Mighty Jack

Mighty Jack (マイティジャック, Maiti Jakku) was a tokusatsu science fiction/espionage/action TV series. Created by Japanese effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, the show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions and was broadcast on Fuji TV from April 6, 1968 to June 29, 1968, with a total of 13 one-hour episodes. The music for the episodes was done by Isao Tomita and Kunio Miyauchi.

Mighty Jack
Created byTsuburaya Productions
Directed byMinoru Mitsuta[1]
Mimachi Nonagase[1]
Tsuneo Kobayashi[1]
StarringHideaki Nitani
Hiroshi Minami
Jirō Yanaga
Narrated byShinji Nakae
Composer(s)Isao Tomita
Kunio Miyauchi
Country of originJapan
No. of episodes13
Production
Producer(s)Yasuyoshi Itō[1]
Running time45 minutes (per episode)
Release
Original networkFuji Television
Original releaseApril 6[1] –
June 29, 1968[1]

Reportedly, Eiji Tsuburaya considered this series his masterwork because the focus was on the people, rather than on the vehicles and special effects (the show never had any monsters or aliens, as his more famous shows Ultra Q, Ultraman and Ultra Seven did). This focus on the people was similar to the works of Gerry Anderson, of which Tsuburaya was a big fan. The Mighty Jack mecha/HQ featured in this series also has some similarities to Tsuburaya's previous TV masterpiece, Ultra Seven.

Even for the original series of 13 one hour-long episodes, the ratings were low. The follow-up series, Fight! Mighty Jack, fared better in the ratings, perhaps because of its inclusion of monsters and aliens, rather than purely human evildoers like Q.

The insignia of the titular heroic spy team has also become the current logo for Tsuburaya Productions.

Plot

"Mighty Jack" is the name of both a top-secret international peacekeeping organization's 11 agents, and the technologically advanced flying submarine "Mighty-Gō" they use to fight the plots of the terrorist organization "Q".

Cast

Fight! Mighty Jack
Fight! Mighty Jack
Created byTsuburaya Productions
Developed byKeisuke Fujikawa
Tetsuo Kinjo
Directed byKeinosuke Tsuchiya
StarringHiroshi Minami, Masanari Nihei, Junya Usami
Country of originJapan
No. of episodes26
Production
Running time24 minutes (per episode)
Release
Original networkFuji Television
Original releaseJuly 6 –
December 28, 1968

The more comical sequel series, Fight! Mighty Jack (戦え！マイティジャック, Tatakae! Maiti Jakku), aired on the same network from July 6 to December 28, 1968, with a total of 26 half-hour episodes, equaling the original in length.

This series has several humorous references to the early Ultra Series.

  • The opening scene of the series (with a reverse paint-swirling effect forming "MJ" before a burst of red envelops the scene, with a yellow "Fight! Mighty Jack" superimposed) is almost exactly like that of Ultraman.
  • One episode of this series is quite notable, as it features a comical guest appearance by Kohji Moritsugu, who played Dan Moroboshi, the alter-ego of Ultra Seven, poking fun at his popular role. He plays a mechanic, who, in one scene, looked as though he was about to transform into Ultra Seven by pulling the Ultra Eye from his pocket to put it on, but the red object he slowly pulls from his pocket is actually a small wrench, with which he gets right to work on fixing a machine.

Mighty Jack in the U.S.

In 1986, American producer Sandy Frank took the first and sixth episodes of Mighty Jack (without any of the episodes that were released in between or afterward) and combined them into a dubbed feature-length film of the same name. The movie gained its widest exposure in the United States when it was shown as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode on Comedy Central (originally shown on the UHF station KTMA TV 23 during the show's KTMA season).

Mystery Science Theater 3000

References
  1. Jonathan Clements; Motoko Tamamuro (1 November 2003). The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953. Stone Bridge Press. pp. 188–189. ISBN 978-1-880656-81-5.
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