Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I was looking for some other stuff when stumbling across these clips from Majin Vander, a toku show from 1969 produced by Nissan Pro who 10 years earlier had done Marine Kong.


Apparently this is based on a by Osamu Tezuka and there was also an anime, though I haven't found much about that.

Well, suffice to say I'm a magpie for weird, obscure, hard to find shows. It doesn't seem to be on DVD, but if anyone happens across any episodes, please let me know! I did find the and I'm guessing (which doesn't seem to have the robot in it at all) but hope there exists somewhere better copies of all 13 episodes.

Excellent blog post about Monster Prince (Kaijuu Ouji).

If you all aren't reading the Black Sun blog then you are missing out on great information about tokusatsu shows and anime from the showa era.

That's a great blog and I visit regularly myself. We have strikingly similar tastes.
I guess it's rebounding from all the CGI I've worked in over the past 20 years, but I've really come to enjoy Old Time Radio, cliffhanger serials, really old movies, and stuff like this a lot more than all the loud, flashy, explody effects movies of today.
Maybe livin' in the past ain't so bad.

Dan, I have some episodes of MAJIN BANDER/VANDER on DVD-R if you want to borrow them at some point. I have a strong fascination for the early days of Japanese television as well as the oddball shows which have been lost in rights disputes or obscurity. MAJIN BANDER was created when the plan to adapt Osamu Tezuka's manga Majin Garon, fizzled out (partly because of Tezuka's picky nature). In development hell, the production company and the network created their own version, which became the short-lived MAJIN BANDER. Another attempt was made to produce Majin Garon as a live action series in the early 1970s, but the pilot failed to impress. So, the network asked them to create a cross between Ultraman and Kamen Rider, instead.