opening theme song.

Megaloman a la Italia

this was the first way I ever saw the entire series of Megaloman.  as I wrote about it here, it's one of my favorite Japanese super hero shows.  this Italian song opening is very, but a bit cool.  not a patch on the original but what's gonna top that.

oddly enough, I couldn't find the Japanese intro on youtube.

glad the Italian one has been preserved here now.

Yuke! Megaloman!

the fiery superman, Megaloman is possibly my favorite giant Japanese superhero series.  produced by Toho for tv in 1979, it ran 31 episodes.

I first saw the series mentioned in issue #11 of the Japanese Fantasy Film Journal (pronounced  Jay Eff Eff Jay) back in about 1980.  just a blurb by one Mr. August Ragone, saying this was the first Japanese hero to use kung fu.