Inazuman

Inazuman TV Series Intro

From wikipedia:

Inazuman (イナズマン) is 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 second season named Inazuman Flash (イナズマンF(フラッシュ), Inazuman Furasshu) aired in 1974 from April 9 to September 24 with a total of 23 episodes.  

Inazuman is, in reality, young college student Goro Watari (渡 五郎, Watari Gorō), a mutant. He lost his mother as a child and had other dark moments in his childhood (he had a childhood girlfriend named Teresa (テレサ) who was taken away by an American soldier during the US occupation of Japan). However, when the Neo-Human Empire Phantom Army (新人類帝国ファントム軍団, Shinjinrui Teikoku Fantomu Gundan) begins its attacks on humankind with its Phantom Soldiers (ファントム兵士, Fantomu Heishi) and Mutant Creatures (悪魔の生き物, Akuma no ikimono), he puts his psionic powers to the test.

First, he performs a henshin (transforming) pose (crossing his arms in front of his chest) and uttering the phrase, "Gōriki Shōrai" (剛力招来, literally "Summon Mighty Power"), he is wrapped in a blue cocoon, which bursts, revealing the creature Sanagiman (サナギマン). 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" (超力招来, literally "Summon Super Power"), 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.

Goro is a member of the Youth League (少年同盟, Shōnen Dōmei), a Science Patrol-style group of similarly psychic-powered young people, and has a telepathic link with the sentient flying car Raijingo (ライジンゴー, Raijingō) which can fire missiles and bite bad guys with the teeth built into its mouth-like grill ("Raijin" is the Japanese god of thunder).

John's Notes: 

Inazuman takes the Japanese fascination of metamorphosis (as evinced by the Mothra concept and very successful Kamen Rider franchise, but with the extra element of a pupae form) and puts it squarely into a tokusatsu series. The action of Inazuman follows the same formula as previous series, pitting good vs evil but with Inauman we got the very cool Raijin Go - a flying car!

Popy and Mattel

There were several toys released by Popy but only Raijin Go PA-71 made it into the Shogun Action Vehicles collection with Mattel #2698 Jetcar.

All Mattel images and captions are copyright Mattel, all Popy, Banpresto, Unifive or Yutaka images and captions are copyright Popy/Bandai, images captured from various video segments are copyright Toei or other parties and used without permission. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2023 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton, by clicking here.

No comments: