Series cast summary: | |||
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Kazuya Aoyama | ... | Hikaru Sakimori / ... 26 episodes, 1973 |
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Kazumi Kitahara | ... | Hotaru Sakimori / ... 26 episodes, 1973 |
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Takashi Sato | ... | Akira Sakimori / ... 26 episodes, 1973 |
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Shôji Nakayama | ... | Yôichirô Sakimori 26 episodes, 1973 |
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Sachiko Kôzuki | ... | Tsukiko Sakimori 26 episodes, 1973 |
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Shirô Amakusa | ... | Raita Sakimori 26 episodes, 1973 |
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Munemaru Kôda | ... | Gold Garoga 26 episodes, 1973 |
Kiyoshi Kobayashi | ... | Narrator 26 episodes, 1973 | |
The last remaining survivors of the now long gone planet, Peaceland, the Zone family soon found refuge on the planet Earth, where they took on the identity of the Sakimori family and began a peaceful new life. However, fate seemed to have other plans in store for them. The evil alien race that had destroyed Peaceland, known as the Garoga have now turned their eyes toward Earth as the next target in their never ending quest to conquer the universe. Shortly after discovering this, several members of the Zone family are kidnapped. Luckily, the Garoga did not expect the three children, Hikaru, Hotaru, and Akira to transform into Zone Fighter, Zone Angel, and Zone Junior respectively, who fight off the Garoga.
Toho, in my opinion, has created the more unique superhero shows, including RAINBOWMAN (which they did the previous year), but this particular tokusatsu series not only looks like a cross between an Ultra Series and a pre-Sentai Series (the first Sentai Series, GORANGER, came out in 1975), but what makes this series a treat among fans of giant monsters is that Godzilla appears in five episodes of this show, as does King Ghidorah (in another two episodes) and Gigan! Aside from that, this show's got the usual hard-hitting superhero action punctuated by innovative shows from that period like MASKED RIDER (1971) and KIKAIDER (1972)! Aside from Godzilla's pairing with Jet Jaguar in GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, it's rare to see Godzilla team up with a superhero kicking evil monster hiney! In this case, Godzilla teams up with Zone Fighter (the leader of a trio of superpowered Zone Siblings from the planet Peaceland, which was destroyed by the show's villains, the Garoga Army, who send out monsters every week), and the results are really fun and cute, but it's really a shame that more sophisticated fans take it too seriously. Don't let that bother you and give this series a chance! Not just the Godzilla episodes, but reccommendably every episode, which have some amusing treats and interesting guest appearances that people who only watch it for Godzilla would miss (ie. the late Baku Hatakeyama, who played Ooiwa Daita/Ki-Ranger in GORANGER a couple years later, made a guest appearance in one episode)!
Check out METEOR MAN ZONE! I highly reccomend it, to fans of both monsters and superheroes!