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Ryusei Ningen Zon 7
episode 7 / Zone Fighter - Zone Family's Critical Moment!
Japan 1973
produced by Kimihiko Eto, Shunji Takahasi, Yoshio Nishikawa, Tomoyuki Tanaka (executive) for Mannen-Sha, Toho/NTV (= Nippon Television Network)
directed by Kengo Furusawa
starring Kazuya Aoyama, Kazumi Kitahara, Takashi Sato, Shoji Nakayama, Sachiko Kozuki, Shiro Amakusa, Hideaki Ohara, Munemaru Koda (voice), Kiyoshi Kobayashi (voice)
written by Satoshi Kurumi, created by Tomoyuki Tanaka, music by Goh Misawa, special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano
TV-series Zone Fighter
review by Mike Haberfelner
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This episode basically starts like episodes of the series tend to end,
with Zone Fighter (Kazuya Aoyama) fighting and defeating yet another giant
monster, this time the rather generic Dragon King who tries to capture
Zone Fighter under a rock and then destroy a local dam - ultimately to no
avail. And since Zone Fighter has so far all of the Garoga's Terror
Beasts, Gold Garoga (voiced by Munemaru Koda) opts for a different
approach, and he has Hotaru (Kazumi Kitahara) aka Zone Angel, Zone
Fighter's sister, kidnapped and replaced by Garoga 13, who has taken
Hotaru's form and likeness. She is to destroy the Zone family from within,
first trying to poison their coffee, and when that fails by setting up a
time bomb. But she's found out by Mama Zone (Sachiko Kozuki) when she
spots the skin between her fingers, something the Garoga for all their
shapeshifting abilities have never learned to overcome. So the fake Hotari
tries to beat mama to a pulp, but is ultimately saved by Zone Fighter. In
the meantime, friend of the family Takeru (Hideaki Ohara), who has
witnessed Hotaru's kidnapping, tries to save her but is quickly
outnumbered and overcome by the Garoga. But he helps Hotaru send out a
beacon for Zone Fighter to come rescue them. And rescuing Zone Fighter
does, and then he learns about the timebomb and saves his family in the
nick of time. Which means of course the Garoga's plan has failed, so
another Terror Beast, Gilmaras, a monster with a detachable nose that can
shoot fire from where its nose has been, is sent to earth, but Zone
Fighter has no problems defeating that one as well ...
One of the more entertaining episodes of Zone Fighter,
as it strays from the formula a bit - but not by depriving us of monster
fights in the process - and actually adds moments of suspense to the
proceedings (even if nobody doubts there'll be a happy ending for the Zone
family). And while the first monster fight is (within reason) rather
well-staged with some good miniature work, it's really the monster with
the detachable nose that sells this entry.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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