tetsugon

[tetsugon]

Kaiju Codex #2: Shindora

Art Credit: Lindsey Wakefield https://lindseywakefield.tumblr.com/

Cruel Ninja Monster Shindora - 30m / 2,100 metric tons

Name

Shindoras name comes from the Japanese word shinobi (忍び), a word meaning sneak but often synonymous with Ninja. The second half of his name is based off of Gidora (ギドラ), the arch-foe of the Godzilla film series.

Strengths

+Agility - Shindora are highly dexterous and athletic, being proficient at running, climbing, and leaping where most beasts their size would be ponderous and slow. Shindora are able to bring this ability into combat, adept at timing an opponents' moves to avoid them and deliver quick counters.

+Burrowing - Even more so than even Tetsugon, Shindora are master burrowers, using their seismic resonance ability to cut through any geological formations they come across with the ease of a shark traveling through water. They leave no tunnels, rendering the soil and strata around them into a fine and tightly packed powder.

+Prehensile Tail - Shindora tails are long, powerful, and flexible, able to be implemented with the same efficiency in combat as any other limb. They can be used to bait a curious opponent, trip them, restrain them, or hit them with a powerful strike. Those who underestimate the tail are often punished for it.

+Claws - Refined for digging they are heavy and durable, but also double as vicious weapons in battle. They can wreak havoc on living and artificial tissues alike and the predatory efficiency of Shindora can have them applied with lethal intent.

+Smoke Bomb Discharge - Shindora are able to cough up a thick green substance that when impacting the ground, produces a thick and steady stream of green soupy smoke. If an opponent is breathing, it will impact their ability to breath, but is primarily used to coordinate ambushes and facilitate a retreat if needed.

+Seismic Smasher - Projecting from the thick growth on their head, the Shindora are able to match the resonance of the Earth to allow for easy burrowing. Most dangerously, this growth can launch a resonance wave over a short distance that will rupture buildings and open fissures in the Earth if it makes impact. As an added bonus, the beam is invisible; the only indication it is occurring is a high frequency sound and an explosion on target.

+Size Changing (???) - Only observed in the first episode, the Shindora were able to change sizes from approximately human to their currently officially recognized height. The legitimacy of this power remains in question.

Weaknesses

-Limited Range - Despite their proficiency in a physical exchange, Shindora lack any offensive ranged abilities, forcing them to close the distance against certain opponents.

- Bright Lights - Shindora can be easily stunned by bright lights, especially sunlight. While not a fatal affliction, direct sunlight will make them more cautious on the surface and will resort to spending as much time underground as possible in a battle, or at least until a heavy enough smokescreen can be created to block out the sun.

Personality

Tactically minded and not easily duped, the Shindora are keenly intelligent; being highly aware of their surroundings and capable readers of body language, even of much smaller creatures. They all have a mean streak, willing to relent the advantage to savour in the victory over a great foe. Other than this, if a Shindora has set their sights on you, they will wait patiently for the most effective moment to take you out.

Origin

When the organisation Black Saturn was formed, they decided on a plateau in Northern Africa to be their secret lair, drawn unwittingly by ancient and malignant forces. While excavating their temple they stumbled upon the petrified eggs of dinosaurs; these hatched into the Shindora. Once normal dinosaurs that were then petrified and soaked in rays of cosmic evil for millions of years they were resurrected into modern times by new would be masters. While not as explicitly loyal as other elements of Black Saturn, they are eager agents of destruction that can be coerced into compliance for short or medium term gains.

Background

In the original series the Shiodora were used in the first two episodes as the primary antagonist. The general pitch for the show was for the enemies to all have a theme of “hugeness and destruction to planet earth”. While the series primary foes, the Devil Dino Army were slated to represent all of these things, their suits were proving difficult to conceptualise and finalise so the Shindora were made as a stop gap until they could be completed. Being the series pilot, a great amount of money was spent in order to impress network executives, so three of them were built (as well as a cheaper suit employed for scenes of dismemberment) for the epic climactic battle in the second episode. As a result, Shiodora became a staple foe even throughout the show's limited run, becoming something of an unwitting arch-nemesis for the titular hero, appearing more often due to the availability of the suits than anything else.

#Tetsugon #Shindora #Kaiju Codex #kaiju oc #kaiju

[tetsugon]

Kaiju Codex #1: Tetsugon

Art Credit: Lindsey Wakefield https://lindseywakefield.tumblr.com/

Brave Solar Fighter Tetsugon - 25m / 2,800 metric tons

Name

Tetsugon’s name comes from the Japanese word for iron tetsu (鉄) and shōgun (将軍), for general. The english spelling was changed from Tetsugun to Tetsugon for ease of potential buyers looking to adapt it for english language markets. These hopes never materialised.

Strengths

+ Burrowing - Tetsugon can get from one location more quickly than walking or running by burrowing underground. This is largely achieved by sheer brute force, making him not as proficient as some of his enemies.

+ Flight - While not a graceful flyer, Tetsugon can move quickly out of harm's way or from one place to the other with relative ease from the use of six high pressure rocket boosters hidden under his shell in place of insectoid wings. These rocket boosters allow him to perform lateral movements, useful in combat.

+ Multiple Arms - Tetsugon has a secondary set of limbs on his torso equipped with sharp blades. While not often employed, they make for effective surprise weapons in a pinch.

+ Strength - Tetsugon, like the beetle he’s based on, is capable of remarkable strength for a creature of his size, able to pull the struggling Jomonujira out of the water by his tail and throw him onto land; a foe that weighs almost seven times his body weight.

+ Mythic Construction - Since his body is composed of minerals from the surrounding environment, Tetsugon can withstand what would be considered fatal damage to other creatures. As long as the pupae deep inside his body containing the Stag Beetle he started out as is not destroyed, then Tetsugon will persist and with enough time reconstitute his body. In addition to being exceptionally tough, he is also heavy for his stature; outweighing opponents who have a height and reach advantage on him due to his physical density.

+ Powerful Jaws - Even on their own, the jaws are formidable weapons, able to grab and hold onto incredibly strong foes or crush those too soft to withstand their might. In conjunction with his great strength, they allow him leverage to brawl and ravage an opponent who is trapped in their grasp.

+ “Solar Chop” - Powerful finishing move, Tetsugon summons giant energy jaws to crush his opponent and slash them from both sides, usually devastating them and destroying them. Very few opponents survive an assault from the legendary Solar Chop.

Weaknesses

- Varied Composition - Tetsugons body is spontaneously constructed, mostly in moments of dire need. This means that his exact construction quality will vary wildly based on the surrounding geological composition and the amount of time he has.

- Water - Due to his geological nature, if Tetsugon finds himself around large bodies of water he will simply sink like a rock. Being mostly a regular Stag Beetle, he will panic and immediately try to evacuate the area to dry land.

- Simple Minded - Per his nature, Tetsugon will give up the advantage if the opponent challenges him to a test of pure strength, finds a woman in danger, or can be enticed by a sufficient quantity of sweet nectarous fruits.

Personality

Tetsugon is not a complicated creature. Eager to flaunt his strength, consume sweet fruits, and try to impress females. Despite his macho persona, he is generally humble and content to be left in peace to eat and flex his strength on his environment. When an opponent makes its presence known, or threatens the lives of humans he is fond of, he will charge into battle with remarkable ferocity with little regard for his own well-being. However, he can be easily tricked and led into traps by more clever foes, or goaded into giving up his advantage in a battle if a test of pure strength is offered.

Origin

Nestled in the mountains of Hokkaido in northern Japan is the small village of Narakappu. Known for agriculture and forestry, the village also has a reputation for being an environment of high quality insect life; making it popular with Entomologists and Ecologists.

Part of the local lore includes a ceremonial garden that hosts some of the finest Miaya Stag Beetles in all of Japan, renowned for their size and brilliant colouration. The same family has been taking care of this garden for several successive generations, with legends saying that some of the beetles have lived for over one hundred years. There’s little in the way of evidence, but some photographs indicate that this may be the case, often cited as one of the great mysteries of Japan. It is illegal to remove the beetles from Narakappu, fetching a high price in the insect collecting market but also high legal ramifications if caught.

Professor Hideto Yamauchi is a brilliant physicist, having developed a special energy amplifier capable of accelerating plant growth beyond normal limits. The intent being to help curb famine in the underdeveloped parts of the world. Where regular channels for supporting scientific research balked at his claims, he did get funding from one mysterious group; Black Saturn.

However, Yamauchi discovered the true nature of Black Saturn as a cruel cabal of satanic industrialists with ulterior motives for supporting his work. Before they could acquire the working prototype and his notes, Yamauchi fled from the metropolis of Tokyo to the hills of Hokkaido.

Sensing they were on his trail with their strange agents, Yamauchi hid the device in the ceremonial garden. Black Saturn could not get from him the location and nature of his secret device, however it did have an unexpected result on Narakappu’s legendary centenarian Stag Beetles, granting one of the humble creatures the extraordinary power to grow into an enormous and powerful form. During their search for the professor, the savage dinosaur Shindora coated the garden in a thick smog, choking out and killing all of the small animal life in the garden; except for one beetle that managed to barely escape their wrath.

While initially quite ferocious, Tetsugon was caught by a young hoodlum visiting with his sister; Andrei and Kyoko Fujioka, respectively. At first only tolerant of the brother/sister duo, he grew in time to be quite attached to them. Preferring to spend his time by the window of their apartment than outside and even coming to their aid when some new foe working for Black Saturn threatened their life.

Background

Hikaru Nakano was a dedicated amateur insect collector since his youth, with a great fondness for beetles. He claims to have been inspired by one beetle he raised that liked to fight, and memories of this inspired him to make a show about something small overcoming things larger than itself. The liminal space between myth and science where Tetsugon resides is also a further expression of its creator's personality, having a dim view of hubristic scientific progress and having more faith in folk traditions that are so pervasive with the culture of small towns and villages of Japan where he was raised.

Rumours abound that Channel 14 threatened legal action against Toho Studios for copyright infringement for their character Megalon from the 1973 film Godzilla vs. Megalon. Not wanting to deal with the legal proceedings, Toho and Channel 14 settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. This settlement was then used to further the budget of the shoestring production.

#Tetsugon #Kaiju Codex #kaiju oc #kaiju

[tetsugon]

Introduction

Brave! Fighting Tetsugon

Genre Tokusatsu

Created by Hikaru Nakano

Developed by Channel 14 Project Development ltd.

Directed by Hajime Iijima

Starring Goro Mutsumi

Shin Kusumi

Saeko Yanagawa

Opening

Theme Like Iron! Tetsugon

Ending

Theme None

Composer *Taro Zuchi

*(suspected pen name of the famed Masaru Sato)

Country of

Origin Japan

No. Of

Episodes 12

Running

Time 24 minutes

Original

Network HTB-6

Original January 28, 1973 -

Release April 29, 1973

Brave! Fighting Tetsugon was a tokusatsu mystery/kaiju television series created by special effects artist Hikaru Nakano. The original airing consisted of a total thirteen episodes and were broadcast from January 28th, 1973 to April 29, 1973 on Hokkaido Television Broadcasting. Originally slated for a full season of twenty-eight episodes, the show was cut short due to poor ratings and behind the scenes drama. In addition to the twelve aired episodes, it features one unaired episode and one theatrical film. There are controversies surrounding a cycle of short stories independently published in the eighties from Thailand.

Story

The series takes place in a world plagued by Black Saturn, a mysterious global terrorist organisation formed by satanic industrialists and oil magnates. To further their plans for world domination, Black Saturn scours the world in search of monsters and other horrors to sow chaos across the globe in order to profit off of it, with their long term goal being to forge an “Empire of Fear” ruled by fiendish and cruel remnants of the dinosaurs.

Thailand Controversy

After the series cancelation midway through its season, series creator Hikaru Nakano disappeared. Rumour has it that Nakano fled to Thailand, disgusted by the commercialism of the film and television industry and left to live a quiet life in another country. In the mid-eighties, a series of short stories began to be published under different pseudonyms in Thai science fiction magazines. They seemed to be sourced from the series bible and other production notes, none of which are known to exist. It is claimed that these stories were published by Nakano and thus are technically canon. Translated summaries of the identified stories have been found and they match with known testimonies of what surviving series staff can remember. However, the exact authorship of these stories has not been positively clarified.

Characters

Main Characters

Andrei Fujioka - Youngest son of the Fujioka family and has a special bond with Tetsugon after nursing his weakened beetle form back to health after a savage battle in the series pilot. Andrei is a stubborn and short-tempered twelve year old with a penchant for insects and martial arts. He is often accused of being a delinquent by the teachers and other adults in his life, but has a kind and compassionate nature. His father is an Interpol agent who fell in love with his mother on assignment in the USSR, and fled with their son back to Japan. He has a tense relationship with his adoptive mother.

Kyoko Fujioka - The eldest sister is a career focused photographer who works for a Sapporo newspaper. She does not share a father with her kid brother and has recently allowed her brother to live with her due to the strained relationship between Andrei and her biological mother. She is an organised and meticulous person, who takes her assignments seriously.

Side Characters

Masami Tanaka - The Editor-in-Chief of the small fringe “Sapporo Unbalance Report”, he takes Kyoko under his wing after she loses her job at the more prestiges Sapporo Register. He is a tough as nails veteran of the second world war, a dedicated Buddhist, and a believer in all things supernatural.

Fukashi Fujioka - an intrepid globetrotting Interpol agent, Fukashi “Fox” Fujioka now acts as more of a handler and does less field work to be near his family, fearing that they are being targeted by Black Saturn. He made several mysterious appearances throughout the first twelve episodes, but his character was never expanded on further due to the series cancellation.

Corporal Eiji Sonoda - A shy and lovesick service member of the JGSDF, he pines after Kyoko but she remains kind but disinterested. He is assigned to a rapid response unit to deal with looming monster threats. The conclusion of Sonoda and his unrequited affections for Kyoko were never resolved due to cancellation.

Black Saturn

An occult group of elite industrialists, oil tycoons, and arms dealers. The human agents all swear their loyalty to a subterranean prehistoric fiend that speaks through dinosaur fossils embedded in the cave walls of their secret lair. Agents of Black Saturn are everywhere on all levels of society and can be identified by a black gemmed ring on their pinky finger.

Council of Saturn - A group of shadowy businessmen whose identities are never revealed. It can be inferred from dialogue that they are leaders of nations and influential industrial and financial figures.

Baron Zebulun - Dressed as a dapper English gentleman, but possessing the head of a cracked and desiccated hellish ape with a single curved horn on his forehead. He is the primary field operative working for Black Saturn and running operations on the ground, formulating schemes and mediating deals with all sorts of fresh forms of terror. He is the most prominent of the Black Saturn lieutenants in the completed episodes.

Madame Boisu - a traditional geisha with a gem encrusted head with faces that go all the way around, she is able to speak to monsters and acts as a translator for their gestures and roars. She was intended to be used later on in the series, but what plans were being conceived after the assumed demise of Baron Zebulun are unknown.

Saigumo - A large spider who speaks in a Russian accent, he was less sinister and more of a comic relief, often playing cruel tricks on people and aiding in human agents of Black Saturn to complete plot motivated schemes, or to slow down the human characters. Behind the scenes images as well as some scant merchandising material show that he was likely intended to grow to enormous size and fight Tetsugon directly, but it is not definitively known if this was simply the repurposing of his suit for a new kaiju or the same character.

Kodactyus - A sinister prehistoric force of extinction and destruction, Kodactyus is only named from series descriptions from magazines, appearing as glowing red eyes and an enormous Pterodactyl skull embedded in a cave wall that occasionally growled. It is unknown if Kodactyus is manipulating the council, or vica versa. In regards to the unverified Thailand cycle of short stories, it is claimed that Kodactyus features more explicitly.

Episode List

1.1 - Leap from the Earth! Tetsugon Appears! Part 1 (Tetsugon, Shindora (first appearance))

1.2 - Conclusion! Tetsugon Appears! Part 2 (Tetsugon, Shindora)

1.3 - Terror of the Fossil Monsters Part 1 (Tetsugon, Aburex (first appearance))

1.4 - Defeat the Fossil Monsters! Part 2 (Tetsugon, Aburex)

1.5 - Fear the Ancient Devil! (Tetsugon, King Totedyne (first, final appearance))

1.6 - Here Comes the Star Eater! (Tetsugon, Uchuzoa-Zero / Uchuzoa-Probe (first, final appearance))

1.7 - Land Sharks Attack Tokyo! Shindora Returns (Tetsugon, Shindora)

1.8 - Revenge of the Devil Wizard of the Sea (Tetsugon, Jomonujira /Gamaku (first appearance))

1.9 - Revive the Ancient Hero Monster! Clash with Tetsugon (Tetsugon, Jomonujira, Barbelazu (first appearance))

1.10 - Destiny of the Ancient Duel! (Tetsugon, Jomonujira, Barbelazu, Gamaku (final appearance))

1.11 - Two Monsters Advance on Tetsugon! (Aburex (final appearance), Shindora (final appearance), Archulist (first, final appearance))

1.12 - The Living Swarm! Plague Upon Japan (Tetsugon, Senago (first, final appearance))

1.13 - Mystery of the Star Hunter! Part 1 (Tetsugon, Kyuhon, Star Hunter Trishul (first, final appearance))

Shine! Mighty Tetsugon - Colourized stock footage film intended for Champions Film Festival, all monsters appear

Monster List (In Order of Appearance)

Tetsugon

Shindora

Aburex

Uchuzoa-Zero

Uchuzoa-Probe

King Totedyne

Jomonujira

Gamaku

Barbelazu

Archulist

Senago

Kyuhon

Star Hunter Trishul

History

Produced for television in 1973, Tetsugon was originally slated for twenty-eight but was cut short by its poor ratings. Its failure to connect with its target audience are often attributed to it being black and white for budgetary concerns (at a time when colour was standard) and bizarre episode premises that did not appeal to a young demographic. However, it is fondly remembered by dedicated toku fans for its creative monster action and unique visual style. In addition to its original twelve aired episodes and one unaired episode, it has one film; “Shine! Mighty Tetsugon'' a crude stock footage dependent movie that is noteworthy more for the crude colourisation done on scenes from the original episode than any of its cinematic qualities.

Conceived by Hikaru Nakano while he was a special effects assistant director, Nakano was an anti-establishment troublemaker who enthusiastically wrote short fiction in his free time and published under several pseudonyms. When he heard that the television network was looking for a kaiju show to cash in on the pop culture trend at the time, he quickly created a detailed pitch informed by his environmentalism, affection for folk traditions, and conspiratorial mistrust of authority.

With no other properly developed alternative, the network cautiously approved a single season and gave Hikaru Nakano an executive producer position on the show. His enthusiasm made up for his lack of writing finesse and contributed to the overall tone of the show; a hodgepodge of many ideas that were in vogue at the time, held together by an affection for dark American science fiction like the Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Rather than be dissuaded by his shows lack of budget for full colour, he embraced the limitation and made moodier and more gothic inspired storylines much to the chagrin of the channel executives who tried to market it as a family friendly show.

Tohl Magami was an embittered mercenary director in the film industry, known for largely forgotten b-films in the yakuza and action genres. The assignment of being on a children's kaiju show was a new low, no longer as presigious as it once was at the genre heights of the late-fifties to mid-sixties. While indifferent to the subject matter, it is considered that his foul mood during production created a bizarre artistic storm with Nakanos young tenacity that informs the series style. Action sequences were aggressive, the lighting was moody and expressionistic, and the cinematography could vary wildly from pedestrian to uncanny moments of artistic flair.

However, the channel executives patience with the project was running thin and their intervention is often felt throughout the series run, contributing in their own way to its disjointed tones and inconsistency. The original intent of Black Saturn was to have monsters be assorted undead dinosaurs, but the channel was concerned about repetition, scrapping this idea. This concept was ultimately embodied in just one monster, the sinister and iconic Aburex. An early run of dark sci-fi style storylines eventually lead to what is informally referred to as the “fantasy arc”, with the villain Jomonujira. The conception of Jomonujira outraged Nakano, feeling it violated his environmentalist principles to feature an endangered whale as a villain, despite the positive reception of that arc of the show. The Fantasy arc featured a grand storyline, a great villain, some of the best action in the series, and the addition of a popular ally monster, the Godzilla-like Barbelazu.

This led into what is regarded as the best and second-last of the aired episodes, featuring two of its standout villains plus an additional partner kaiju to fight alongside Tetsugon; the ancient robot Archulist. Barbelazu being a popular addition to the fantasy arc, this was an attempt to repeat that same success.

Wanting to try their hand at a kyodai style hero in a last ditch effort to boost ratings, the channel pressured Nakano to incorporate an Ultraman-style alie for Tetsugon. Nakano balked at this, regarding the forward thinking and futurist minded Ultraman as dichotomous to his darker and more folk informed sensibilities; more philosophically egregious to him than the whale monster. The creative argument was so bitter, that it ultimately resulted in the decision to cancel the already wavering series. Hearing of this and regarding it as the ultimate betrayal, Nakano rewrote his submitted treatment to feature the kyodai hero Star Hunter Trishul as the villain. It is believed that the second episode was filmed but never properly edited together, leaving the show on a tense cliffhanger. The content of the incomplete episode remains a mystery to this day.

The series was condensed into an eighty minute stock footage heavy film, Shine! Mighty Tetsugon for the annual Champions Festival. The film is largely a summary of the entire series, but is most notable for being colourized. While the colourization was garish, often conflicting with the gothic lighting and tone, it is notable for featuring the monsters in their canon colour schemes per the series bible laid out by Nakano and the other writers. The most substantial additions are several sequences of Tetsugon being observed by a seemingly omnipotent mechanical alien called Comptroller Ranjin, who watches from a shadowy dimension, differentiated by being shot in the television series classic black in white.

The film acts as his observations of Tetsugons abilities, and to justify the now legendary finale; featuring a floating steppe plain hovering above Mt. Fuji where all the monsters are buried in a graveyard. Tetsugon & co. fly to this plain to investigate when the graveyard erupts in a horde of the resurrected monsters. One of the most legendary brawls in tokusatsu occurs between Tetsugon and his entire rogues gallery. Before Tetsugon is defeated, it is revealed that the entire scene was a hologram of Ranjin broadcasted to Earth from his dimension, even bringing into question whether the human protagonists, and the show itself, were even real. The final shot is Ranjin laughing maniacally as the camera zooms into the supposedly mechanical being, to reveal a shrivelled slug-like creature suspended inside the diving suit head and declaring that "it was all for naught".

Rumours abound that this final battle sequence was filmed shortly after it was decided that the show would be canceled, with the Comptroller Ranjin being a thinly veiled stand-in for Nakanos disdain for the channel executives. It is also claimed that the sequences themselves were shot by Nakano shortly before his disappearance, lacking the frantic energy that the indifferent but seasoned action direction that Magami brought to the original show. For years, rumours floated in fan circles that there was a darker and even sinister final speech from Comptroller Ranjin that expressed a bleak view of reality itself, confusing and upsetting the largely youth audience that watched it; although, this has never been concretely verified, all evidence points to a much tamer version that is reported from this lost film.

#Tetsugon #introduction