Zone Fighter

HISTORY

Also sometimes referred to as Zone: The Human Meteor, the show's literal title, Zone Fighter is Toho's best known live action show internationally. It was Toho's answer to the rising popularity of television in the 1960's and 1970's in Japan, particularly the show Ultraman. Zone Fighter boasted some of the top names Toho had to offer in the genre for its production, including directors Ishiro Honda, who directed the bulk of the episodes, and Jun Fukuda. The show also featured a rather modest budget with special effect work by Koichi Kawakita and Teruyoshi Nakano.

The main story of the series documents the adventures of the Zone Family after landing on Earth. This is following the destruction of the Zone's home world, Peaceland, by the Garoga Forces, a hostile alien race. The Garogas also venture to Earth and attempt to conquer the planet. However, their efforts are foiled time and time again by the Zone Family, using their inherit powers along with a variety of gadgets and vehicles at their disposal. The Garoga's preferred attack tactic, though, is the use of their genetically created creatures, almost always of immense size. This calls for the oldest brother to change into Zone Fighter, a large being of extraordinary power, to do battle with the monsters.

The Zone Fighter series is most renowned for featuring three of Toho's better known characters in several episodes: Godzilla, King Ghidorah and Gigan. Godzilla appears in five episodes in total, King Ghidorah in two, and Gigan in one. Staying true to the nature of the Godzilla films at the time, the King of the Monsters appears here as Zone Fighter's ally, while King Ghidorah and Gigan both face off against the title character on separate occasions.

Monsters

Aliens, SDF & Misc.

EPISODE GUIDE

DVDs and Blu-rays

CD Soundtracks

Background and Trivia

• Toho submitted the television show to the US copyright office on December 27th, 2001 with the registration number of PA0001195978. The 26 episode series was submitted under its international title, Zone Fighter, and its Romaji title of Ryusei Ningen Zone.
• The budget for the show was roughly ¥500,000,000.
• Director Jun Fukuda is not particularly proud of his work on the series. When asked about the TV show in interviews, the director would often give responses such as "you don't have to mention that". This account is mentioned in Age of the Gods (self-published).
• The show originally aired on Nippon Television Network on Mondays at 7:00PM (19:00).
• Despite the show ending with no definitive conclusion, it was noted that 26 episodes is all that was originally planned to be produced. It was not impacted and canceled due to financial pinches from the oil crisis occurring around this time. This information is found in Age of the Gods (self-published).
• The 1998 CD-Rom Godzilla Movie Studio Tour mentions the show in reference to their listing for Gigan. In English, the CD-Rom cites the show as Ryusei Ningen Zone. However, it should be noted that this predates Toho's copyright claim for the show under the title Zone Fighter which happened three years later.
• When director Jun Fukuda, who worked on the series, was asked about kaiju in media, he noted that he felt TV was not a good venue for them. He preferred movies and the big screen experience for featuring them. Special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano, who also worked on the series, felt differently. He actually preferred the 1.33:1 scope that TV offered the genre, stating that it made the monsters feel taller, larger and more massive. He notes that Godzilla (1954) and Rodan (1956) used this aspect very well and that were "way more awesome than anything that followed". These details are located in Age of the Gods (self-published).
• In Episode #8: Overcome! The Terrifying Invader, a Lake Tanzawa (丹沢湖 - Tanzawako) is featured. This is where the Terror-Beast Missile falls into the water. However, Lake Tanzawa is an artificial lake that was created by the completion of the Miho Dam in 1978. As a result, the appearance of the lake in the show actually predates the creation of the actual lake five years later.
• In Episode #9: Search for the Secret of the Red Spider!, the Zone Family ends up going to a zoo in the episode. While there, many sound effects are heard to represent the various animals. Interestingly, many of these sound effects are samples that were used to create the roars for well known kaiju. Examples include a cheetah using the King Kong roar, a tiger using the Manda roar, a orangutan using the Minilla roar, a black bear using the Giant Condor roar and a sea lion using the Black Moth roar.
• In Episode #13: Shiver! The Birthday of Horror, Takeru Jo is seen painting a giant model of a spacecraft. This is actually the Helios-7 prop from Space Amoeba (1970).
• In Episode #15: Submersion! Godzilla, Save Tokyo, there is a Godzilla balloon/sculpture on the playground, continuing the in-universe Godzilla merchandising trend of the 1970's film series that started with the toy Godzilla and King Ghidorah seen at the start of Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971).
• In Episode #21: Invincible! Godzilla's Rampage, the sparring session with Godzilla is said to be testing Fighter's recovery from injuries- likely a reference to his beatdown from Goram in the previous episode. In fact, the appearance of the Garoga Base on the Peak of Hell is carrying through from Episode 18 and 19 into Episode 20 gives these four episodes, 18-21, a serialized format that is unseen in other episodes.
• Episode #25: Carnage! Zone & Godzilla vs. the Terror-Beast Grand Alliance actually refers to the 'Terror Beast Allied Forces'. However, the term for allied forces here (Rengo-gun - 同盟國) is also the actual proper noun used for the Allies in World War II. As a result, this title might be making a veiled comparison between the evil army of Terror-Beasts that threatens Japan to the way the Allies threatened Japan in World War II.
• The character of Takeru Jo appears in 17 out of 26 episodes, ranging from episodes 2 to 22. This is only two fewer episodes than Baron Garoga, the main series antagonist. Through the course of the series he never discovers the Sakimori family's secret identity as Zone Fighter, Zone Angel, and Zone Junior, despite being aware that they are aliens and having several obvious clues mentioned directly in front of him. He is always knocked out or elsewhere when they transform.