INVESAURUS
Episode 42 of Mirrorman gives us a different sort of Invader than the norm. Rather than the usual Men in Black looking characters we see, here we have a young Invader disguised as a boy. Unlike other members of his race, he doesn’t want to kill Kyotaro, but he’ll be killed if he doesn’t comply. It’s a small look into just how badly the Invaders are willing to go to defeat Mirrorman and how
The boy is always seen with a German Shepherd, really the disguised form of Invesaurus. The dog transforms after the kid has a change of heart and helps Kyotaro escape.
The true form of Invesaurus is serviceable enough, not a bad quadruped monster for the show, but maybe a tad underwhelming and generic and isn’t as intriguing as the drama with the Invader kid. I do like the monster’s stony texture though, and I’m glad the monster carries over the four-legged aspect from his dog form.
Invesaurus was designed by Kengo Kime who would also work on various other tokusatsu productions such as Jumborg Ace, Ultraman Leo, Bankid and Message From Space.
GHOST
A ghostly themed monster appropriately, Ghost here is instrumental in part of the Invaders’ scheme to prevent Professor Tamiya from completing an anti-Invader weapon. Having thrown Tamiya’s wheel-chair bound daughter into a river where she is presumed dead.
Ghost soon takes her place, pretending to be the spirit of the presumably dead girl and urging the grieving professor to stop his project. We usually see Ghost as the girl in a sparkly, silver outfit, but before the big reveal, we get to see her with a skull for a face.
The episode in question is a great eerie and atmospheric story, with the buildup to Ghost’s reveal in the climax genuinely worthy of a horror film. That being said, while I love the episode and find the monster’s design to be pretty good, it’s another one of those designs that I feel like doesn’t feel as appropriately horrific for the story they’re the center of.
That being said, there are some fun aspects to the design like the asymmetrical hands, the red color scheme, and the pom-pom hips. Ghost’s original name in the script was Techno Jaguar, which is a bit of a baffling choice for a story about a ghostly monster, but it’s a name that just sounds cool as hell. Yonetani associated the name with the episode Jaguar’s Red Eyes from Tsuburaya’s horror show Operation Mystery (as a brief tangent, Ultraman fans might be interested in the episode as the villain of that piece wears an Ultraseven costume). The Techno Jaguar name reminded Yonetani of that particular episode, which is the inspiration behind the red color scheme, and black spots on the body.
BOASAURUS
Boasaurus here is summoned to prevent Mirrorman and SGM in a rescue attempt to save civilians trapped inside of a building after an Invader ship crashes into it. Unlike many of his fellow monsters, Bosaurus actually retreats and manages to fight another day, leaving SGM to their rescue attempt.
Boasaurus here is alright, he feels a tad pointless as the rescue attempt storyline at play in the episode is far more exciting than the monster here, but for a monster just sort of shoe-horned in, he’s a-ok. I like his spotted frill/fin around his head. He feels like he’d be more at home in Ultraman, but he’s far from the worst monster we’ve seen in the show.
Boasaurus was another monster designed by Yonetani, taking inspiration from prehistoric fish and amphibians for the monster’s skin texture. The spots on his fin while in the concept art, was only painted just before shooting.
Boasaurus, unlike many of the post-retool Mirrorman monsters would return in episode 48, after Kyotaro foils the plans of a special, red UFO that’s abducting high-ranking officials. Interestingly, the episode in question makes mention that this is the same Boasaurus from episode 44, but several guide books and Yonetani himself consider the creature to be a separate individual from the first one.
BLACKGON
Blackgon was a friendly, young space monster hiding on Earth as an everyday cow calf and befriended by a young farm boy. The child attempts to keep Blackgon safe from the Invaders, but they’re able to find the monster and transform it, forcing Mirrorman to put him down.
While I personally think Blackgon’s design is alright, it really feels a bit mismatched in the episode it’s in, as a feel like the episode would’ve worked better had the Blackgon suit looked more like a cow, or if perhaps they used the Blackgon suit for when the monster was friendlier, it would’ve worked a bit better. That being said, the design itself isn’t bad and there’s a lot of cool things that work well with it like the hunched posture, the sucker-like mouth, the whips for hands, and the body with the cracks and spikes make for an intimidating creature at the very least.
It wasn’t known for quite some time who designed Blackgon, and for awhile it was thought to have been the work of Tetsuzo Osawa, but the real designer was Minoru Kurei, who worked on Mirrorman as well as several other tokusatsu productions such as Ultraman Leo, Azteckaiser, Born Free among others. The original design was named Agness, and due to the fact that the design was drawn up about 10 days before the episode had finished it’s first draft, there’s some speculation that the design was just made for a different storyline before being applied to Blackgon. If that’s true, then I think it makes a lot of sense about why the character’s cow theme just feels a bit off.
Kurei also came up with two alternate designs for Blackgon, seen on the left there. Both of them are interesting designs, and Kurei has stated to be disappointed that neither got used at all during the show. Since both of those designs have different names than Blackgon (King Ramon for the top one and Getgills for the bottom) it’s a shame neither one got used as new characters in this show or any other ones.
REDMONS
Much like the episode with Invesaurus, episode 46 of Mirrorman brings to us another reluctant Invader. Lisa was an Invader who didn’t want to go through with her species’s plans to conquer the Earth and seeks asylum here on Earth. Unlike other Invaders, Lisa put special glass eyes in her human guise so that she can walk around Earth unnoticed.
However, Lisa is trailed to Earth by her own sister, sent by the Invaders to kill the traitor. After blasting her with her special guitar gun, Lisa’s internal organs begin to fail, leaving her to a slow death.
With Lisa out of the way, the plan to fire a missile to Tokyo commences, only to be stopped by a vengeful Mirrorman, which prompts Lisa’s sister to transform into Redmons.
Redmons is another one of those monsters, like Boasaurus, that I feel like almost feels pointless in the episode, as the drama with Lisa is easily more interesting than another monster fight. But, Redmons isn’t bad. There was a period where I wasn’t a huge fan of the character, but the episode the monster appears in helps elevate a weaker design in my eyes. It may look like a rejected Terrorbeast from Zone Fighter, but at the very least Redmons has quite the story behind it.
GIRANDA
Another monster sent out by the Invaders, Giranda is defeated early on by Mirrorman, but the Invaders steal a special laser gun from SGM and install it into the monster, reviving it and giving it more power.
Giranda is alright. It’s far from a bad design, but it’s one of those designs from the latter half that would feel more at home in Ultraman, heck, the orbs on his chest makes him look like a weirder variation on Zetton. I’m also not a fan of the weird…fins he’s got on his arms after being upgraded, as they remind me of cheapo paper plates.
Giranda was another Yonetani design and was going to be named Dangar originally in the script, until Yonetani pointed out that was the name of a monster from Return of Ultraman, prompting a quick name change.
IEZU
Iezu is sent by the Invaders to attack a rocket base, Iezu proves to be a decent challenge for Mirrorman, despite his unassuming looks. Armed with all sorts of abilities such as his tentacles still moving after being chopped off, as well as his suckers absorbing Mirrorman’s energy, forcing Mirrorman to retreat. The Invaders soon launch a counterattack with Iezu, along with taking control of SGM member Yasuda’s sister so she can kill Kyotaro.
Iezu is one of those monsters that definitely looks like a rejected Ultra kaiju, almost akin to Takkong’s big brother from Return of Ultraman, but as someone who loves Takkong, I can’t help but love Iezu, and the fact he gives Mirrorman so much trouble is great. I really like how his white head contrasts with his darker body, and the tentacles flailing about help set him apart from Takkong.
Iezu was another Yonetani monster, designed to be more akin to the simpler creatures from the early part of the show. Iezu wasn’t named during the design process or in the script, which makes me wonder when exactly the character got christened.
ELECTRICSAURUS AND DEAD KING
Tired of defeat after defeat, the Invaders send a message to SGM: In 10 days, their home world of Planet X will collide with the Earth. The larger Planet X will destroy Earth completely and take our planet’s spot in the Solar System and gain the same atmospheric properties as our homeworld. It soon becomes a race against the clock to create an antigravity device to destroy Planet X. However, the Invaders send out Electricsaurus to sabotage the device, as well as taking control of SGM and the Jumbo Phoenix to stop Mirrorman. While SGM is able to be saved, the device is damaged and Electricsaurus escapes.
As Planet X approaches Earth and the antigravity machine needing extensive repairs, things seem bleak, especially when several Invaders merge to form the monster Dead Killer to join Electricsaurus in destroying the machine as the planet inches closer to Earth. Mirrorman is able to defeat both monsters after a long, drawn out battle, and Earth manages to destroy Planet X right before it collides with us, but the celebration is short-lived, as Kyotaro learns the Invaders are attacking the Mirror Dimension, the home plane of his father, forcing him to leave behind his friends, presumably forever.
The finale of Mirrorman replicates the classic “planet about to collide with Earth” scenario that Gorath popularized for Showa tokusatsu, and it’s a worthy finale here, as it feels just as apocalyptic as the the two-part story moves along. I sort of question the logistics of slamming your own home world into Earth, as I feel that’d do all kinds of damage to a planet, but it’s tokusatsu, the science isn’t gonna be accurate.
As for the monsters, Yonetani delivered to us a good pair of final boss creatures. Electricsaurus is a cool monster, feeling sort of like a bird without being just an outright bird, and some of the character’s features, such as his horns, two-fingered hands, grey color scheme and scaled texture on his arms and legs really remind me of an old, rotting, gnarled tree. I don’t think that was Yonetani’s intention, but it was always something that came to mind with the character. One thing I really like is how his hands can be fired off akin to rocket punches with chains connected to the arms. It’s a crazy, but fun power for the character. Yonetani originally intended this guy to have wings, similar to Dustpan, but that was scrapped when the suit was made.
Dead King, his partner in this finale, is another winner by Yonetani, and of all the various “big dinosaurs” seen in Mirrorman, he’s one of the best, coming off as really menacing, and wouldn’t look too out of place alongside guys like Zetton, Pandon, Black King, Jumbo King, etc. Originally named Deadsaurus, Dead King takes inspiration from tyrannosaurus, particularly with his tiny arms. There’s a lot of cool traits Yonetani added to this guy like the white hair on his head, which reminds me of several different yokai. The hair is an interesting tidbit, as another monster from Tsuburaya Productions, Daigoro’s Mother from the 1972 film Daigoro vs. Goliath featured an impressive mane of hair herself, and the hair was a tribute to the monster seen in the upcoming film (as an aside, both Daigoro and his mother cameoed in episode 34 of Mirrorman as monster toys).
Yonetani’s original design for Dead King gave the creature a weird appearance, with tinier arms and face, and a rock-like texture for it’s skin. It’s not a bad monster design, but I definitely prefer the one we got.
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