Monster Discussion #35: Zone Fighter

[JVM]

This was supposed to be MechaGodzilla's thread but I figured I had to play fair. Haven't seen ZF myself.

[TokyoVigilante]

I'm not all that fond of his design, and if it wasn't for Godzilla/general Toho involvement, I'm pretty sure this series wouldn't get nearly as much exposure as it does.

[Guardian7]

I like ZF's look. That isn't a very flattering pic of him though.
Actually the series was pretty good TV. It had a nice thing going on with the family element and quite a few stories revolving around that.
Example: The fourth episode ONSLAUGHT! THE GAROGA ARMY: ENTER GODZILLA (23/4/73) Directed by Ishiro Honda; written by Jun Fukuda. Though not my favorite Monster foes and even though it featured Godzilla. It Had a great story involving ZF's sister Zone Angel.
I thought it was a wonderful series. Plus the sets they battled on were kick ass. Much better than most.

[JVM]

^ Thought your topic was on the TV series itself>? Because I almost did skip him as a result.

And also in the MD topics I've generally tried to pick images that seemed to be used less often, since there's a lot of images on TK and such that show up at every other Godzilla site.

[edgaguirus]

Zone fighter is fun. I haven't seen much of it, but they have some good stories and some interesting looking monsters.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

Example: The fourth episode ONSLAUGHT! THE GAROGA ARMY: ENTER GODZILLA (23/4/73) Directed by Ishiro Honda; written by Jun Fukuda. Though not my favorite Monster foes and even though it featured Godzilla. It Had a great story involving ZF's sister Zone Angel.

That's kinda sweet.

[Guardian7]

I know this is a ZF thread and all... but how were the stories for the Ultraman or other similar characters for the time?
Where they character driven? Have an ongoing story to them?
Or was it similar to the Original Ultraman Series?
Doing their Science Cop job. Monster shows up. Ultraman shows up. Fight. Hahaha at the end! LOL
--------

Also at the beginning of Episode 21 - INVINCIBLE! GODZILLA'S VIOLENT CHARGE (possibly "Invincible! Godzilla Enraged!") (air date 20/8/73) - Godzilla and ZF spar in a serious though playful manner (I believe on Monster Island).
This is a great example of characterization and taking an existing character (Godzilla) and doing something more than simply having him show up when needed. The downtime interaction alone merits mentioning.
People may feel ZF wouldn't have been worth noting if it wasn't for Godzilla being in it. I beg to differ. The show was certainly good enough to stand on its own two feet (The economy had more to do with the show's demise than the fact that it was a bad show or something).
Though the fact of the matter is that Godzilla did appear in the series, It is historical canon for both Godzilla and draws ALL of the elements of ZF (Characters, Monsters, Aliens etc.) into the SHOWAera because TOHO says it is Canon.
If you can get the subtitled episodes I am sure you will enjoy them. I know I did.

[Kubo]

The weirdest episode is the one with that one weird guy (Weird, huh?) and they play ring toss and ZF's enemy cheats at it...and PAYS THE PRICE: His Life!!! -Da-da-daaaaaaa-

[Tohosaurus]

I seem to recall somewhere reading that there have been no releases for Zone Fighter in English. Maybe that's wrong, just don't remember. But even if it is, I haven't been able to find it.

[Kubo]

They should give Zone Fighter to America on a good DVD box set. I really like Zone Fighter.

[Tohosaurus]

That is correct. Zone has not been shown outside of Japan in english....at least not officially. You can watch clips online which is pretty much how I saw the show, though with no subs or dubs.

How unfortunate.

They should give Zone Fighter to America on a good DVD box set. I really like Zone Fighter.

Yeah, just a straight 26 episode (I think it had 26 episodes total) DVD shot. That could easily be a dual DVD, two-disc-per-DVD-case set. I wonder what the market is for it.

[Tohosaurus]

Only 5 episodes feature Godzilla. I don't really think that's enough to convince the casual DVD buy to pick up this set, especially considering there are a handful of actual Godzilla films (not to mention many superior Ultra shows) that haven't seen release on DVD in this country and probably never will.

You're probably right, although as an aside I meant ZF episodes and not just ones featuring Godzilla; in fact, I didn't even know he was in more than three.

[miguelnuva]

he took on king ghidorah single handed something no other kaiju could do and he looks like he has the firepower to battle mechagodzilla and the melee to beat even 75 goji.

[Dynomy84]

What about the all powerful and all knowing Maguma from Gorath?

he's not a kaiju. he as said multiple times by a member we know, is a god.

[DaiKamonohashi]

Hi, quick Japanese lesson for you all!

Sentai (戦隊) literally translates as "taskforce," and within the superhero genre, the term indicates a team of superheroes who generally dress in colorful spandex uniforms. The term more specifically refers to Toei's スーパー戦隊シリーズ - the "Super Sentai Series," a long-running franchise that dates back to the 1970s and was Americanized as "Power Rangers" beginning with 1992's "Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger" (Dinosaur Taskforce Zyuranger), the series' sixteenth installment. Other series, such as Toho's own "Super Star God Series" (超星神シリーズ; Chouseishin Shirizu) are not generally referred to as "Sentai," even though they share many of the same characteristics.

Toho's "Zone Fighter" (流星人間ゾーン; Ryuusei Ningen Zoon), on the other hand, falls into a category typically referred to as "Giant Heroes" (巨大ヒーロー), which also includes Tsuburaya's Ultraman series and P Productions' Ambassador Magma (マグマ大使; Maguma Taishi), among others.

I hope there is no further confusion. Thank you for your time and have a good evening.

[DaiKamonohashi]

OK so basically Ultraman and Zone are Superman only in giant form? OK, cool. Thanks.

That's a pretty gross over-generalization but if it gets you through the night, that's alright.

[Ocean]

What about the all powerful and all knowing Maguma from Gorath?

he's not a kaiju. he as said multiple times by a member we know, is a god.

Isn't King Kong a God as well? As is Mothra?

[Kaijusamurai]

If you want to break it down even further, Ultraman, Zone Fighter, Gridman (kinda'), Mirrorman, Fireman, etc. etc., and other Giant Heroes can be referred to as kyojin which literally means "giant person," similar to how seijin means "star person" or alien, and how chikyujin means "Earth person," or "earthling."

That's also how the Ultras are typically referred to in the first episode of their respective series. Ultraseven X is called akai kyojin, which means "red giant." Kyojin in the sub of Ultraman Tiga is translated as "Titan," which makes sense in context.

Basically, Godzilla's a kaiju, Zone Fighter's a kyojin.

[Dynomy84]

What about the all powerful and all knowing Maguma from Gorath?

he's not a kaiju. he as said multiple times by a member we know, is a god.

Isn't King Kong a God as well? As is Mothra?

yup. as far as I'm sure, they are all gods.

[DaiKamonohashi]

kyojin which literally means "giant person,"

Wait... I thought "dai" meant "giant"? Y'know, like daikaiju.

Your idea of Japanese vocabulary is very limited. Just as we have different words like big, giant, gigantic, large, etc., there are more ways to indicate something's large size than just "dai/oo" (大), which can also simply mean "great," instead of giant in a literal sense. "Kyojin" is written 巨人. The first character is basically a synonym for 大.