| Runtime: | 45 minutes (per episode) |
| Producer: | Yasuyoshi Itō[1] |
| Director: | Kazuho Mitsuta Samaji Nonagase Tsuneo Kobayashi |
| Narrated: | Shinji Nakae |
| Composer: | Isao Tomita Kunio Miyauchi |
| Country: | Japan |
| Network: | Fuji Television |
| Num Episodes: | 13 |
| Creator: | Tsuburaya Productions |
| Starring: | Hideaki Nitani Hiroshi Minami Eijirō Yanagi |
is a tokusatsu science fiction/espionage/action TV series. Created by Japanese effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, the show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions and was broadcast on Fuji TV 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 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, Ultraman and Ultra Seven did). This focus on the people was similar to the works of Gerry Anderson, 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, Ultra Seven.
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.
"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 organization "Q".
| Episode | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | THE MAN WHO HAD DISAPPEARED IN PARIS | |
| 2 | RECAPTURE: K52 | |
| 3 | THE ROSE IS BURNING | |
| 4 | O, MOTHERLAND BE FOREVER! | |
| 5 | SCALPEL AND LIPSTICK | |
| 6 | STEAMED ICEBERGS | |
| 7 | DONT SEE THE MOON! | |
| 8 | AWESOME AURORA | |
| 9 | GUIDE TO HELL | |
| 10 | BOMBING ORDERS | |
| 11 | BURNING GOLD | |
| 12 | TERROR OF THE BIG CITY | |
| 13 | OPERATION: STRANGE AIRSHIP |
| Written by | Shinichi Sekizawa, Fuso Aritaka, Bunzo Wakatsuki, Ichiro Ikeda, Eisaburo Shiba, Masahiro Yamada, Mitsuo Kotaki, Tetsuo Kinjo, Naohiro Fuji, Hiroyasu Yamaura, Torao Tanabe, Yasuro Yokoyama | |
|---|---|---|
| Music | Isao Tomita | |
| PhotographyArt Lighting Scripter Girls Assistant Directors | Yoshihiro Mori, Akira Suzuki, Takeshi NakamachiTatsuro Fukada and Yoshio Suzuki Daiji Yamaguchi, Toshikazu Nagado, Seiji Fukutomi Hisako Niinuma, Tomoko Mukaiyama, Chieko Sakuma, Fumizo Shiizuka, Yoshiko Uemura Takehiko Ishii, Shohei Tojo, Seiichi Namba |
| Optical Photography Editors Production Managers In Charge of Production | Minoru NakanoAkio Ogura, Tetsumi Ohara Kiichiro Saito, Yosuke Mizuno, Hiroshi Uemura Masahiro Tsukahara | |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded at Sound Effects Film Processing Special Thanks | Aoi Studio, Kinuta Laboratory, Yoshimasa MatsumotoKyoritsu Sound, Sadamasa Nishimoto Tokyo Processing Office, Kinuta Laboratory Edwards, Standard | |
| Special Effects | Junkichi Oki, Kazuo Sagawa, Sadamasa Arikawa | |
| Directors | Kazuho Mitsuda, Samase Nonagase, Kan Yanase, Tsuneo Kobayashi, Masanao Horiuchi | |
| Produced by | Tsuburaya Productions, Fuji Television |
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.
| Eiji & Noboru Tsuburaya, Yoshiyuki Shindo (Fuji TV) | ||
| Written by | Keisuke Fujikawa, Tetsuo Kinjo, Hiroyasu Yamaura, Mitsuo Kotaki, Kisuke Akai, Bunzo Wakatsuki, Moriichi Ichikawa | |
| Music | Isao Tomita and Kunio Miyauchi | |
| Photography Art Director Lighting Editor Scripter Girls Assistant Directors | Yoshihiro Mori, Kuniichi Shiga, Takeshi NakamachiYoshio Suzuki Toshikazu Nagado, Kazuo Kobayashi Akio Ogura Fumizo Shiizuka, Yoshiko Uemura, Mari Namba, Hisako Niinuma, Yasuyo Hayashi, Yoshiko Sekine, Noriko Suzuki Seiichi Namba, Shohei Tojo, Goro Takahashi, Takehiko Ishii, Hiroshi Shimura, Takayoshi Sasaki, Koichi Ishiguro |
In 1986, American producer Sandy Frank 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 (originally shown on the UHF station KTMA TV 23 during the show's KTMA season).