Planet Prince
Planet Prince is a 1958 Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series created by Masaru Igami and produced by Senkosha, the series aired on NTV from November 4, 1958 to October 6, 1959, with a total of 49 episodes. It was created to capitalize on the success of Shintoho's Super Giant movie series. In fact, the title hero bore a strong resemblance to Super Giant. The pair of Planet Prince theatrical featurettes, adapted from the Senkosha TV series, were produced by Toei Studios and filmed in black and white ToeiScope format.
Toei produced two theatrical movies in 1959 that featured the Planet Prince character, but wearing a completely different, more streamlined costume than the one worn in the tv series. The hero in these two movies was played by Tatsuo Umemiya. The movies were released a week apart. The films were titled:
- Planet Prince Released: May 19, 1959
- Planet Prince - The Terrifying Spaceship Released: May 25, 1959
Production
The TV version looks very similar to Super Giant, in that both wear cowled costumes and capes. Each character also has superpowers and flies. The two-part movie version is very different, as Prince of Space wears a more streamlined costume, cape, and helmet with goggles. In the edited US version, he has no superpowers other than the invulnerability of his costume and - in a subplot unique to the Japanese version - the ability to revert a man who was brainwashed by the Ginsei aliens back to a peaceful state. In the films, he uses a wand-like laser gun and flies a small spaceship.In the TV version, just like Moonlight Mask, the Planet Prince persona was listed in the credits as being played by "?".
In the film, Prince's enemy is called Ambassador Phantom of the Silver Planet , while in the English-language version, the villain is called Dictator Phantom of the Planet Krankor. He wears a large prosthetic nose and cowl that give him a decidedly chicken-like appearance, something that was constantly mocked when the film was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, along with audio dubbing that gave him a "laugh like a Buick not turning over" according to series writer Bridget Jones.
Cast
- Planet Prince/Waku-san - Tatsuo Umemiya
- Ambassador Phantom - Joji Oka
- Sachiko - Hiroko Mine
- Dr. Maki - Ushio Akashi
- Ichiro - Akira Asami
- Makoto - Koji Komori
- Kimiko - Midori Tsuzuki
- Inspector Takeda - Takashi Kanda
- Sawamoto - Akira Tatematsu
- Shibasaki - Masahiko Naruse
- Mukai - Ken Sudo
- Newsreporter Tabei - Ken Hasebe
- Newsreporter Tono - Giichi Sugi
- Sakai - Koji Sahara
- Tsunoda - Tokio Kozuka
- Keichi Kawajima - Rin'ichi Yamamoto
- Dr. Naito - Hiroshi Katayama
- Newspaper reporter - Yuji Kitamine
- Phantom's henchmen - Riki Iwaki, Kenji Todoroki, Hiroshi Mihara, Nobuo Yana
- Dr. Tateishi - Shusuke Sone
- Mrs. Tateishi - Kaoru Nakano
- Commander Koda - Akikane Sawa
- Secretary of Defense Fukuhara - Shiko Saito
- Captain Munakata - Tadashi Minamikawa
- Colonel Matsuda - Junkichi Orimoto
- Colonel Watanabe - Junji Masuda
- The Guardian - Rinichi Yamamoto
- Kidnapped American scientist - Osman Yusuf
Production credits
- Planning - Sanehiko Okada
- Director - Eijiro Wakabayashi
- Producer - Sanehiko Sonoda
- Screenplay - Shin Morita
- Original Story - Masaru Igami
- Music - Hirooki Ogawa, Katsuhisa Hattori
- Director of Photography - Masahiko Iimura
- Lighting - Kenzo Ginya
- Art Director - Shuichiro Nakamura
- Recording - Shozo Hirokami
- Film Editor - Yoshiki Nagasawa
- Director of Special Effects - Shozo Horai
- Assistant Director - Hajime Sato
- Production Assistant - Takeshi Nishii
- Vocals - Kamitakada Junior Chorus
- Lyrics - Masaru Igami
- Composer - Katsuhisa Hattori
Reboot
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Category:Tokusatsu television series
Category:1959 films
Category:Japanese [superhero films]
Category:1950s superhero films
Category:1959 Japanese films
Category:Films scored by Katsuhisa Hattori
Category:1959 [science fiction films]