is 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 ...

'' superhero TV series about a giant

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

. The series was produced by Nippon Gendai and Senkosha (now Senko Planning), and aired on

Tokyo Broadcasting System formerly is a Japanese media and licensed broadcasting holding company. It is the parent company of the television network and radio network . It has a 28-affiliate television network called JNN (Japan News Network), as well as a 34-affili ...

from October 8, 1972, to April 8, 1973, with a total of 26 episodes.

Plot description

The '' Shiranui Clan'' have planned for 2000 years to conquer Japan in retaliation for their nomadic ancestors being banished from the country by the

Yamato Clan The , also known as , was an immigrant clan active in Japan since the Kofun period (250–538), according to the history of Japan laid out in the '' Nihon Shoki''. The name ''fuhito'' comes from their occupation as scribes. They were descended fro ...

(who eventually became known as the

Japanese people The are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago."人類学上は，旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来，現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島（南西諸島）に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。" () Jap ...

). Each armored ninja-like member of the clan controls a gigantic

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may ...

warrior in order to overthrow the "Yamato Government," as they call it. In response to this

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 ...

threat, Japan's ''National Security Organization'' send agent Gentaro Shizuka ( Shoji Ishibashi), disguised as what can best described as a Spaghetti Western version of a singing cowboy, to stop their plans with the assistance of comical, mountaineering-clad Goro Kirishima ( Mitsuo Hamada). In an unusual direction for such ''

'' (visual effects) programs, it is not the heroic but often surprisingly ruthless Gentaro but the bumbling, bespectacled Goro who has the power to become the giant

cybernetic Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson ma ...

superhero Iron King by touching the medals on the sides of his funny red ''Turning Hat'' and yelling "Iron Shock!" when danger threatens. However, often Iron King is unable to defeat the clan's giant robots without help from Gentaro, who wields a weapon called the ''Iron Belt'' that can become a slender

rapier A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Impo ...

-like sword or an infinitely extendable metal whip capable of hurting giant monsters. In addition, transforming into the

hydrogen oxide Water () is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid, which is nearly colorless apart from an inherent hint of blue. It is by far the most studied chemical compound and is described as the "univer ...

-powered Iron King quickly dehydrates Goro, and he can only remain as Iron King for a short period of time. Strangely, although Gentaro knows Iron King's time limit comes from exhausting his water supply he never manages to connect it with Goro's omnipresent thirst until the final episode. In the tenth episode the Shiranui Clan is wiped out, but their place is taken by the skull-symboled keffiyeh-clad ''Phantom Militia'' (A/K/A the ''Phantom Opposition Party'') who to enact their revolution against the Japanese government, use monsters. Their monsters initially appear to be traditional '' kaiju'', though they are revealed to all be robots, commanded by agents of the Militia remotely. And from the nineteenth episode to the end of the series, Gentaro and Goro battle black cloak and Puritan hat-clad white-masked aliens called ''Titanians'', who despite looking human, have various inhuman powers such as flight, body-possessing mind control, and the ability to enlarge themselves to giant size. Upon doing the latter they are then able to assume

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

-like monster forms.

Episode list

DVD releases

On November 6, 2007, BCI Eclipse Entertainment Company LLC released the complete series of ''Iron King'' on DVD in Region 1. As of 2009, this release is now out of print as BCI Eclipse ceased operations. On March 9, 2010, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released the entire series on DVD in Region 1.

Notes

References

* (From the ''Iron King'' liner notes booklet) * *

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0299239, Iron King 1972 Japanese television series debuts 1973 Japanese television series endings Japanese superheroes Tokusatsu television series TBS Television (Japan) original programming