Mighty Jack
Mighty Jack was a tokusatsu science fiction/espionage/action TV series. Created by Japanese effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, the show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions and was broadcast on Fuji TV from April 6, 1968 to June 29, 1968, with a total of 13 one-hour episodes. The music for the episodes was done by Isao Tomita and Kunio Miyauchi.
Reportedly, Eiji Tsuburaya considered this series his masterwork because the focus was on the people, rather than on the vehicles and special effects. This focus on the people was similar to the works of Gerry Anderson, of which Tsuburaya was a big fan. The Mighty Jack mecha/HQ featured in this series also has some similarities to Tsuburaya's previous TV masterpiece, Ultra Seven.
Even for the original series of 13 one hour-long episodes, the ratings were low. The follow-up series, Fight! Mighty Jack, fared better in the ratings, perhaps because of its inclusion of monsters and aliens, rather than purely human evildoers like Q.
The insignia of the titular heroic spy team has also become the current logo for Tsuburaya Productions.
Plot
"Mighty Jack" is the name of both a top-secret international peacekeeping organization's 11 agents, and the technologically advanced flying submarine "Mighty-Gō" they use to fight the plots of the terrorist organization "Q".Cast
- Hideaki Nitani
- Hiroshi Minami
- Naoko Kubo
- Akiyoshi Kasuga
- Wakako Ikeda
- Masanari Nihei
- Hideyo Amamoto
- Masayoshi Fukuoka
- Yoshitaka Tanaka
- Noriaka Inoue
- Mitsuru Ōya
- Gorō Mutsu
- Anne Marie
- Jirō Yanaga
Episodes 1~ 13
Recapture K52
Burning rose
Be forever, my motherland!
Scalpel and lipstick
Hot ice
Don't look at the moon!
Awesome Aurora
Guide to Hell
Bombing order
Golden burning
Big city horror
Phantom Airship Operation
Staff
| Photography Art Directors Lighting Practical Effects Assistant Directors | Kazuo Sagawa, Sozo Inagaki, Masao Sekiguchi Toru Narita, Akihiko Iguchi, Tatsuro Fukada Kazuo Kobayashi, Kuichiro Kishida, Masaru Kondo Sadashige Numasa, Tetsuro Nakajima Goro Takahashi, Shizuo Mori, Koichi Ishiguro |
''Fight! Mighty Jack''
The more comical sequel series, Fight! Mighty Jack, aired on the same network from July 6 to December 28, 1968, with a total of 26 half-hour episodes, equaling the original in length.This series has several humorous references to the early Ultra Series.
- The opening scene of the series is almost exactly like that of Ultraman.
- One episode of this series is quite notable, as it features a comical guest appearance by Kohji Moritsugu, who played Dan Moroboshi, the alter-ego of Ultra Seven, poking fun at his popular role. He plays a mechanic, who, in one scene, looked as though he was about to transform into Ultra Seven by pulling the Ultra Eye from his pocket to put it on, but the red object he slowly pulls from his pocket is actually a small wrench, with which he gets right to work on fixing a machine.
Staff
| Photography Masao Sekiguchi, Takeo Masuko, Kiyoshi Suzuki Art Tatsuro Fukada, Akihiko Iguchi Lighting Kuichiro Kishida, Katsuya Takano Practical Effects Tetsuro Nakajima, Sadashige Tsukamoto Optical Photography Minoru Nakano Assistant Directors Koichi Ishiguro, Goro Takahashi |
| Editing By Akio Ogura Production Managers Yosuke Mizuno, Kiichiro Saito, Ken Kumagai, Hiroshi Uemura Production Assistant Masahiro Tsukahara Sound Recording Aoi Studio, Yoshimasa Matsumoto Sound Effects Norihiko Izumi, Kyoritsu Acoustics, Chogoro Chiku, Tadamasa Nishimoto Film Processing Tokyo Laboratory Special Thanks Edwards, Standard, Fuji Xerox, Nagashima Onsen, Gamer Vineyard |
| Special Technology Sadamasa Arikawa, Kazuo Sagawa, Junkichi Oki Directors Keinosuke Tsuchiya, Kazuho Mitsuda, Shohei Tojo, Hiroshi Fukuhara Produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Fuji TV |