was a

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is som ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

TV series. Created by Japanese effects wizard

Eiji Tsuburaya was a Japanese special effects director and cinematographer. Known as the he worked on 250 feature films in a career spanning 50 years. He is regarded as one of the co-creators of the ''Godzilla'' series, as well as the main creator of the ...

, the show was produced by

Tsuburaya Productions is a Japanese special effects studio founded in 1963 by special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya and was run by his family, until October 2007, when the family sold the company to advertising agency TYO Inc. The studio is best known for producin ...

and was broadcast on

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

from April 6, 1968 to June 29, 1968, with a total of 13 one-hour episodes. The music for the episodes was done by

Isao Tomita , often known simply as Tomita, was a Japanese composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements. In addition to creating note-by-note realiz ...

and Kunio Miyauchi. Reportedly, Eiji Tsuburaya considered this series his masterwork because the focus was on the people, rather than on the vehicles and special effects (the show never had any monsters or aliens, as his more famous shows ''

Ultra Q is a tokusatsu science fiction kaiju series made in the tradition of Toho's many tokusatsu sci-fi/horror films. Produced in black and white by Tsuburaya Productions, this is actually the first of the long-running Ultra Series, and was broadc ...

'', ''

Ultraman ''Ultraman'', also known as the , is the collective name for all media produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad monsters. Debuting with ''Ultra Q'' and then ''Ultraman'' in 1966, the series is one ...

'' and ''

Ultra Seven is a Japanese ''tokusatsu'' science fiction television series created by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the third installment in the Ultra Series and was produced by Tsuburaya Productions. The series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System from October 1, 19 ...

'' did). This focus on the people was similar to the works of

Gerry Anderson Gerald Alexander Anderson (; 14 April 1929 – 26 December 2012) was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist. He remains famous for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s produ ...

, of which Tsuburaya was a big fan. The Mighty Jack mecha/HQ featured in this series also has some similarities to Tsuburaya's previous TV masterpiece, ''

''. Even for the original series of 13 one hour-long episodes, the ratings were low. The follow-up series, ''Fight! Mighty Jack'', fared better in the ratings, perhaps because of its inclusion of monsters and aliens, rather than purely human evildoers like Q. The insignia of the titular heroic spy team has also become the current logo for Tsuburaya Productions.

Plot

"Mighty Jack" is the name of both a top-secret international peacekeeping organization's 11 agents, and the technologically advanced flying submarine "''Mighty-Gō''" they use to fight the plots of the

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

organization "Q".

Cast

Hideaki Nitani was a Japanese actor. Career Born in Kyoto Prefecture, Nitani attended Doshisha University but quit before graduating. He first worked as an announcer at Nagasaki Broadcasting Company, but in 1956 made his debut as an actor at Nikkatsu. Gaining ...

* Hiroshi Minami * Naoko Kubo * Akiyoshi Kasuga * Wakako Ikeda *

Masanari Nihei was a Japanese actor. He played Mitsuhiro Ide in ''Ultraman (1966 TV series), Ultraman'', having won the role when originally cast actor Susumu Ishikawa left the production. Death Masanari Nihei died on 21 August 2021 due to aspiration pneumon ...

Hideyo Amamoto was a prolific Japanese actor from the Wakamatsu ward of Kitakyūshū best known for portraying Dr. Shinigami in the original '' Kamen Rider'' series as well as many other characters in tokusatsu films and the ''Godzilla'' series. Amamoto als ...

* Masayoshi Fukuoka * Yoshitaka Tanaka * Noriaka Inoue * Mitsuru Ōya * Gorō Mutsu * Anne Marie * Jirō Yanaga

Episodes 1~ 13

Staff

''Fight! Mighty Jack''

The more comical sequel series, , aired on the same network from July 6 to December 28, 1968, with a total of 26 half-hour episodes, equaling the original in length. This series has several humorous references to the early

Ultra Series ''Ultraman'', also known as the , is the collective name for all media produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad monsters. Debuting with '' Ultra Q'' and then ''Ultraman'' in 1966, the series is o ...

. * The opening scene of the series (with a reverse paint-swirling effect forming "MJ" before a burst of red envelops the scene, with a yellow "Fight! Mighty Jack" superimposed) is almost exactly like that of ''

''. * One episode of this series is quite notable, as it features a comical guest appearance by

Kohji Moritsugu is a Japanese actor best known for his role as Dan Moroboshi in '' Ultraseven''. Filmography Films *'' The Music'' (1972) *'' Zero Fighter Burns'' (1984) *'' Furimukeba Ai'' (1984) *'' Robot Carnival'' (1987) - Protagonist in "Presence" segment ...

, who played Dan Moroboshi, the alter-ego of

, poking fun at his popular role. He plays a mechanic, who, in one scene, looked as though he was about to transform into Ultra Seven by pulling the Ultra Eye from his pocket to put it on, but the red object he slowly pulls from his pocket is actually a small wrench, with which he gets right to work on fixing a machine.

Staff

''Mighty Jack'' in the U.S.

In 1986, American producer

Sandy Frank Sandy Frank (born Sundel Francous; July 11, 1929) is an American television producer, distributor, and marketer of TV shows to US networks. Early life and career Frank grew up in Mount Kisco, New York. He started his career as a sales executiv ...

took the first and sixth episodes of ''Mighty Jack'' (without any of the episodes that were released in between or afterward) and combined them into a dubbed feature-length film of the same name. The movie gained its widest exposure in the United States when it was shown as a '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' episode on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

(originally shown on the UHF station KTMA TV 23 during the show's KTMA season).

External links

* *

Mystery Science Theater 3000

* *
Episode guide: K14- Mighty Jack

References

{{Ultra Series 1968 Japanese television series debuts 1968 Japanese television series endings Tokusatsu television series 1968 films Ultra television series Tsuburaya Productions Fuji TV original programming