AIP-TV first airings

[H-Man]

Nice finds!

[Joseph Goodman]

Another reference to Daimajin as "Vengeance of the Monster" can be found in . A G-Fan who grew up in the Philippines also recalls seeing it under that title in .

[H-Man]

[O.Supreme]

Slightly off topic, bt it is quite possible that Gamera vs Zigra may hold a reord for being the film that has a longest lag time between original release in Japan (1971), and getting an official release in the United States (mid-late 80's Sandy Frank). Even with the seemingly long delay of the Heisei Godzilla films, they weren't anywhere near the possible 15 year (+/-) gap this film endured (quality aside).

*From a Pictorial History of Science Fiction Films by Jeff Rovin (1975)

I posted this in a thread about the fabled Leoman title, but I was just wondering, how publications were able to report on a film arguably most americans had not seen. This does beg the question...about when was the first US TV airing of Zigra? Also is there any evidence the film was shopped around to other distributors from 71-85? It is odd that Filmways got Super Monster out relatively quick after its initial release, but Zigra floundered in obscurity for so long.

[H-Man]

Shochiku handled worldwide distribution of Super Monster (featured in several Shochiku ads in Variety through 1982) which could likely explain why that was picked up when Zigra wasn't. Judging from dialogue in the dubbed version of the latter, Frank had Zigra dubbed in 1985 (in England), but it wasn't seen until 1987 when the USA Network picked up King Features' syndication package including the Sandy Frank films. It was released on video later that year.

I think, technically, the longest gap between original Japanese release and U.S. release belongs to the third Majin film. It took almost 32 years for a distributor to release that here. I suppose you could also make a case for Genocide, The Living Skeleton, and other Japanese genre features Criterion holds, since barring "Japanese theater" releases those had to wait many decades to be seen in this country.

[O.Supreme]

[H-Man]