Spiral Zone

Did You Know?

• Supervising director Pierre de Celles wanted a fantastic science fiction direction but was discouraged by producers and sponsors.
• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction notes the series' bleak, reclamation-oriented narrative and post-apocalyptic imagery distinguish it from lighter toy-driven cartoons of the era.
• Retrospective commentary has praised the dark premise and theme music while noting weaknesses in repetitive plotting and stereotypical characters.

Plot

In the year 2007, military scientist Dr. James Bent uses a neon military Space Shuttle to drop Zone Generators across half the Earth, creating a region called the Spiral Zone. Millions trapped in the dark mists become Zoners with lifeless yellow eyes and red skin patches, lacking will to resist. Overlord, as Bent now calls himself, controls them from the Chrysler Building in New York City. His followers, the Black Widows, are immune to the mind-altering effects via a device called the Widow Maker, but still show physical effects from prolonged exposure. Overlord seeks to conquer the world with Zone Generators, which feed off human energy. Nations unite to fight, but only five soldiers in special suits can do so. Zone Generators are easy to destroy but booby-trapped, and Overlord drops more generators to force standoffs.

Characters

Overlord, also known as Dr. James Bent, invented the Zone Generators and an antidote giving him and his Black Widows immunity to the bacteria, though they still have skin lesions and yellow dilated eyes. The Black Widows include Bandit, a master of disguise of Middle Eastern origin; Duchess Dire (Ursula Dire), a British criminal and Overlord's mistress; Razorback (Al Krak), an aggressive loudmouth with bladed weapons; Reaper (Mathew Riles), a manhunter; Crook (Jean Duprey), a French scientist who tricks Reaper into immunity in the episode 'Shall You Reaper'; and Rawmeat (Richard Welt), a truck driver tricked by Bandit in 'Bandit and the Smokies'. Overlord rides the Bullwhip Cannon, an eight-wheel all-terrain vehicle with a large laser cannon; the other Black Widows ride Sledge Hammers, one-man minitanks with triangular caterpillar tracks and whirling mace arms. They also have a delta-winged aircraft called the Intruder. The Spiral Force, or Zone Riders, consists of Colonel Dirk Courage (United States), MSgt Tank Schmidt (West Germany), Lt Hiro Taka (Japan), 2nd Lt Max Jones (United States), and Cpl Katerina Anastacia (USSR). They use combat suits made from Neutron-90, a rare material created by British scientists.

Japanese version

The suits and some vehicles in Spiral Zone originated from Bandai's action figure line sold from 1985 to 1988, conceptualized by Gundam mecha designers Kunio Okawara and Kazuhisa Kondo. The Special Force Group Spiral Zone series depicted special operations soldiers fighting in the early 21st century, with 12 items organized into Acts: three 1:12 scale six-inch figures (Bull Solid, Hyper Boxer, Sentinel Bear), two cloth uniform and armor sets for Bull Solid and Hyper Boxer, two equipment backpacks, two bare human figures, and the Monoseed vehicle. Non-toy media included a notebook, a novel, and a Hyper Image Album LP/story compilation released in 1986 by Warner Bros. Records and Pioneer Corporation, with songs by Toshiyuki Watanabe performed by Tomoko Aran and stories by Kazunori Itō, illustrated by Akemi Takada. Bandai planned a fourth figure (Fireball) and additional vehicles before cancellation, including a tank, Beaufighter flight pod, Fat Lynx assault jeep, Mad Lemming fast-attack vehicle, bipedal mech, two personal transport backpacks, and the Monoseed Mk II. The Monoseed and Monoseed Mk II became the Zone Riders' motorcycles and Courage's Rimfire Cannon; one unreleased backpack, the Monodrive, was remodeled as Max Jones' Zone Runner backpack. Unreleased vehicles later appeared in the series' gashapon line, which also included a super-deformed board game and new figures (Zone Bolt, Eagle Eye, Zone Acorn).

Releases

Tonka licensed Spiral Zone from Bandai and created a line of seven-inch figures based on the animated series, hitting the market in 1986. The line comprised four of the five Zone Riders and all five Black Widows, plus vehicles, six cloth uniforms, and six equipment sets. Cancellation of the series left figures of Anastacia, Tucker, Franklin, Crook, Raw Meat, and a Zone Generator playset unreleased for 1988. Each figure included a special audio cassette tape. Tonka released Spiral Zone on VHS in 1987 with two episodes per tape, producing only three tapes before cancellation. An unofficial DVD set containing all 65 episodes and bonus materials was released in November 2006 by SpiralZone.com with cooperation from supervising director Pierre de Celles, who provided original master tapes. The American series was dubbed into Japanese and aired on NHK-BS2 in 1990 with a substantially altered episode order; the complete Japanese dubbed version was released on VHS by NHK under their VOOK line in 1991–1992. DC Comics published a four-issue limited series in February 1988, written by Michael Fleisher with art by Carmine Infantino.