#GHWP Live Tweet July 21, 2015 - Spectreman

Selections:
Episode 30 - Terror Comes Ashore - Monster Tag Match
Episode 31 - Protect the Lighthouse

     We've done it. This live tweet marks the halfway point in the Spectreman series (counting July 24th's postponed shows), and it has been a fun ride. Up to this point, we have seen Clark--er, George working at the Daily Planet--er, the Pollution Research Bureau. We have seen Lois--er, Rita come and go without so much as a goodbye or even a hint at who did her hair, only to be replaced by frequent tag-along eye candy and Spectreman-transformation-blocker Margaret. We've seen Karas go from spine-crunching fashion symbol to just standing around the space ship all day listening to his boss ramble on and on. We've seen the military take a little more active involvement in giant monster attacks because, let's face it, Spectreman shows up on his own time, not ours. And we've seen Dr. Gori go from being calm and cool-headed to just a little frustrated with his failures.

After thirty failed monster attacks, you might get upset, too.

      This time around, the ocean is in peril again, and Margaret is on hand with a nature lesson about Pacific sargassum. A new strain of seaweed is feeding on pollution and growing so thick that it wrecks fishing boats and threatens to blanket the ocean and choke out the sea life. Could Dr. Gori be behind this phenomenon? Of course he is, but Gori isn't satisfied with just one plan. As a seaside fishing village suffers from the threat of starvation with lack of fish, they discover and begin gathering large quantities of what they believe to be turtle eggs, but these eggs are far too large to be turtle eggs are are nestled in the thick beds of seaweed. George and the Bureau have one of the eggs examined, and it turns out to be the potential mutant offspring of another of Dr. Gori's creations designed to protect the seaweed, the gigantic crab monster Zariganindo. Much to the dismay of the villagers, George and the Bureau confiscate the mutant eggs and begin burning them on shore to dispose of them, inevitably drawing Zariganindo's attention and fury.

     After a spirited game of keep-away with the last egg, George transforms into Spectreman to take down Zariganindo, but there is an upset when another monster-- the seaweed creature Spincobra--appears out of nowhere and comes to Zariganindo's rescue.

And they make such a cute and affectionate couple.

      Spectreman is caught off-guard and defeated, and George and his friends soon find themselves trapped in a lighthouse with the villagers and suffering from a contentious case of cabin fever. If George can manage to transform into Spectreman again, the odds still aren't in his favor.

     But there's more! Over the past week, if you tuned into #Driveinmob and #Bmoviemaniacs, we have seen the first two recycled Godzilla suits in Gomess and Jiras in Ultra Q and Ultraman, respectively, and the body of the Baragon suit was recycled for the Ultra series as well. Unfortunately, the materials used to make the monster suits had a very short shelf life and deteriorated quickly, and the Baragon head was in such poor shape that it was thrown out and replaced with at least two other new monster heads. The notion of not letting anything go to waste brings us to a little tokusatsu short series called Ike! Greenman.

     No, that isn't Ike Greenman, who sounds like a guy you might hire to do your taxes. The series, translated as Go! Greenman, was the second of two Toho tokusatsu series that ran in the early 1970s, a more plot-driven follow-up to its predecessor, Ike! Godman. Godman and Greenman took their recycling seriously, and, although the two series had their infamy as being poorly produced, one of the interesting aspects that kept them alive was their use of suits from Toho movies. Godman and Greenman faced off against "evil incarnations" (i.e.: the terribly dilapidated old suits) of King Kong (from King Kong Escapes), Gorosaurus (also from King Kong Escapes), Gabara (from Godzilla's Revenge), Kameba (from The Space Amoeba), the mutant bat monsters of Latitude Zero, both Sanda and Gaira (from War of the Gargantuas), and (for some inexplicable reason) a brand-spanking new Minya suit. You heard that right. Greenman once fought a dark-hearted version of the son of Godzilla. Gaira was considered to be perhaps the most popular foe Godman and Greenman faced, and the suit itself from the movie was in perhaps the worst shape of any of them.

In 2008, a new Gaira suit was produced for a Godman/Greenman revival special.

     Unfortunately, those battles can be seen only in some low-quality clips on YouTube, but a few random episodes of both series as well as the 2008 special have been fansubbed and are floating around the web. As a special bonus before Spectreman, I present the first episode of Ike! Greenman for your viewing pleasure.

     The monsters get stranger from here on out, and the position of the Pollution Research Bureau is about to undergo some major changes that will bring them up the ranks of action to become more like the monster investigation teams of the Ultra franchise. I hope you'll join me as the journey continues Tuesday night after #TrashTue.