Inazuman
Inazuman was a television series starring a mutant fictional character of the same name created by Shotaro Ishinomori. The first television series ran from October 2, 1973 to March 26, 1974 with a total of 25 episodes. A sequel series named Inazuman Flash aired in 1974 from April 9 to September 24 with a total of 23 episodes.
Inazuman Specs
Inazuman is, in reality, young college student Goro Watari, a mutant. He lost his mother as a child and had other dark moments in his childhood. However, when the Neo-Human Empire Phantom Army begins its attacks on mankind with its Phantom Soldiers and Mutant Creatures, he puts his psionic powers to the test.First, he performs a henshin pose and uttering the phrase, "Gōriki Shōrai", he is wrapped in a blue cocoon, which bursts, revealing the creature Sanagiman. He resembles an armored brown pupa mutant with a white belt which has a biomechanical power meter on it.
Sanagiman is able to absorb the kinetic energy of any attack used against him, and when he gathers enough energy into his belt, he crosses his fists in front of his chest, uttering the phrase, "Chōriki Shōrai", and spreads them aside, with his chest emitting a swirl of colorful energy. Sanagiman's exterior then explodes to pieces, and in his place is Inazuman. He is a moth-like mutant wearing the same power belt as Sanagiman and resembles a blue humanoid with huge colorful oval eyes, prominent lightning-shaped antennas, black gloves and boots, yellow lightning-shaped marks that stream down his body, and a yellow scarf he can transform into various weapons, including a whip-like chain.
As both Sanagiman and Inazuman, his kiai fighting cry is "Chest!", which originates from the Japanese island of Kyūshū where the main character, Goro Watari, hails.
Goro is a member of the Youth League, a Science Patrol-style group of similarly psychic-powered young people, and has a telepathic link with the sentient flying car Raijingo which can fire missiles and bite bad guys with the teeth built into its mouth-like grill.
Media
Manga
A manga adaptation by creator Shotaro Ishinomori was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1973 to 1974. In the manga adaptation, Goro Watari is a junior high school student named Saburo Kazeta, and is nicknamed "Sabu". The character first appeared in Ishinomori's manga "Mutant Sabu".Inazuman appeared somewhat different than in the live action tokusatsu version, and was created when the series was in development as an animated series, provisionally titled "Mutant Z". In these versions, the character appeared to be naked, with a curled proboscis stemming from his forehead, and was even able to sprout moth wings from his back. The manga version of Sanagiman was also slightly different from the tokusatsu version. In the manga, Saburo has also a childhood girlfriend nicknamed "Miyoppe" who is usually the victim of Saburo's jokes with his psychic powers.
Tokusatsu Series
Inazuman was produced by Toei Company Ltd. and broadcast on NET from October 2, 1973 to March 26, 1974, with a total of 25 episodes. The series starred Daisuke Ban of Kikaider fame in the title role as he fights Emperor Banba and his mutant minions. The entire 48-episode series was broadcast on KIKU-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii in the mid-1970s, during the height of the popularity of tokusatsu programs ignited by the success of Kikaider in 1974. A new enemy emerges in the evil robots of the Despar Army led by Führer Geisel, named after Ernesto Geisel. Inazuman, gaining the ability to hurl lightning bolts, is joined by a cynical cyborg Interpol agent named Makoto Arai. The first 25 episodes are from the first Inazuman series, the remaining 23 are from its direct sequel series Inazuman Flash, once again produced by Toei and broadcast on NET/TV Asahi from April 9 to September 24, 1974.- Horror of the Neo-Human Race: The Challenge of Banba!!
- Youth League, Beware! The Cursed Water!!
- Phantom Hell Beckons the Black Death!
- The Japanese Archipelago Explodes!!
- Epic Dogfight! Raijingo Bites!!
- Bizarre Snow Banbara's Neo-Human Surgery!!
- Weird! A Flying Eye!?
- Terrifying Sandstorm! Major Airport Engulfed!!
- The Glowing Mold Stalks the Night!!
- Terror of the Carnivorous Gas!!
- Rose Banbara is Inazuman's Mother
- Mother's Enemy: Banba vs. Inazuman
- Inazuman Wounded
- The Fury of Raijingo: Great Dogfight!!
- A Mother's Shadow Devoured
- Race to Fulfill a Promise!
- Puzzling Confrontation! Two Goro Wataris!!
- A Lightning Strike for Friendship!!
- The Mysterious Deadly Boxer: Mirror X?
- Chase the Star Saucer! Raijingo!!
- Watari Goro: Inazuman Dies!?
- The Walking Clay Doll: Terror of the Cracking Earth!!
- The Cursed Paint That Melts Humans
- The Mysterious Robot Warrior?
- Majestic! The End of Emperor Banba!!
- Inazuman 3D Movie Project
- Terror of Führer Geisel and the Mysterious Despar Army!
- Terrifying Safari!! Great Operation at Sea!!
- 500 Hydrogen Bombs!! Great Underground Battle!
- The Mysterious Airship? To Space!!
- DES Missiles: Great Aerial Battle!!
- Geisel's Great Fort
- Great Decisive Battle! Udespar vs. Inazuman!!
- Udespar Siblings! Cross Hurricane!!
- Boys Circus and Great Multi-Operation
- Udespar Siblings' Defiant Shape
- Beautiful Cyborg! The Alter-ego at Dawn!!
- Phantom City: Despar City
- White Darkness!! Witch Sings the Babysitter Song
- Great Aerial Battle!! Combine Udespar Tactical Squad
- Big Flood Operation!!
- The Mysterious Woman: Whose Name is the Despar Secret Agent
- Blue Pupils of the Invader
- Red Queen: Ballad of Assassination
- Inazuman: Joins the Despar Army!!
- Butterfly and Guillotine: Flower Hell Operation
- The Deceased Squad - Route 047
- Kill the Burdensome Ones: Geisel's Supereme Command
- Farewell Inazuman: Geisel's Last Day
''Kamen Rider'' series
- In commemoration of the Toei Company's 60th Anniversary in 2011, Inazuman makes a cameo in ' alongside Kikaider, Kikaider 01, and Zubat where the four destroy the Kamen Rider Stronger villain, General Shadow.
- An alternate version of Inazuman based on the manga appears in the 2012 movie '. The movie provides a retelling of Inazuman's origin story set five years into the future, where Inazuman is a high school student named Saburo Kazeta. Initially a villain, he becomes a hero under the guidance of his homeroom teacher, Gentaro Kisaragi.
Demon Creatures
- Quintuple Banbara: Appears in episode 1, and 26. Powers include invisibility, creating fissures from his left arm called the Terra Splitter, long range flames from the mouth of his middle face called the Pillar of Fire, a human disguise, and high jumping.
- Water Banbara: Appears in episode 2. Powers include teleporting and controlling water, reverting into toxic water that can spawn holograms of himself, constricting seaweed called the Seaweed Squeeze, teleporting and size growth by water, a high pressure hose from the left arm, and summoning small waterspouts.
- Bubo Banbara: Appears in episode 3. Powers include hurricane-force winds from a fan hidden in his back, freezing mouth foam powered by banbacteria, and invisibility.
- Bone Banbara: Appears in episode 4. Powers include rib daggers in the torso, damaging people in their dreams, teleportation, remote cross bombs called the Devil's Cross, body part separation, soul stealing, a femur-like club, and summoning flames called the Flames of Purgatory.
- Gale Banbara: Appears in episode 5, and 26. Powers include manipulating wind, a human disguise, and spawning cyclones called the Cyclonic Wind.
- Snow Banbara: Appears in episode 6. Powers include icy mouth mist called the Absolute Zero Blizzard, teleportation, a human disguise, a sharp icicles called the Ice Daggers, and summoning a blizzard called the Banbara Snow Slide.
- Hundred-Eye Banbara: Appears in episode 7. Powers include teleportation, hypnosis called the Eyesolation Barrier, attaching evil eyes that make psionics become violent against their will, a human disguise, telekinesis, and summoning the Mammoth Eye flying base.
- Sand Banbara: Appears in episode 8, and 26. Powers include sand manipulation to the point of spawning storms and quick sand, converting water into sand, teleportation, a cone-like trap called the Sand Bambara Hell Trap used for psionics, and dissolving into sand and reforming.
- Mold Banbara: Appears in episode 9, and 26. Powers include acidic mold tentacles from the mouth called the Mold Banbara Mangler Hold, dissolving into mold and reforming, mind control mold spores with teleportation properties, and summoning a mold tsunami using giant versions of the mold tentacles.
- Gas Banbara: Appears in episode 10. Powers include emitting acidic poisonous gas, a spiked kanabo for the left arm, a human disguise, mouth grenades, summoning rock slides called the Mountain Tsunami, and mentally controlling the Phantom Train.
- Rose Banbara: Appears in episode 11. Powers include disguising herself as a giant rose, toxic pedals called the Pedal Pressure, teleportation, summoning roses on eyes called the Rose Blinders, vines from the left arm called the Vine Binder, an extendable thorny root for the right arm called the Thorn Thrust, high jumping, a human disguise, and paralyzing pollen called the Paralyzer Pollen. This monster turns out to be Goro's long-lost mother.
- Devil Banbara: Appears in episode 12, and 26. Powers include a flamethrower from the snake-like left arm and a human disguise.
- Oil Banbara: Appears in episode 13, and 26. Powers include dissolving into oil and gas, telepathy, possession via a jar, emitting oil from his fingers, eye flames, and summoning a pocket dimension called the World of Fire.
- Fog Banbara: Appears in episode 14, and 26. Powers include emitting fog and summoning a UFO attack bomber armed with a flamethrower.
- Shadow Banbara: Appears in episode 15. Powers include telepathy, mental shackles called the Shadow Shackles, spawning a dark zone called the Shadow Shroud, possession, transforming into a shadow, damaging people by breaking and eating shadows, and summoning a pocket dimension called the Shadow World.
- Thorn Banbara: Appears in episode 16, and 26. Powers include detachable poisonous thorns that can be mentally guided, high jumping, and increasing the size of his thorns to those of missiles.
- Photo Banbara: Appears in episode 17. Powers include mentally freezing people with his left hand called the Time Shutter and disguising himself as people from his photographs.
- Poison Banbara: Appears in episode 18. Powers include reanimating venom on the right hand, claws blinding poisonous gas from the left arm, transforming himself and other psionics into giant explosive mushrooms, and a spear.
- Mirror Banbara: Appears in episode 19, and 26. Powers include a human disguise, boxing glove hands, a solar heat ray from the torso, floating triangular mirrors used to blind enemies called the Mirror Banbara Light Barrage, and using decoy mirror reflections for fast movement.
- Star Banbara: Appears in episode 20, and 26. Powers include teleportation, mentally controlling the Star Saucer armed with a cannon, telekinesis, and telepathic bombs.
- Bamboo Banbara: Appears in episode 21, and 26. Powers include shooting poisonous bamboo arrows and tentacles from the body cavities, duplicates, a human disguise, a poisonous spear, and summoning long roots for constriction and summoning a pocket dimension.
- Clay Banbara: Appears in episode 22, and 26. Powers include burrowing, summoning high wind called the Clay Blizzard, creating fissures called the Earth Cracker, body reformation, teleportation, clay statue probes, and absorbing clay particles from the mouth.
- Paint Banbara: Appears in episode 23, and 26. Powers include transforming into a blob of paint or gas, emitting paint-like and gas-like acid, summoning high wind, a pocket dimension filled with acidic paint called the Accursed World, paint tube-like homing missiles called the Tube Missiles, and an acidic paint storm called the Paint Blizzard.
- Stone Banbara: Appears in episode 24, and 26. Powers include breaking down into boulders and reforming, rock bombs, and teleporting.
Robot Fighters
- Missile Despa: Appears in 26. Powers include Rockets on his wrist and on his head.
- Hammer Despa: Appears in episodes 27 and 44. Powers include a claw hammer on a chain and reinforced torso armor. Upon being upgraded he acquired a claw hammer for his right arm.
- Saw Despa: Appears in episodes 27-28, and 42. Powers include smoke bombs, circular saw grenades on the shoulders, and summoning a flying submarine with a lasso, a machine gun turret, and an electric spray. Upon being upgraded he acquired a circular saw for his left hand.
- Burner Despa: Appears in episode 29. Powers include a very hot flamethrower for the left arm that can also release smoke, summoning a flying drill tank called the Despar Tank armed with a pair of missile launchers and a web shooter, and armor thick enough to survive high drops.
- Drill Despa: Appears in episodes 30 and 41. Powers include a left shoulder drill called the Drill Driller, red lightning bolts and radioactive flashes from the eye on the torso called the Drill Heart Beam, and fast burrowing. Upon being upgraded with the power machine he acquired a weapon called the Despa Destruction Beam strong enough to obliterate a mountain fired from the abdomen.
- Machine Gun Despa: Appears in episode 31. Powers include a human disguise, a 3-barreled machine gun on each side of the waist, and guided missiles from a jeep.
- Knife Despa: Appears in episode 32. Powers include a large bowie knife for the right hand, a long carving knife, using both knives as scissors strong enough to cut steel, a pair of launchable knives in the left wrist, high jumping, and summoning a circular saw-like flying saucer.
- Miss Wan: Appears in episode 33. Powers include high jumping, martial arts skills, machine gun, and a knife.
- Jet Despa: Appears in episode 34 and 43. Powers include jet- a human disguise, freezing mist from the left arm nozzle, summoning a subsonic jet armed with an underside claw and a back cannon, and an arm time bomb. Upon being upgraded he acquired a normal left hand, a human disguise named Jet, and a machine gun.
- Scissors Despa: Appears in episode 35. Powers include bladed hands used as scissor sheers, high jumping, and detaching the scissors arms by using rockets called in an attack called the Scissor Cannon.
- Magnet Despa: Appears in episode 36. Powers include a head magnet on a chain that emits lethal amounts of magnetic waves called the Magnet Chain, summoning a subsonic jet armed with a pair of machine guns, and armor thick enough to survive high drops.
- Silencer Despa: Appears in episode 37. Powers include a right hand machine gun, teleportation, a human disguise, spawning a duplicate, mentally detonated mines, and summoning a flying saucer armed with a rapid-fire cannon.
- Boiler Despa: Appears in episode 38. Powers include explosive fire arrows from the left hand and using said hand as a club.
- Onibaba: Appears in episode 39. Powers include teleportation, summoning fog, and a mentally controlled ax. It is the disguise form of Ax Despa.
- Ax Despa: Appears in episode 39. Powers include an Onibaba disguise, a right hand mentally controlled ax that can cause explosions on contact called the Ax Bomber, teleportation, and spawning holograms of himself.
- Mixer Despa: Appears in episode 45. Powers include rolling into a ball, shoulder missiles, detachable hands that latch onto enemies, and a ray gun that emits hypnotic flashes.
- Guillotine Despa: Appears in episodes 45-46. Powers include converting into wind, a guillotine for the right hand, and a clamp for the left hand.
- Spray Despa: Appears in episode 47. Powers include a poison gas nozzle for the fight arm, a short sword, a net from the left shoulder cannon called the Despider, and teleportation.
- Black Despa: Appears in episode 48. Powers include a human disguise, a pistol, high jumping, and throwing knives.
Udespas
- Udesupa: Appears in episodes 24-33. Powers include a motorcycle, a machine gun, a missile launcher, high jumping, a claw that attaches to right hand, a whip that attaches to left hand, and grenades,
- Udesupa Alpha: Appears in episodes 34-40. Powers include a human disguise, the Despa Straining Hurricane, a detachable left arm claw, high jumping, and combining.
- Udespa Beta: Appears in episodes 34-40. Powers include a human disguise, the Despa Straining Hurricane, a detachable right arm whip, high jumping, and combining.
- Combined Udespa: Appears in episodes 36-37, and 39-40. Powers include a trident right hand, a tentacle left hand with a hidden arresting wire, and thick armor.
- Sadesupa: Appears in episodes 38-49. Powers include explosive hypnotic waves from his cross-like eye, a human disguise, nine iron maiden-like spikes in the torso, and high jumping.
Cast
- Goro Watari: Daisuke Ban
- Gōsaku Marume: Kōichi Kitamura
- Satoko Ōgi: Mari Sakurai
- Katsumi Ōgi: Yoshikazu Yamada
- Kaoru Tomikawa: Fusayo Fukawa
- Captain Salar: Hideo Murota
- Emperor Banba: Shōzō Iizuka
- *Suit Actor: Rikiya Ikeda
- Shinobu Watari: Yūko Hamada
- Udesper: Masaki Iwana
- Führer Geisel: Mitsuo Andō
- Narrator: Ichirō Murakoshi
Other Appearances
- Inazuman in the 2002 OVA anime special, , based on an issue from the Inazuman manga that teamed the insectoid mutant superhero with Ishinomori's android superhero, Kikaider.