Ike! Greenman
A giant robot envoy of God battles demonic kaiju.
Go! Greenman is a 1973 Toho tokusatsu series that aired on Nippon TV's Ohayo! Kodomo Show from November 12, 1973 to September 27, 1974. It had 52 episodes, each split into three segments broadcast over three days, totaling 156 segments. The show followed Ike! Godman but shares no continuity with it. Unlike that series' anthology format, Go! Greenman has one continuous story.
Quick Facts
- Production company
- Toho
- Year
- 1973
- Broadcast start
- November 12, 1973
- Broadcast end
- September 27, 1974
- Number of episodes
- 52 (156 segments)
- Network
- Nippon TV
Facts from the source article.
Synopsis
Deep beneath Japan, a demonic orange, fang-faced creature with glowing red eyes called Maoh awakes in Hell and plots his escape after being imprisoned there by God. But in order to do this, he has to obtain the blood of human children and summons his cowardly purple jellyfish-like female servant Tonchiki to assist him. Through her, he uses beak-faced, pointy-headed clay doll phantom warriors called Maoh-no Teshita ("Minions of Maoh") that can be transformed into hideous kaiju to complete his task. A set of four special minions, dubbed the 'Kaijin', appeared towards the end of the series, each bearing unique abilities and fighting without the requirement to transform. However, his plans are quickly foiled after the mighty robot Greenman, a self-described "envoy of God" who can grow to giant size and fire missiles from his chest, descends from space to do battle against Maoh's pawns. After his first battle on Earth, he gives the kids two devices called 'Green Calls' which can be used to summon him whenever the children are in danger.
Returning Monsters
Famously, and in line with the previous Ike! Godman, numerous monsters from Toho's library of Kaiju made appearances in the series. These include Gaira from The War of the Gargantuas, Gabara from All Monsters Attack, Sanda from The War of the Gargantuas, and King Kong from King Kong Escapes. Due to copyright reasons the character was simply called "Gorilla". It was the same suit from the film, but looked slightly different due to repairs having been made to it for the show. Also appearing was an evil version of Minilla, the son of Godzilla.
Costumes
Like in Ike! Godman, Gabara's suit was green instead of blue. Sanda had a new head and wig, and can spray out a mist which makes people sleepy. Gaira, like Sanda, also had a new head and wig. The Gargantuas' suits in this show were in very poor condition. Not only did the suits look like they were rotting (despite a new paint job), but tears could clearly be seen in the legs. The Minilla suit in this show was brand new (but looks very cheaply built) and was not an actual suit from any of the Godzilla films. The Flasher kaiju (from episode 34) had previously been seen in the show Assault! Human!!. Since Nippon TV co-produced that show, and co-produced this show with Toho, they were able to use the Flasher costumes. Red Rock, Shibiregon, Zarizon, Spider, Giringa, Gejiru, Stalk, Megahertz, Danbarki, Gyraron and Garmeddeon also appeared on Assault! Human!!.
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