Zone Fighter (1973)

[LSD Jellyfish]

For a series that features Godzilla, Ghidorah and Gigan, and serves as an answer to Tsuburaya's Ultraman, I'm surprised we don't have a proper Zone Fighter Discussion thread on this forum. Those who know, will know where they can currently find it, as of right now there isn't an easy way to find a proper English release.

Anyways, over The weekend I watched the first 7 episodes. Three of those episodes included Godzilla and/or King Ghidorah. Controversial opinion, but I think the series is severely flawed, and get why it didn't stick. To begin with, there's way too many characters. Rather than an SSP, the main characters are all part of one family unit. The Zone Family on paper. This sounds great, until you realize most of the series, when they aren't fighting, are just in their house, or some other really nondescript location. The plot is also glossed over. Rather than taking the time to show where the Zone fighter family is from, or the invasion of their former planet, we are just quickly greeted to a fifteen second plot summation before the beginning of each episode. On top of that, the series is super formulaic. This heavily suffers from what I like to call the "modern Ultraman problem". Rather than the monsters having any real agency, they are controlled by the Garoga (more on them in a bit) and show up just so that Zone Fighter can have something to fight with in the episode. As of yet, none of them really play an integral role in the episode, other than being a beast of burden for the Garoga. And since we solely deal with the Garoga, this means the series is really repetitve. So far, the series has been nothing but:
"Garogas lay a trap for the Zone family, while they do something mundane. The trap is found out. The Zone Fighter fights the Garogas (this gets ssssuuuuper repetitive after the third episode), the Garogas summon a monster, Zone fights the monster. Some sort of fake moral lesson is learned).

So far, the episodes with Godzilla and the other Kaiju have been the highlights. It's clear anytime other Toho monsters appear the budget goes up. When Godzilla appears in Zone Fighter, you can tell they put more effort into the budget. A lot of the episodes feature Zone Fighter fighting a creature at night, usually with little background elements (like buildings). Sure enough the episode with Godzilla vs. Spyler and Warigar features an actual set and shows some destruction before the creatures fight. Also, the way that Godzilla gets to destroy some of the monsters, no spoilers, is more impressive than most of the other stuff in the series. While Ghidorah is noticeably more low budget, and the two-parter he has also has some really bad pacing and story issues, the final fight with him his impressive visually and you can tell they knew they had to put a lot more effort into the other creatures.

I'll keep watching Zone Fighter, I'm really looking forward to the other Godzilla appearances and Gigan. Several episodes are directed by Ishiro Honda and Jun Fukuda as well. A lot of it just feels like Godzilla vs. Megalon. Hell, swap out Jet Jaguar for Zone Fighter and Godzilla vs. Megalon is just an hour and a half zone fighter special. I just think the series is super repetitive thus far. It's unfortunately the type of thing that if it wasn't connected to Godzilla, and also didn't have some genre significance, I would just watch one of the other older Ultraman series I haven't seen yet.

[Voyager]

The show contains the canonical death of Gigan. That's a pro in my eyes.

The show also claims that the Garogas created King Ghidorah. It kind of lessens Ghidorah for me. That's a con.

It has Godzilla. That's a pro.

[LSD Jellyfish]

The show contains the canonical death of Gigan. That's a pro in my eyes.

The show also claims that the Garogas created King Ghidorah. It kind of lessens Ghidorah for me. That's a con.

It has Godzilla. That's a pro.

I'm not sure if I like the idea of Gigan dying/exploding. But at the same time, always more Gigan=good and I guess some sense of finality to Gigan would be nice after him repeatedly running away. Ghidorah gets a canonical death in DAM. MG is destroyed for good in 1975. Titanosaurus either dies, or is pacified from mind control in 1975. Megalon presumably won't be a threat anymore due to the seatopians stopping. I suppose Gigan dying wraps up "the one that got away".

Another pro about the series is that some of the fights are pretty decent. Not comparable to some of the Godzilla film fights, but some satisfying stuff does happen.

[Chrispy_G]

Even if the entire series as a whole isn't so amazing....it would be great to get some kind of official release that AT LEAST includes all of the episodes that featured Godzilla or his co-stars. That would be a hell of a bonus disc in any Box Set, as well.

[Megalon-5]

The show also claims that the Garogas created King Ghidorah. It kind of lessens Ghidorah for me. That's a con.

Having seen the show, the Garogas don't claim that at all. Really wonder where that rumor came from.

As for the show itself, it's ok. I think the fight choreography, music and the general presentation is just as good as any of the 70's Ultra shows and their ilk, and the inclusion of Godzilla and friends is of course, a major point of interest...but once you get past the flash, there's really not much there of worth. Like, past the flash, I don't think there's much of substance character or storywise compared to the Ultraman shows at the time, let alone the various Ultraman clone shows like Mirrorman, Jumborg Ace, Iron King, Spectreman, etc. It's just sort a watered-down Ultraman show with Godzilla for some extra spice, which is a shame, since I think Zone Fighter could've easily been one of the best of the pack, but in the end, it falls short sadly.

[The Octopus]

Imagine how cool it would have been if Angilas, Megalon and Jet Jaguar showed up to?

[Chrispy_G]

I wonder if Toho ever considered transferring Godzilla to the small screen in a 'monster of the week' style show like this?

I mean, having him and Ghidorah and Gigan cross into it, they were clearly flirting with the idea....I wonder if they ever considered just doing a weekly Godzilla series full-stop? Might have been interesting.

[eabaker]

The show is worth watching in its entirety just for Takeru's awesome jacket.

[GojiDog]

I've always wanted to watch the show, but I've only seen clips.

[Loganrules115]

I had tried multiple times to find the show but I just can't find any subbed episodes.

[MaxRebo320]

I think it's pretty bad, sadly. As stated, the production values are at least on-part with what Tsuburaya was doing at the same time. There's some legit craftsmanship put into those effects (Often by Kawakita or Nakano), the monster designs are pretty fun and the music score is great. But the show is all style and little substance, with mediocre scripts, lukewarm characters (Though the actors involved do the best with what they've got) and just a general feel of disinterest from those making it. I think the first few episodes show promise and the Godzilla ones are fun (The King Ghidorah two-parter is probably the best story and is on-par with some of the better episodes of shows like Spectreman or Jumborg Ace), but it just becomes a slog to watch after a while.

And I agree the Sakimori family is just real crowded in general. It probably should have just been Hikaru, Hotaru and Akira with grandpa or whatever (Them losing their parents to the Garoga might have given more weight to their conflict too). Dad's alright (Shoji Nakayama is always good), but the mom is honestly one of the worst characters in any Toku show I've seen. She has the unfortunate stereotype of constantly worrying, but then in one two-parter (A really bad one, I must warn), her, Hotaru and Akira are out for a relaxing swim while a meteorite is on a collision course with Earth. I can accept bug-eyed aliens that fuse into giant monsters, but that was unbelievably stupid. Their friend Jo is kind of cool and gives the show a needed "everyman" presence, but he disappears in the last few episodes. Oh, and the show has no ending, just a warning.

I reviewed each episode of the show when it first got subbed, if you're interested. Maybe its just because I've been growing a little more distant from Toku shows as of late (Unless they're really good), but I feel I'd be giving episodes even lesser ratings nowadays.

https://betacapsulereviews.wordpress.com/zone-fighter/

I'd call the show a failed experiment...but experiments usually put in some effort. It just seems like Toho jumping on the bandwagon in the more lackluster way imaginable, and well, their result was a prematurely canceled show. That said, I don't regret watching it. There is still some fun to be had (If nothing else, its a goofy slice of 70s Tokusatsu) and I suppose its an interesting failure (Unlike a lot of the run-of-the-mill stuff Toei would start churning out around this point). But yeah, if you want a good Kyodai hero show that isn't Ultraman, watch Mirrorman (Easily the best), Spectreman, Iron King or Jumborg Ace. Hey LSD, I'll pay you good money if you can get Silver Kamen and Fireman (And Inazuman Flash, but that's not kyodai) translated.

[LSD Jellyfish]

I reviewed each episode of the show when it first got subbed, if you're interested. Maybe its just because I've been growing a little more distant from Toku shows as of late (Unless they're really good), but I feel I'd be giving episodes even lesser ratings nowadays.

https://betacapsulereviews.wordpress.com/zone-fighter/

I have been reading through your reviews. I think a lot of your summaries end with,"Nothing stellar, but some good moments are to be had" or "The episodes starts off strong with monster action right away, but quickly devolves into a pretty predictable and average affair, but far from terrible. ".

Not to spoil too much for those who haven't seen it, but despite how boring some moments can be in the standard parts of the episode, when Zone Fighter fights Ghidorah on Venus there's a lot of memorable moments, like Zone blocking the beams. The episodes always have one or two interesting things going for them, like in one episode the Dragon King pushes a literal mountain up against Zone and it is really tense. But then it's more of the same with the Zone family fighting the Garogas over and over again. I'll say that overall I think sans the designs, some of the monster action is longer and more fulfilling than the Ultraman series.I t doesn't do much for me, since many of the monsters feel superfluous to the story.

I'd call the show a failed experiment...but experiments usually put in some effort. It just seems like Toho jumping on the bandwagon in the more lackluster way imaginable, and well, their result was a prematurely canceled show. That said, I don't regret watching it. There is still some fun to be had (If nothing else, its a goofy slice of 70s Tokusatsu) and I suppose its an interesting failure (Unlike a lot of the run-of-the-mill stuff Toei would start churning out around this point). But yeah, if you want a good Kyodai hero show that isn't Ultraman, watch Mirrorman (Easily the best), Spectreman, Iron King or Jumborg Ace. Hey LSD, I'll pay you good money if you can get Silver Kamen and Fireman (And Inazuman Flash, but that's not kyodai) translated.

You can definitely see the effort, and moments of creativity. But a failed experiment sounds about right. I don't think they knew what they wanted when making the show. It's why Godzilla sort of just appears. They don't know If he should be as important as Zone, or just a special treat. All those Tokatsu shows you listed are still things I need to see.

Regarding the last thing about the translations, thanks for the offer, but at this point I don't feel comfortable or qualified enough with my Japanese enough to translate things professionally. Right now some of the more obscure manga peaks my interest more and I'm doing it just because I'm also simultaneously reading them. I will say once my damned debit card finally arrives I might consider seeking out dvds or any other ways of getting physical copies of some of the more obscure Japanese media.

Added in 3 days 22 hours 50 minutes 24 seconds:
Edit, just watched episode 8,9, and 10.

I again thought the episodes have a really poor sense of logic and conclusion. For example, the spider episode revolves around the spider infecting and making animals larger, but it only affects one creature; the gorilla. Then, I assume it transforms into Spider Uros, although it never really is made clear what happens. The series has a big issue with logic in some moments. Anyways, controversial opinion: I liked the Garoga Gorilla.



It's a silly ape costume, yes, but it has just enough derrangedness to give it a really creepy vibe. I like how it's one of the few Zone Fighter monsters that the characters directly interact with. It's also interesting that we finally see the Garogas actually beat the Zone Family in a fist fight. One of the few genuinely tense moments. I just wish we got to see more of the transformed animals. It would have been cool if another Gorilla or animal. I like the simplicity of the monster, versus the other monsters of the series which feel like thrown together, lesser Gigans.

I disagree with MaxRebo on the next episode, the one with Shadorah. Some of the stuff with Shadorah in the episode is cool, and I like the ending, sort of, but I wish we could have actually seen Shadorah explode or something. At least in this episode the Garogas actually had more of a cohesive plan (weaken Zone, attack a nuclear plant).

Speaking of Gigan, episode 10 is one of my personal favorites. Unlike many of the other episodes this one doesn't feel super empty. We get to see the sports car center Hikaru is racing at, and actually are introduced to a few people, including Shikasu. There's some actual character drama, and even if it ends tragically (and rather violently) it feels leaps above some of the other episodes in regards to having actual consequences. Gigan was cool. He isn't as cool as he is in the movies, but both fights he is in are fun, and don't do harm to him. I thought the way Godzilla keeps randomly appearing is very strange, and how Godzilla basically just leaves the fight, but I get why both things needed to happen. It's also the only time we ever see Gigan fight solo against Godzilla, and he does decently.

Added in 9 days 2 hours 19 minutes 53 seconds:
Finished Zone Fighter. I feel like at the end of the series I know next to nothing about the Zone family other than:
Hikaru likes to race sports cars. Hotaru is 16. Akira is always very friendly to other kids and wants to get along with everyone. Someone also might like to have a train/toy shop...or something?

^The biggest problem of the show is that right there^

We never get any development of the actual Zone family beyond incredibly superficial things like the Zone Family standing for peace and saving the world. The world building and it's own consistent logic make little sense either. Minus one random episode with a traitor Peacelander episode we have zero actual knowledge about where the Zone family is from. Same goes for the Garoga. There's actually a lot of interesting episodes or stories that could be developed from the set-up, but no. Worse off, the show doesn't ever really give any actual perspective of what the public/Japan thinks of all this. Presumably people know that monsters are attacking, and exist, but we never get any references to self defense forces, and a lot of the times the Zone Family seems to contradict itself on what level of knowledge the humans possess about the current situations. Minus a brief training montage with Godzilla, Godzilla never gets any actual establishment or development either. The show doesn't also have any consistency in terms of the Garoga's Terror Beasts which is a big problem. Sometimes the episodes have the monsters already be created, sometimes they're created on earth, and other times they're random fusions of Garoga's. Logical inconsistencies run rampant throughout. Lots of confusing editing, and just poor story telling. Characters being in a stressful or dangerous situation, only to suddenly be relaxing in the next scene.

Honestly, I thought the show was boring. Occasionally, the show has some really good moments, fights, set-ups and designs, but it's so inconsistent and the highs aren't worth it. You could just watch the first episode, and all the episodes that feature Godzilla, Gigan, or Ghidorah, and maybe another two or three episodes and be completely fine. Yes of course Ultraman and Ultraseven had bad episodes. But at least there were a lot of great and fantastic episodes to supplement them. The other thing is that all the episodes of Ultraman aren't the exact same thing. Most of these episodes carry the exact formula and it gets so tiring how often the Zone family physically fights the Garoga's ground troops or how many times someone gets kidnapped.

Final opinion is that it's worth watching it for completion sake. If you're not doing that, watch the episodes with the Godzilla series monsters and you'll be fine.

At least Bakugon was kinda cool, you can actually make out what it's supposed to be rather than a mishmash of parts:

[edgaguirus]

I've only seen a few youtube clips so far. What I've seen looks very standard for the genre, but I'd try a few episodes just to get a real impression of it.

[LegendZilla]

Toho is really doing Godzilla a disservice by not having him star in TV productions of theirs.

[MaxRebo320]

You're bound to find elements that will likely gets repetitive in any Tokusatsu show from the 70s, or really, any show period. I guess I'm stating the obvious by saying the show was intended to be watched once a week and that your average viewer wouldn't get as tired by a formula when subjugating themselves to it only once a week as opposed to once or more a day (Or however you watched it - I'm guessing you didn't watch only one a week anyways)...that said, weekly, daily or several times daily, there's little fun to be had. If the characters aren't going to be interesting, than the plots should at least be creative, but they aren't really. Like I said, it just feels like nobody involved had any real investment in the project, just getting in on the Superhero show bandwagon because everyone else was. While I don't know if they're necessarily good or not, some of Toho's other superhero shows like Rainbowman, Diamond Eye and Megaloman seem more interesting with actual creative visions behind them.

Toho is really doing Godzilla a disservice by not having him star in TV productions of theirs.

Well, given this our only indication of what one might have been like, not really...

[Omegazilla]

There a place to watch this? I've been wanting to watch this show for years. It looks more Showa than the entire Showa Godzilla film series if that is possible.

[MaxRebo320]

It looks more Showa than the entire Showa Godzilla film series if that is possible.

Well, considering the Showa era lasted from 1926 to 1989, and Zone Fighter ran a mere 26 episodes in 1973, staying completely within its time period, that isn't the case...

Its tonally the most similar to Godzilla vs. Megalon, which is pretty par-for-course with most 70s Tokusatsu superhero shows. There are certainly some zany moments, but not enough to make it crazy fun (ala Ultraman Taro), nor is it good enough to be...well, good. That said. I've probably become pretty desensitized - if you're more unfamiliar with 70s Toku shows than I (sadly) am, you might get a bigger kick out of the goofier stuff.

[Omegazilla]

You completely misunderstood my statement. I was saying "it", it being Zone Fighter, LOOKS more Showa than than the entire Showa Godzilla FILM series, meaning that I was saying it looks like it encapsulates the spirit of the Showa series more than all of the films. I was also being tongue in cheek and a bit hyperbolic because like I said, I haven't actually seen it as much as I want to.

[MaxRebo320]

You completely misunderstood my statement. I was saying "it", it being Zone Fighter, LOOKS more Showa than than the entire Showa Godzilla FILM series, meaning that I was saying it looks like it encapsulates the spirit of the Showa series more than all of the films. I was also being tongue in cheek and a bit hyperbolic because like I said, I haven't actually seen it as much as I want to.

I was in-part being sarcastic, but once again, having seen the show, I must refute.

Considering how broad/diverse the Showa Godzilla series was, to think this show features the best elements of each entry in the nearly 20 year run by that point is simply not true. Its just a typical, below-average 70s Tokusatsu show. Godzilla vs. Megalon: The TV Series, perhaps, but Showa Godzilla: The TV Series? Definitely not. Aside from some obvious core concepts and monsters, tonally, the show is absolutely nothing like a 1960s entry.

[Omegazilla]

I see. Like I said I did not see it. I was just going by what little I have seen. Seems hard to find aside from a few clips on the internet. Is there a retailer or anything that sells this? How does it compare to other similar shows of like era, like Ultraman for example? You said it was below average. How so? Are there any strengths to it? Having Godzilla, Ghidorah, and Gigan looks cool and from what I saw Gigan has a bit of an upgrade.