You Should Watch Spectreman at Least Once in Your Lifetime and Here's Why

In a recent nerdy conversation with my friend Shane, he suggested I watch a 1970s Japanese television show called Spectreman. Watching his face light up as he explained how much he loved the main character and the joy it brought to him convinced me I should give Spectreman a watch. He had me so interested, I told him that I would write an article about the show. So, after work, I went home, made a simple Google search, found the English dubbed episodes on a Youtube playlist, and sat down at my computer to watch the first episode.

I had a vague idea of what to expect from Spectreman when I decided to give it a try. Still, I did not expect Spectreman to provide such an entertainment extravaganza.

After watching eight episodes, my opinion of the show can be summed up by the following sentence:

Spectreman is cheesier than a stuffed crust cheese pizza with extra cheese dipped in cheese sauce with mozzarella cheese sticks on the side. Even with all that cheese, each episode is a delicious bite of fun.

To celebrate this cheesiest of the cheesy shows, I am writing a series of three articles to explain why you should experience Spectreman at least once in your lifetime.

This is article 1 of 3 that I am writing for The Nerd Habit about Spectreman. This article will focus on the dynamics of the good (Spectreman) and evil (Dr. Gori) sides of the show.

Spectreman: Plot & Style

Spectreman has a fun premise. An evil genius named Dr. Gori has been banished from his home planet, Planet E. Along with his sidekick gorilla warrior Karas, Dr. Gori finds a world that is so beautiful that he must claim it as his own. That world's name, Earth. (Obviously. It is the best planet, after all.) Dr. Gori notices that the earthlings have polluted this beautiful planet with smog, trash, and other pollutants. He vows to take back the Earth from the earthlings by using their pollution against them! Creating giant pollution monsters to attack the planet, Dr. Gori's plan to rule Earth is underway.

Of course, Earth will be no match for Dr. Gori's evil schemes without someone powerful to protect it. Who could possibly stand up to Dr.Gori and his pollution monsters? His name is Spectreman!

Spectreman is a super-cyborg agent from the Nebula 71 Star. Nebula 71 Star is a pair of satellites that float incognito above the Earth, watching out for any destruction that Dr. Gori is trying to unleash on the planet, specifically Tokyo. Tokyo, in the '70s, was the most polluted city in the world, which is why Dr. Gori has focused his attention on that region.

Spectreman is sent down to Earth with the mission of being its protector. Receiving his orders from The Overlords, Spectreman is instructed to infiltrate the Tokyo government. Finding a government agency known as the Pollution G-Men, Spectreman takes the name George and joins their team. Conveniently, the Pollution G-Men is tasked with researching and helping eliminate pollution in the city. Joining this team strategically puts George (Spectreman) in a perfect position to be in the areas of Dr. Gori's pollution monster attacks.

The style of this show is classic 70's Japan. Giant heroes fighting kaiju monsters in a city, ocean, or a mountainous, tree-filled region. Think Power Rangers, except there is only one hero fighting Godzilla-style monsters. The sets are, of course, not as good-looking as a modern-day Power Rangers episode. However, for the time, the show's set designs look pretty impressive.

Now that you understand the plot let's talk about each side of this battle for the planet earth. This is where things get totally ridiculous.

Spectreman: The Overlords Battle With George

Spectreman is a super-cyborg created by The Overlords on Nebula 71 Star. Spectreman is under their control and is on call twenty-four seven. Whenever The Overlords need him, he must be ready. Spectreman's instruction is to be on Earth, prepared to defend it from Dr. Gori. Like any other superhero, Spectreman is commanded by The Overlords to keep his identity a secret and not let the Earth people know he is from another planet.

I have enjoyed many laugh-out-loud moments since I began watching Spectreman. The first thing that made me laugh was in the first episode. George was walking along outside some buildings, minding his own business when he received a call high above in the sky from The Overlord.

"SPECTREMAN, THIS IS OVERLORD!" Upon hearing this call, George stopped in his tracks, stared up into the sky as if he was trying to see an airplane flying by, and listened intently. What made me laugh at this scene was how The Overlord had to specify who was calling. I thought to myself, "who else would be calling this super-cyborg from a planet in the sky?" A scenario popped into my mind, making no sense with Spectreman being a cyborg, but it gave me a good chuckle.

The one thing to understand about my made-up scenario is that the phone system used to call Spectreman makes everyone sound the same. I will provide you with a brief script of this scenario now:

Voice From Above: SPECTREMAN! It's…

Spectreman: (looks into the sky, interrupts) Yes, Overlord?

Voice From Above: No, this ain't your Overlord. This is your wife!

Spectreman: (looking into the sky fearfully) …

Spectreman's Wife: I know you can hear me calling you! You left before I got home, and there was no note. How do you expect me not to worry about you when you don't leave a note?

Spectreman: (still looking into the sky, hoping she will hang up) …

Spectreman's Wife: Yeah, it's best you do ignore me. On top of not leaving me a note, did you KNOW you didn't take the trash out? Did you KNOW you didn't fix the kids' lunches? Did you KNOW you didn't pay the electric bill? Now the power is out, and I can't take a hot bath. You're off saving some dumb planet. I'm up here stinking from work, the house smelling like dirty trash, hearing the kids cry because they ain't got lunch for school. I hope you are happy, George…you better bring your butt home early tonight with your kneepads on because your knees gonna be sore from all the begging you are gonna have to do.

Spectreman: (stares into the sky, hoping one of Dr. Gori's monsters would kill him to get him out of this conversation) …

End Scene

I had to pause the show and calm myself down because I laughed so hard at the scenario I played out in my head. The idea of Spectreman having a wife on Nebula 71 is too funny to me. Having that reaction just in the first minute of episode one, I knew I would love this show.

One of the show's best dynamics is the relationship between Spectreman and The Overlords. Since The Overlords created Spectreman, he is supposed to obey all of their commands. However, in just the first eight episodes, Spectreman has directly disobeyed at least four times. Now, the ridiculous part of this premise is that The Overlords are natural beings. This should mean that The Overlords can make more complicated decisions. At the same time, Spectreman should be robot-like and obey any command. Yet, that is not the case. Spectreman consistently makes moral decisions, while The Overlords make logical, sometimes cold-hearted decisions. This makes for some funny situations, which I am sure are purely accidental on the show writer's part.

For example, in episode six, "The Air We Breathe Part 2," a family consisting of a man, his wife, and their son are taken captive by Dr. Gori's assistant, Karas. While in captivity on Dr. Gori's ship, the family is infected with a harsh pollutant that makes them deadly to anyone they breathe on. Their breath will instantly infect a person and kill them. Dr. Gori has Karas place the human family back on Earth to infect the rest of the human race with the ultimate goal of wiping out humanity from the planet. The Overlords are on to Dr. Gori's evil scheme, and they beckon down to Spectreman to give him his instruction. Watch the video below to see this interaction.

As you can see, The Overlords threaten Spectreman's life if he does not obey their command. Spectreman, being a super-cyborg and all, ignores their threat. Why should he care if The Overlords kill him if he can save lives? That is his programming, to be the hero of the world (mostly Tokyo.) The types of interactions Spectreman has with The Overlords make you love the character more, even if the scenario makes no sense at all.

To ease your mind, The Overlords end up giving Spectreman an alternative route to save the infected family. He simply has to shoot them with his spectre beam to rid them of their pollution. The Overlords instruct Spectreman that the beam will kill the pollution inside them but warn him that the humans can still die from his spectre beam's power. After thinking about this solution for all of three seconds, Spectreman decides that is the best route. Risking the human family's life anyway, he zaps them with his beam. The family magically feels fine, and they survive the powerful attack from Spectreman's spectre beam.

Spectreman: Dr. Gori's Evil Schemes

Dr. Gori's sole intention is to make the Earth a "Garden Of Eden" once again. He wants to eliminate all humans who are polluting the world. To accomplish his mission, Dr. Gori decides to use human pollution against them. His evil schemes are meant to harm humans, but sometimes it ends up making the world a better place for them. For instance, in the two-part episode, "The Killer Smog," Dr. Gori instructs Karas to suck up all the smog in Tokyo with a powerful suction device attached to a spaceship. Using this smog, Dr. Gori creates a "smog concentrate" that will instantly kill any man who breathes it in.

Removing all the smog from Tokyo has unintentionally made this little slice of the planet much more pleasant to live in. As soon as Karas removes the smog and retreats back to Dr. Gori, the scene cuts to George and his Pollution G-Men working on top of a building. To their delight, they can now breathe easier when working in the city. See their reaction to their smog-free environment in the video below.

Dr. Gori's other evil schemes are much more brutal. In the first episode, "The Uncommon Enemy," Dr. Gori sends down a beast named Hedoron. This kaiju monster has tentacles and spews corrosive poison from his mouth and said tentacles. Hedoron emerges from the ocean, makes its way to land, and destroys everything in its path. Spectreman is called to battle by The Overlords and begins to attack Hedoron, to Dr. Gori's chagrin. However, seeing an opening to attack Spectreman, Dr. Gori successfully shoots a fire beam from his spaceship and directly hits Spectreman, sending him plummeting to the ground.

At this point in the show, I was not expecting to be impressed by Dr. Gori, but he surprised me. In the most opposite evil-mastermind move ever, Dr. Gori instructs Karas to go down to Earth and bring back Spectreman's body. Dr. Gori will not move forward with his plans until he knows his greatest enemy is 100% dead.

This is where the brutality comes in. While Karas makes his way to the area Spectreman was last seen crashing to the ground, a group of workers in hazmat suits is preparing to clean up the poison Hedoron has spewed all over the beach. Instead of ignoring the workers and going straight to finding Spectreman, Karas decides to make an example of these annoying workers. The workers are cleaning up his monster cohort's mess, and Karas does not like it. The workers are no match for Karas' strength, and the fight is surprisingly violent.

In an old TV show like Spectreman, one would expect the fights from a super-being like Karas against a human to go on the light side. Not in this show, my friends. Karas proceeds to grab the first worker and breaks his arms by pulling them behind the worker's back. Then in an instinctual motion, Karas finishes off the worker by snapping his neck. Another worker retreats, but Karas's super strength allows him to jump up in the sky, land on the retreating worker's neck, and push his head down into his neck hole. The look of shock on my face had to be priceless at this moment.

I fell in love with the show even more, and I was only half-way done with the first episode. Dr. Gori impressed me with a smart tactic of recovering Spectreman's body. I also liked Karas's display of strength and fighting skills. For a villain, it was refreshing for him to actually have some fighting skills and a no-nonsense attitude when it came to removing his enemies. I never root for the bad guy, but I appreciate how Dr. Gori and Karas handle their business.

In conclusion, my experience with the first eight episodes of Spectreman has me wanting more. The ultra-cheesy style, the 70's logic, Spectreman's defiance against his powerful Overlord bosses, and Dr. Gori's insane but well-planned evil schemes make this show one I highly recommend you check out.

Our next article about Spectreman will deal with the music, supporting characters, kaiju monsters, and meme-able scenes that I love from the show.

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