(Note that these reviews correlate with the dubbed version of the show)
Dracolon, The Great Sea Monster – A high-energy, pulpy start to the series with hardly any time to grasp what you’re seeing, but that’s hardly a bad thing. Emperor Guillotine arrives on Earth, and apparently lays dormant below the sea for months, presumably gathering up lackeys and constructing the Giant Robo. Just why young Johnny Sokko is traveling alone on the ocean liner and where his are is never explained. Also unexplained is why Dr. Guardian decided to build the Giant Robo for Guillotine and his Gargoyle Gang before opting the blow the base up, though it is possible he wasn’t granted the atomic powers until the robot’s completion. Jerry Mano immediately comes off as incompetent, nearly revealing his identity as a UNICORN agent to young Johnny in their first meeting, but still a likable guy. 3.5/5
Nucleon, The Magic Globe – A simplistic episode with the Gargoyle Gang, led by Spider simply trying to get their hands on what is theirs (Giant Robo). They do this via sending a meteorite that turns out to a be a robot. UNICORN exhibit their willingness to endanger a child’s life by making Johnny a member and immediately sending him and Jerry to check out the walking meteor. It’s real basic, but there’s fun to be had. The Gargoyle Gang are pretty fun villains, but display some real stupidity by keeping the watch that controls Giant Robo on Johnny while he’s unconscious. 3/5
The Gargoyle Vine – A Space Plant – The introduction of Dr. Botanus (Played by prolific Toei villain actor Mitsuo Ando), an alien scientist apparently affiliated with Guillotine. He comes to Earth to force a scientist to grow the aptly named “Gargoyle Seeds”, which in fact house the monstrous Gargoyle Vine. The botanists of Earth are apparently familiar with the “Gargoyle Seeds” (Called Satan Seeds in the Japanese version, which makes things a bit less puzzling), though whether Guillotine or Botanus are responsible for their being there is not clear. The plot of villains forcing a scientist to perform actions against his will would become a giant staple of Toei’s Tokusatsu outputs, though amazingly, this episode was not written by Masaru Igami. Once he’s of no further use to them, Botanus sends the scientist back to his home in a drugged state as opposed to just killing him, eventually leading to him recovering in the most contrived way imaginable. Despite their car getting crushed by a meteor last episode, Spider and his men are alive and well, and aren’t exactly happy to be bossed around by Botanus. Despite a cliched plot with some dumb moments, there’s fun to be had, particularly the climax which has some grand destruction (Some of which would be used as stock footage in Toei throughout the 70s). 3/5
Monster Ligon-Tyrox, A Strange Monster – A decent episode that has a fairly normal plot by the Gargoyle Gang to destroy Earth’s oil fields with their latest monster. Dr. Botanus wants an oil-drilling device that just so happens to be created by UNICORN member Mitsuko’s brother – the connection doesn’t add much to the story, but does give it a bit of emotional weight. The episode is set in a vague Middle Eastern country simply referred to as “Arabia”. Arabia not only has a UNICORN branch, but also seems to have some Gargoyle Gang members. Jerry comes off as a real dolt throughout, perhaps due to the presence of both Johnny and Mitsuko making him a third wheel. Nothing too spectacular and the heavy use of brownface is mildly uncomfortable, but a pretty fun, competent episode. 3.5/5
The Gigantic Claw – Doesn’t feature any birds as big as battleships, but a mostly enjoyable episode. The plot concerns UNICORN inventing a new clear alloy that even Giant Robo can’t damage, which of course the Gargoyle Gang wants. The episode is a series of diversions, mainly by UNICORN, and its pretty fun, if a little basic. Botanus is absent, perhaps due to his two failures, with Spider taking the lead. UNICORN is shown to be a much larger organization than previously thought, with multiple members guarding the alloy. One must wonder how some of those guys feel about being outranked by a child. Writer Masaru Igami must have liked this episode enough to reuse the script almost verbatim in Super Robot Red Baron‘s Goldfinger a few years later. Though Goldfinger would tidy it up a bit, the original is still entertaining. 3.5/5
Dragon, The Ninja Monster – Another enjoyable episode, albeit one that doesn’t really live up to its promising plot. Said plot involves Guillotine sending a “ninja” monster to destroy an aircraft and submarine from made-up rival countries locked in Cold War, a move that could trigger a third World War. However, most of the episode simply focuses on Gargoyle agents led by Spider infiltrating a UNICORN conference on how to handle the situation, and while its fun enough, it is a bit disappointing to see the episode focus almost exclusively on it after a promising intro. The “resolution” to the near-conflict is also super contrived. 3/5
Our Enemy-Scalion – Another “cat and mouse chase” kind of episode with Gargoyle getting their hands on UNICORN’s decoder, and UNICORN attempting to retrieve it through a series of diversions. Like most others, its simplistic, but a good time. Jerry comes off as competent and just pretty badass throughout, which is a plus. The episode marks the introduction of fellow child UNICRON agent Marie Hanamura and the final appearance of Matasaburo Niwa as Spider, who dies an awfully humiliating death. 3.5/5
The Challenge of the Two-Headed Monster – An episode that reveals a one-eyed defector from the Gargoyle Gang, who asks for UNICORN’s help in rescuing his children from their clutches. Or so he says. The outcome is pretty predictable, but its a pretty fun time as usual. The monster of the episode’s suit is weak even by this show’s standards, but it has a real interesting double-faced design reminiscent of the monster Ashuran from Ultraman Leo, which wouldn’t hit airwave until a good 8 years later. 3.5/5
Tentaclon-An Electric Monster – The return of Dr. Botanus in a solid episode with some genuine stakes. Gargoyle manages to capture a stadium’s worth of people in exchange for one simple request – hand Japan over to him, and everyone shall be spared. Naturally, its hard to trust him, so it s race to locate the whereabouts of the captured people before time runs out. As usual, lots of diversions and chases between both sides to be had, all of which are good fun. One of the Gargoyle Gang’s henchmen claims to have a brother among the captured people, someone his fellow members have little interesting in sparring. This is a little odd considering most of the henchmen have been played by the same troupe of actors throughout, which would seem to suggest they’re clones or something to the like. 4/5
The Transformed Humans – A mediocre episode with little plot and just a lack of entertainment. What little plot there is concerns the head of UNICORN’s Kyoto branch being captured by Botanus and Harlequin (Who now sports shaggy hair) and brainwashed to infiltrate a super secret meeting set to be held. Gargoyle have no idea what the meeting is about, but neither does the Kyoto head or even the audience. It doesn’t even wind up mattering though, as they just unleash their monster, a returning Ligon to destroy the location of the meeting anyways. The slightly awkward pacing, reuse of Tyrox, lack of Mari and Harlequin’s hair make it obvious the episode was shot earlier into the series’ production, sixth to be precise. 2/5
The Terrifying Sand Creature – Not since Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes has a Japanese production featured so much sand. As per-norm, a standard story with Johnny and Jerry being lured to UNICORN’s sand-buried artic base, where they are captured and brainwashed by Gargoyle, with Guillotine ordering Johnny to command Giant Robo and fly him into the sun. A pretty dirt scheme, though one must ask why Guillotine wouldn’t want Giant Robo back under his command given his strength. Mari plays a bit bigger of a role than previous episodes, giving Johnny a pendant that becomes a helpful deus ex machina. The titular sand creature is a returning Dracumon, which is an awfully odd choice given his association with water in the first appearance. Ligon being used for this rather than the previous episode might have worked a bit better given his first appearance was in the desert. 3.5/5
Amberon The Synthetic Monster – The final appearance of Hideo Murata as Harlequin, who just simply stops appearing after this – there is no death scene or anything for the character. The episode concerns UNICORN discovering the location of a Gargoyle base, and managing to take Botanus prisoner, resulting in Harlequin having to break him out. The method used to free Botanus from UNICORN’s base is about as strange as they come – a bizarre stone body is found in a dead snake, and when taken to UNICORN’s base for research, it hatches a monster to break Botanus free. There is some fun to be had, but the whole affair just feels kind of uneventful. Interestingly, the precise plot of the defense team capturing a high-ranking member of the evil organization and him having to be broken out would be reused for Super Robot Red Baron‘s Watch Out! SSI. The Red Baron episode was penned by Masaru Igami, who was head writer for this show, but curiously, the writer for this episode was Shu Abe. Homage, stealing or a mistaken credit originally? Who knows. Regardless, the Red Baron version improves upon the story and gives it a bit more of an emotional stake. 3/5
Opticorn Must Be Destroyed – The introduction of bucktoothed Gargoyle Commander Fangar, who almost immediately comes off as a coward. The plot concerns a radioactive element being found in a small kingdom between the Himalayas and Tibet, which Gargoyle wants. Despite said kingdom being “backwards” (Chief Azuma’s actual words), they still manage to have a UNICORN branch of their own. Things get kind of complicated when its revealed the kingdom’s princess is the spitting image of Mari (What are the odds?), and when she’s kidnapped and held hostage by Guillotine, Mari is called over to do some impersonating and help retrieve the princess. The plot is sadly kind of unfocused, but there are some fun sequences and it features one of the show’s more memorable monsters in the form of the giant eyeball Opticorn. 3/5
The Monstrous Flying Jawbone – A lousy episode that starts out promisingly enough, but loses steam and becomes just plain dumb. It opens with Gargoyle launching an all-out attack on UNICORN’s branch in the country of Tailon (Actually China in the Japanese version), which winds up being a method to capture the only three agents that seem to matter (Azuma, Jerry and Johnny), sending them to a deathtrap along with Tailon’s chief. The base and attire of the Tailon agents is about as stereotypically “oriental” as one could get, though it’s only made worse with them actually being Chinese in the original version. Fangar didn’t leave a great impression last episode, but here he comes off as a complete moron. In a classic supervillain fashion, he opts to leave Azuma and the Tailon commander alone with Johnny and jerry in their deathtrap, which is a laughable contraption involving two chairs that when touched, while electrocute them both to death (Which moves very slowly). But as opposed to at least watching it on the monitor he very much has, he opts to leave it off and drink champagne, which (spoilers) allows for them to escape. Even by this show’s standards, that is beyond stupid. Johnny is actually shown playing with a group of kids prior to being called on by UNICORN, indicating the boy has SOME sort of personal life. 2/5
Igganog – The Ice-Berg Monster – A pretty interesting episode with Johnny and Jerry meeting a wanderer who simply calls himself “Hunter”, who seems to have a form of resentment towards UNICORN for reasons that soon become clear. Gargoyle have created a base in an apparently haunted mountainous area where they’re obviously up to something seedy. Introduced is Gargoyle agent Goldenaut, who’s literally just a golden knight in shining armor. Hunter’s criticism of UNICORN viewing its men as disposable isn’t invalid – Johnny and Jerry (and occasionally Mari and Mitsuko) seem to be literally be the only ones ever recognized by Azuma, with all others going unnamed and dying like Red Shirts of Star Trek (Or MAC members in Ultraman Leo). That said, his criticizing of Azuma never going out in the field is a bit weird considering he does just that in the previous episode, though it IS possible this episode is set before that one (Even if the former was produced earlier). 3.5/5
Torozon – An Enemy Robot – The introduction of arguably show’s most popular monster Torozon. Aside from that, its a pretty good episode, with a slightly darker plot than usual, involving UNICORN branches across the world being destroy by the titular robot, thanks to their radars being sabotaged ahead of time. The main plot involves the head of UNICORN Japan’s radar station having his wife and kids directly threated by Gargoyle unless he tampers with its radar and allows Torozon to attack. The main villain of the episode is Dr. Snake, who’s said to be Gargoyle’s top scientist, in his only appearance. That is a shame, as he’s quite menacing and seems competent unlike idiots such as Fangar. Torozon leaves a good impression, really coming off as Giant Robo’s equal. 4/5
Destroy the Dam – The final appearance of Dr. Botanus and (quite fittingly) the return of the Gargoyle Vine, who’s been given modifications, making it grow off of heat energy. Gargoyle’s scheme is a fairly dirty one, leaving the Gargoyle Vine out in the open for UNICORN and the JSDF to attack, which will of course only make it more powerful. The scientist from The Gargoyle Vine – A Space Plant is brought back, and pleads for the higher ups not to attack it, knowing well what Gargoyle’s plan is, but they have none of it. At one point, a defense official states he simply doesn’t listen to scientists, making the episode dangerously more relevant by the day. Botanus appears alongside “Dangor”, an assassins that looks a good deal like Fangar, only lacking the goofy teeth and having a red cobra tattoo on his forehead. The dub cleverly treats them as separate characters, but in the Japanese version, he is in fact Fangar/Red Cobra, sporting an earlier design. The episode was only the fifth produced, and as a result, works better when watched before all of Fangar’s appearances. There has been some speculation that Dangor/Fangar/Red Cobra is meant to be a revived or “upgraded” Harlequin, though there’s nothing really to back this up apart from Harlequin’s sudden disappearance. Early on, Dangor attempts to assassinate Chief Azuma for reasons not quite clear, other than to prompt the JSDF to attack the plant even sooner, without Azuma attempting to ration. Present during the vine’s attack on the village are very possibly the two dumbest kids in all of Tokusatsu. They’re left behind at a school, not because they got lost, but because they wanted to stay behind and build a wall to protect it. Stupid brats deserve what’s coming to them. 4/5
X-7, a Mysterious Enemy Agent – Has the workings of a good episode, but is a bit too unfocused to be considered as such sadly. The plot is another instance of UNICORN getting their hands on a powerful MacGuffin and Gargoyle capturing people (this time scientists) in exchange for it. Here, they’re led by a mysterious agent calling himself X7 who’s apparently offed several UNICORN agents (Fangar is along for the ride still). Simple, but engaging enough, though it gets bogged down by a new kid joining Johnny’s class, the first time we’ve ever seen him in school, and there’s naturally something up when he invites Johnny over to his house. It can be assumed Gargoyle only wants Johnny and his friends as further hostages, but it just eats up time. Jerry is shown monitoring the outside of Johnny’s school while class is in session, which begs the question if he always does that. The identity of X-7 isn’t too surprising, but his fate most certainly is. The episode marks the return of easily the lamest foe in the form of the Gigantic Claw. With a bit of tidying, this could have been a decent episode, but its sadly a bit too uneven. 2.5/5
Metron – The Mysterious Space-Man – A very predictable, but reasonably entertaining. An alien calling himself Metron (No, not that Metron) appears on Earth claiming to be an intergalactic cop out to arrest Guillotine (a Space Sheriff?), gradually earning UNICORN’s trust, but its obvious something’s up. There being a sense of unease in regards to him is fine, but in his very first scene, we see him giving a pair of hunters pills that turn them into mindless zombies, immediately cementing him as a villain. So much for any sense of mystery. Mari remains suspicious of the guy, with them even citing her being correct on Harlequin’s nature, in a surprising bit of continuity. They’ll acknowledge Harlequin’s existence, but not what became of him. After just two episodes, Torozon returns, though it escaping the last time was emphasized, so it isn’t too jarring. 3/5
Beware-The Radion Globe – A solid episode with some surprisingly emotional bits. The second-lamest foe, Nucleon is brought back, only this time repainted and numbed Radion, where it manages to lure Giant Robo and shut off its control systems for a span of an hour, giving Gargoyle time to reprogram it. The episode has Johnny and Jerry raiding the Gargoyle base to retrieve Robo, with Johnny expressing genuine remorse at his good friend being unable to operate. UNICORN has installed a protective satellite orbiting the Earth (Which is destroyed by Radion in order to lure Giant Robo out into space), perhaps constructed after the incident with Metron’s UFO. The final appearance of Fangar, who is probably at his most competent here, but was still a lousy villain. The head scientist tasked with reprogramming Giant Robo is played by prolific Gaijin Ulf Otsuki, and delivers one of the most over-the-top performances in any Tokusatsu show, and he gets about one small scene. 3.5/5
The Terrifying Space Mummy – A cross between The Mummy and School of the Holy Beast that encapsulates just about everything bonkers about the show. The plot involves the titular “Space Mummy” contaminating the water supply with a “mummification virus” that when drank, mummifiers people. The concept of a “mummification virus” would be directly copied by Masaru Igami a few years later in Kamen Rider V3‘s Inhumanoid Heater-Cicada’s Mummy Operation!!. And of course, the mere idea of villains wanting to poison water supplies with a virus would become an outright staple of Toei’s Tokusatsu shows throughout the 1970s. Mummy and his gang of Gargoyle agents use a chapel (Which is in fact the Former Tama Seiseki Memorial Hall, which would go on to be used in countless Tokusatsu productions) as their base of operations thanks to it being right about Tokyo’s reservoir, resulting in not only mummies, but killer nuns as well. For the first time in a good while (Both airdate and production-wise), Mitsuko is featured, even accompanying Johnny and Jerry on their mission. The special bond between Johnny and Giant Robo is further exemplified during a scene where Aruma begs for it to turn on, citing Johnny being in danger, despite the lack of Johnny’s watch. It is a shame this marks Space Mummy’s only appearance, as he’s a hoot. His monster is simply a repainted Dragon, who now has a size-changing ability. The mere last couple of seconds are a total copout, but I guess they couldn’t quite get away with killing a bunch kids and nuns. 4/5
Clash of the Giant Robots – A legit solid episode that raises some ethical questions. The extravagant leader of a fictitious country is impressed with Giant Robo, and wants to build his robot for defense just like it. The idea alone of countries wanting their own Giant Robos, militarizing them and potentially starting a new arms race is scary in itself, but its made all the more disturbing when the Japanese government gives them the OK to study all of Giant Robo’s workings, thanks to them being trade partners. Their Robo, Cleopat is just Giant Robo without the red and the country’s flag on its chest, but its a clever way of reusing a costume. Tentaclon is also back, capturing Cleopat under Goldenaut’s orders. Johnny and UNICORN celebrate the one year anniversary of Giant Robo’s creation, and as if UNICORN wasn’t awful enough by putting Johnny and Mari in life-threatening situations, they even let them drink champagne! Though its a shame there isn’t an actual “clash” between the robots, a good episode that actually makes one think more than normal. 4/5
Dr. Eingali-Master of Evil – An episode that starts insanely goofy, but gets gradually darker as it progresses, even becoming pretty emotional towards the end. Guillotine, who’s seen in-person for the first time in quite a while, summons the impish Dr. Eingali from the fourth dimension of evil (Something Guillotine praises the doctor for taking his time off to do) to thwart Giant Robo and UNICORN. Eingali attempts to do so in possibly the craziest way imaginable – by sending Johnny a present for his birthday that winds up being a life-sized replica of him that he needs to assemble. One could assume the prolonged time it takes to build the double is for it replicate Johnny’s voice and mannerisms, but it’s just insane. For the first time ever, we get some indication about Johnny’s parents, in this case his father who Johnny claims is away on business in Hokkaido. Whether he’s on-business simply during this episode or has been away the entire show is not made clear. The Fake Johnny manages to steal the real deal’s watch and can control Giant Robo thanks to it having the same voice, though UNICORN is able to disable Robo’s functions. This results in Eingali and the fake Johnny taking a bus of children hostage unless they give Robo to them, suddenly taking the episode in a much darker direction. For once, UNICORN really is helpless, and the tears coming from (real) Johnny feel genuine. Though perhaps inconsistent tonally, a good episode. 4/5
Hydrazona – A Terrifying Bacteria – A fairly creepy episode involving Gargoyle combatting UNICORN with germ warfare…sort of. The titular Hydrazona is essentially red slime that goes around melting people and things, really bringing to mind Toho’s The H-Man, right down to it being found in the sewer. It’s creator is a guy name Professor Hydra, who’s basically a re-do of Dr. Snake from Torozon – An Enemy Robot, though less interesting. They first use it to destroy a nuclear powered aircraft, and then vow to destroy Giant Robo with it, apparently having learned the location of UNICORN’s base. This puts UNICORN on high-alert, and results in a lot of agents getting killed by the stuff, which is fun to watch, but makes the ethics of Azuma’s plan really questionable once the twist is revealed. Mitsuko is back once more, though this sadly marks Yumiko Katayama’s final appearance as her. Igganog also returns as the obligatory monster at the end. 3.5/5
Drakulon – Creature of Doom – Another zany episode with a Space Vampire known as Drakulon (Who’s dubbed in a wonderful Hungarian accent) coming to Earth under Gargoyle, and turning a small village, along with a random UNICORN agent into vampires, presumably to lure Johnny and Jerry. Drakulon and his villagers-turned-vampires don’t seem to mind the sunlight, and act much more akin to flesh-eating zombies, ala Last Man on Earth (This predates Night of the Living Dead by mere months). Despite being fine with sunlight, Drakulon still fears the cross. The scene of Johnny being forced to call upon Giant Robo to destroy UNICORN’s base in exchange for Mari’s life is fairly powerful for such a silly episode, though the “solution” is perhaps a bit goofy. Like previous episodes, writer Masaru Igami would liberally borrow large elements from this episode for Super Robot Baron, in this case the episode Horror of the Vampire Virus. The two are mostly similar, though Red Baron turns Drakulon’s supernatural vampire abilities into a space virus that is capable of being cured. One advantage Giant Robo has is the people turned aren’t cured – they’re vampires forever. 3.5/5
The Last of Emperor Guillotine – The series finale which finally has Guillotine doing something he should have done from the start – putting a simple hit on Johnny Sokko. After their many defeats, Gargoyle seems empty, leading the assassin hired to just be an everyday hitman as opposed to a zany character. Not too surprisingly, that doesn’t work out, but lucky for him, Guillotine has a Plan B up his sleeve that involves an all-out attack with past monsters, including Opticorn (Who’s battle with Giant Robo is sadly stock footage), Igganog once again and Scalion (It is a shame Torozon wasn’t revived). It’s a fairly standard fair with lots of action between the monsters and agents of UNICORN and Gargoyle, but the last few minutes are both shocking and heart-wrenching. It’s certainly no wonder the final scenes became so well-remembered by those who watched the show in both its native Japan and syndicated US airings throughout the 70s and 80s. 4/5
Beta Capsule Reviews 