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| From an Ameblo blog |
From time to time, old memories of my tokusatsu-viewing hobby bubble up now and then, and earlier today, the Japanese TV hero "Jumborg A" (Jumborg Ace) popped up in my head. However, this was only in manga form since that's the only way that I got to know him.
The quizzically titled "Jumborg A" (the producers must have really wanted to get that voiced velar stop between "jumbo" and "ace") showed up on NET (the future TV Asahi) for one season between January and September 1973 as another gigantic and weaponized tokusatsu hero to protect the Earth from all monstrous invaders; I gather that the Ultraman family couldn't hog up all of the airwaves.
I must admit that the opening credits aren't exactly the most compelling that I've ever seen in a tokusatsu show...it's just actor Naoki Tachibana（立花直樹）as mild-mannered delivery pilot Naoki Tachibana（立花ナオキ）in his beloved Cessna flying in the sky. But the thing though is that due to the intervention of a suspiciously Ultraman-like mentor, Tachibana and the Cessna merge to form Jumborg A! Wait a minute, so a human gets infiltrated by technology to become a...Borg! Things that make Trekkies go Hmmmm!
The opening theme "Jumborg A" is sung by Akira Tani（谷あきら）who is really veteran Masato Shimon（子門真人）who has made tokusatsu theme songs his specialty. For some reason, he's had a lot of different names in his career such as Koichi Fuji（藤浩一）and Motomi Tsubaki（椿もとみ）. Plus, for any tokusatsu theme, the kids chorus group is essential so this time, Tokyo Arakawa Shonen Shojo Gasshotai（東京荒川少年少女合唱隊...The Tokyo Arakawa Boys & Girls Chorus Group） was backing Tani up here. Not surprisingly, "Jumborg A" has plenty of brass punch and vocal exhortation to encourage the hero to continue the good fight. The song was composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊輔）and written by Kazuho Mitsuta（満田かずほ）.
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