Stuck In
Somebody's Frame
Credits
April 2, 1973 - September 24, 1973, 26 episodes
Created by Tanaka, Tomoyuki
Directed by Fukuda, Jun & Honda, Ishirô
Music by Misawa,
Go
Character
Actor/Actress
Sakimori, Hikaru/Zone Fighter
Aoyama, Kazuya
Zone Fighter (giant form)
Kusumi, Momoru
Sakimori, Hotaru/Zone Angel
Kitahara, Kazumi
Sakimori, Akira/Zone Junior
Sato, Takashii
Sakimori, Raita (Zone Great)
Amagusa, Shiro
Sakimori, Yoichiro (Zone Father)
Nakayama, Shoji
Sakimori, Tsukiko (Zone Mother)
Kozuki, Sachiko
Jo, Takeru
Ohara, Hideaki
Voice of Gold Garoga
Kôda, Munemaru
Gojira (Godzilla)
Kawai, Toru & Zushi, Isao
Narrator
Kobayashi,
Kiyoshi
Six aliens, the Zone Family, come to earth after their planet, Peaceland, is destroyed by the Garoga Army, a race of goblin like creatures with long antennae. On earth the Zone Family is known as the Sakimori Family. Each member of the family takes a name that is somehow related to light. Zone Great (the grandfather) takes the name Raita ("lighter"), Zone Father takes the name Yoichiro (yo means "sun"), Zone Mother takes the name Tsukiko (tsuki means "moon"), Zone Fighter becomes Hikaru ("to light" or "to shine" "to glow"), Zone Angel becomes Hotaru ("firefly" or "lightning bug") and Zone Junior is Akira (short for kirakira "glitter, sparkle, glisten, twinkle").
When the Garoga Army targets their new home, the three children, Hikaru, Hotaru and Akira, become Zone Fighter, Zone Angel and Zone Junior, to defend it. Zone Great (grandfather) leads the family, and with Zone Father and Zone Mother act as advisers to their warrior children.
Zone Fighter does most of the combat, becoming giant sized to fight the giant Terror-Beasts. Zone Angel and Zone Junior pilot an aircraft called Smokey, firing the "Smokey Beam" at the monsters or they fly under their own power and fire proton beams at the monsters.
Zone Fighter can of course fly. He can also travel through other dimensions with his Astral Dash. His combat techniques include Meteor Kick and Meteor Spin. He also has several weapons, the two most often used are Meteor Proton Beam and the Meteor Missile Might (bracelets which fire missiles). It is usually the Meteor Missile Might that finishes off the monsters. To protect himself from the monster's attacks he can create two shields Meteor Zone Barrior (which simply blocks the attack) and Meteor Reflective Barrior (which reflects the monster's attack back on it).
The proton beam is introduced in the second episode when it is used not by Zone Fighter but by Zone Angel and Zone Junior. Zone Fighter doesn't use his protron beam until the third episode. Smokey's beam isn't used until the fourth episode.
The giant Zone Fighter's belt is an energy level monitor. It's blue when he's fully charged, turns yellow when he's starting to run low and red when he's dangerously low on energy. It flashes red when he is nearly out of energy. Zone Fighter is powered by solar radiation (revealed in episode 5), however during combat he cannot absorb sunlight fast enough (probably because of the Earth's atmosphere reducing the amount of solar radiation which gets through) so he requires a charged energy capsule as a back up power supply. The capsule is on his head. When his belt is flashing red he calls upon Zone Angel or Zone Junior to recharge him. They accomplish this by either beaming energy into the capsule or by replacing the empty capsule with a fully charged one. If they are unable to recharge him he will revert to human sized Zone Fighter. In episode 10 Zone Fighter is drained completly and forced to become Hikaru again.
Human sized Zone Fither, Zone Angel and Zone Junior all carry miniature robots on their belts. These robots are recording devices. Either one of the warriors can record a message then send the robot to their secret headquarters in a hidden rome of the Sakimori home. The robots' feet are rockets. The three warriors also carry pistols which can fire an armor piercing bullet or a proton beam.
The Sakimori family car transforms into Mighty Liner (first seen in episode 2), a flying car armed with a cannon used to blast the Garogans and their black cars.
The Sakimori's house is protected by an invisible Proton Barrier which the Garoga cannot penetrate. When Zone Fighter is in jeaporady Zone Great can activate Great Raideki a device which generates lightning like blasts. Using the weapon is dangerous because it drains energy from Zone Great, shortening his life. Sakimori, Hikaru makes a living as a race car test driver. Sakimori, Yoichiro is a toymaker.
Assisting the Sakimori family is a young private detective, Jo, Takeru, He's rather dense. Although he hears them speak of coming from another planet he has some how failed to realise that his friends are actually Zone Fighter, Zone Angel and Zone Junior.
Episode
Titles/Monsters
Episode 26 does not seem like a final episode to me, there is no battle between Zone Fighter and the Garoga leader, nothing as far as I can tell indicates that another attack couldn't be coming soon. I cannot be certain, but it is possible Ryusei Ningen Zoon was never finished, but canceled because of the energy crisis Japan suffered in 1973 due to an oil shortage. There were few movies and tv series produced at this time and some of the tv series were cut short.
Gojira
(Godzilla) Episodes
4. Onslaught! The Garoga Army: Enter
Godzilla!
"In The Twinkling Of An Eye: The Roar Of Godzilla!"
15. Submersion! Godzilla, Save Tokyo!
21. Invincible! Godzilla's Violent Charge!
25. Bloodbath! Zone & Godzilla
V.S. The United Terror-Beast Army!
King Ghidora
Episodes
5. Blast King Ghidora At Point Blank!
6. King Ghidora Strikes Back!
Ryusei Ningen Zoon
Songs
Back To Henshin
Hall Of Fame
Last modified Monday, August 4, 2008
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