Fireman (TV series)

Fireman, known as Magma Man in some markets, is a Japanese tokusatsu television series about the titular superhero who fights kaiju and other villains. Produced by Tsuburaya Productions, the show was broadcast on Nippon Television from January 7 to July 31, 1973, with a total of 30 episodes. This was also one of several shows Tsuburaya did to celebrate the company's 10th anniversary.

WWW mxtv.co.jp/fireman

Plot

A strange phenomenon happened throughout the world, causing giant, mutant dinosaurs to suddenly appear. The people of the Aban continent, living underground for the last 12,000 years sends a courageous young man named Misaki to live as an archeologist and SAF agent Daisuke Misaki. Whenever monsters and space aliens attack the world, Misaki transforms into Fireman by using the fire-stick, and defends the human race against them.

Production

Productions of both Fireman and Daigoro vs. Goliath involved human and physical resources from the Daiei Film, a major film studio which went bankrupt in 1971. The Daiei Tokyo Studio was utilized for their filmings, and expertises and materials from Daiei's tokusatsu productions such as the Gamera franchise were put into practice by former Daiei staffs.

Cast

Naoya Makoto as Daisuke Misaki / Fireman
Goro Mutsumi as Dr. Gunpachi Umino
Shin Kishida as Dr. Saburo Mizusima
Sei Hiraizumi as Dr. Futoshi Chiba
Keiko Kunihara as Mariko Hayama
Mitsuru Saijō as Fireman
Voice of Fireman by Michihiro Ikemizu
Narrated by Ichirō Murakoshi

Staff

Producers

Akira Tsuburaya
Kimihiko Eto
Yoshikazu Morita

Script

Bunzo Wakatsuki
Fumito Imamura
Toyohiro Ando
Shin Kishida
Ikuko Okamoto

Music

Toru Fuyuki

Theme Song by

Asei Kobayashi
Bob Sakuma

Directors of Photography

Toshiyuki Machida
Koji Yokote

Lighting

Masanori Ando

Production Designed by

Osamu Yamaguchi

Assistant Directors

VFX Unit

Cameraman

Yuzo Kaneko

Lighting

Eihachi Kubo
Yukio Ito
Nagaharu Watanabe
Shoichi Uehara
Masao Ohara
Shinichi Fujino

Art Directors & Monster Design

Senkatsu Ikeya, Kazumasa Otani

Assistant Directors

Shiya Nakamura
Masao Kobayashi
Isao Matsumoto
Masahiro Ito
Seishiro Kameda
Setsuo Mizunuma

Wire Operators

Rumichi Kumazawa, Isamu Morohoshi, Haruo Sekiya

Special Effects

Masamichi Takayama

VFX

Minoru Nakano

Scripter Girls

Yuko Morita
Isao Matsumoto
Mayumi Nakamachi
Masahiro Ito
Haruyo Matsumaru
Setsuo Mizunuma
Seishiro Kameda
Miyo Tabata

Production Chiefs

Takahiro Katagiri
Yukio Ohno
Masana Takahashi

Editing by

Toyo Suzuki, Tatsuharu Nakashizuka, Sachiko Yamaji, Junko Yoneuchiyama

Effects

Akira Kojima, Makoto Ishida

Sound Recording

Kisaburo Goda, Hideo Okuyama

In Charge of Production

Masayuki Shitara

Post Production Manager

Teruyoshi Kokubo

Music Selecting by

Kiyoshi Suzuki
Masami Hara

Production Contacting

Hiroshi Saito

Special Thanks

Miyazaki Transportation, Nippon Car Ferry Co., Ltd.

Devices

Isamu Sugimoto

Post Production

Den Film Effects

Film Processing

Tokyo Laboratory

Special Technology

Kazuo Sagawa, Junkichi Oki, Masao Kobayashi, Iwataro Ishii, Shiya Nakamura

Directed by

Junkichi Oki, Koji Otsuka, Tatsumi Ando, Toshiki Suzuki, Taiji Saeki, Hiromi Higuchi, Hiroshi Okamoto

Produced by

Songs

Opening song

; Fireman

Lyrics: Yū Aku
Composition: Asei Kobayashi
Arrangement: Bob Sakuma
Artists: Masato Shimon

Other songs

; Shutsugeki! SAF

Lyrics: Hajime Tsuburaya
Composition and Arrangement: Tōru Fuyuki
Artists: Columbia Yurikago-kai and The Photons

; Honō no Youni Moero

Lyrics: Kyouichi Azuma
Composition and Arrangement: Tōru Fuyuki
Artists: Masato Shimon with The Photons

; Haruka Aoi Chitei-ni

Lyrics: Mieko Arima
Composition and Arrangement: Go Misawa
Artists: Masato Shimon

List of episodes

Birth of Fireman
The Weapon is Science S･A･F
The Mysterious Spaceship
Destroy the Invaders
The Boy Who Fell into the Jurassic Era
The Secret of Planet Gomerous
The Dreadful Space Bacteria
The Micro Monster's Fear
A Challenge from the Deep Sea
The Iron Monster that Attacked Tokyo
Resurrecting the Rock Monster
Earth is the Robot's Graveyard
Fear of the Dragon God Swamp
Run Through the Devil's Sea
Planet Beldar M13 Command
Steal it! The Fire-Stick
Fireman Disappeared into the Magma
He Did It! Fire-Dash
The Space Monster vs. the Primeval Monster
The Gagango Monster's Storm
Messengers of Murder, Dekon and Bokon
It Has Arrived!! The Transformed Alien
Kill Fireman!
The Harmonica Crying in the Night
The Alien with No Home Planet
The Secret of the Mountain Shining in the Evening Sun
The Space Leader that Manipulates Corpses
The Boy that Came from the Planet Argon
Don't Shoot! Even Though He's A Monster, He's Still My Friend
Fireman Disappears into Space