Mighty Jack
# Mighty Jack

Mighty Jack (マイティジャック, Maiti Jakku) is 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.

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

* Hideaki Nitani
* Hiroshi Minami
* Naoko Kubo
* Akiyoshi Kasuga
* Wakako Ikeda
* Masanari Nihei
* Hideyo Amamoto
* Masayoshi Fukuoka
* Yoshitaka Tanaka
* Noriaka Inoue
* Mitsuru Ōya
* Gorō Mutsu
* Anne Marie
* Jirō Yanaga

## Episodes 1~ 13

| Episode | Title |
| - | - |
| 1 | THE MAN WHO HAD DISAPPEARED IN PARIS |
| 2 | RECAPTURE: K52 |
| 3 | THE ROSE IS BURNING |
| 4 | O, MOTHERLAND BE FOREVER!! |
| 5 | SCALPEL AND LIPSTICK |
| 6 | STEAMED ICEBERGS |
| 7 | DONT SEE THE MOON!! |
| 8 | AWESOME AURORA |
| 9 | GUIDE TO HELL |
| 10 | BOMBING ORDERS |
| 11 | BURNING GOLD |
| 12 | TERROR OF THE BIG CITY |
| 13 | OPERATION: STRANGE AIRSHIP |

## Staff

Episodes 1~13 :

| Supervision Producers | Eiji Tsuburaya Koji Morita, Kousuke Ito (Fuji TV) |
| - | - |
| Written by | Shinichi Sekizawa, Fuso Aritaka, Bunzo Wakatsuki, Ichiro Ikeda, Eisaburo Shiba, Masahiro Yamada, Mitsuo Kotaki, Tetsuo Kinjo, Naohiro Fuji, Hiroyasu Yamaura, Torao Tanabe, Yasuro Yokoyama |
| Music | Isao Tomita |
| Photography Art Lighting Scripter Girls Assistant Directors | Yoshihiro Mori, Akira Suzuki, Takeshi Nakamachi Tatsuro Fukada and Yoshio Suzuki Daiji Yamaguchi, Toshikazu Nagado, Seiji Fukutomi Hisako Niinuma, Tomoko Mukaiyama, Chieko Sakuma, Fumizo Shiizuka, Yoshiko Uemura Takehiko Ishii, Shohei Tojo, Seiichi Namba |

VFX Unit :

| Photography Art Directors Lighting Practical Effects Assistant Directors | Kazuo Sagawa, Sozo Inagaki, Masao Sekiguchi Toru Narita, Akihiko Iguchi, Tatsuro Fukada Kazuo Kobayashi, Kuichiro Kishida, Masaru Kondo Sadashige Numasa, Tetsuro Nakajima Goro Takahashi, Shizuo Mori, Koichi Ishiguro |
| - | - |
| Optical Photography Editors Production Managers In Charge of Production | Minoru Nakano Akio Ogura, Tetsumi Ohara Kiichiro Saito, Yosuke Mizuno, Hiroshi Uemura Masahiro Tsukahara |
| Recorded at Sound Effects Film Processing Special Thanks | Aoi Studio, Kinuta Laboratory, Yoshimasa Matsumoto Kyoritsu Sound, Sadamasa Nishimoto Tokyo Processing Office, Kinuta Laboratory Edwards, Standard |
| Special Effects | Junkichi Oki, Kazuo Sagawa, Sadamasa Arikawa |
| Directors | Kazuho Mitsuda, Samase Nonagase, Kan Yanase, Tsuneo Kobayashi, Masanao Horiuchi |
| Produced by | Tsuburaya Productions, Fuji Television |

## Fight! Mighty Jack

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.

## Staff

Episodes 1~26 :

| Supervised and Produced by | Eiji & Noboru Tsuburaya, Yoshiyuki Shindo (Fuji TV) |
| - | - |
| Written by | Keisuke Fujikawa, Tetsuo Kinjo, Hiroyasu Yamaura, Mitsuo Kotaki, Kisuke Akai, Bunzo Wakatsuki, Moriichi Ichikawa |
| Music | Isao Tomita and Kunio Miyauchi |
| Photography Art Director Lighting Editor Scripter Girls Assistant Directors | Yoshihiro Mori, Kuniichi Shiga, Takeshi Nakamachi Yoshio Suzuki Toshikazu Nagado, Kazuo Kobayashi Akio Ogura Fumizo Shiizuka, Yoshiko Uemura, Mari Namba, Hisako Niinuma, Yasuyo Hayashi, Yoshiko Sekine, Noriko Suzuki Seiichi Namba, Shohei Tojo, Goro Takahashi, Takehiko Ishii, Hiroshi Shimura, Takayoshi Sasaki, Koichi Ishiguro |

VFX and Post Production :

* Photography
* Masao Sekiguchi, Takeo Masuko, Kiyoshi Suzuki
* Art
* Tatsuro Fukada, Akihiko Iguchi
* Lighting
* Kuichiro Kishida, Katsuya Takano
* Practical Effects
* Tetsuro Nakajima, Sadashige Tsukamoto
* Optical Photography
* Minoru Nakano
* Assistant Directors
* Koichi Ishiguro, Goro Takahashi
* Editing By
* Akio Ogura
* Production Managers
* Yosuke Mizuno, Kiichiro Saito, Ken Kumagai, Hiroshi Uemura
* Production Assistant
* Masahiro Tsukahara
* Sound Recording
* Aoi Studio, Yoshimasa Matsumoto
* Sound Effects
* Norihiko Izumi, Kyoritsu Acoustics, Chogoro Chiku, Tadamasa Nishimoto
* Film Processing
* Tokyo Laboratory
* Special Thanks
* Edwards, Standard, Fuji Xerox, Nagashima Onsen, Gamer Vineyard
* Special Technology
* Sadamasa Arikawa, Kazuo Sagawa, Junkichi Oki
* Directors
* Keinosuke Tsuchiya, Kazuho Mitsuda, Shohei Tojo, Hiroshi Fukuhara
* Produced by
* Tsuburaya Productions, Fuji TV

## 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).

