1977 - Dinosaur Great War Izenborg - KayLing88 Ultraman Fanz

Dinosaur War Izenborg was a Japanese television program produced by Tsuburaya Productions that aired from 1977 to 1978 on Tokyo 12 Channel. It combined Tsuburaya's trademark suitmation tokusatsu techniques with Japanese Animation, so this program can be categorized anime or Daikaiju tokusatsu. The show runs for about 39 episodes.

Plot

Dinosaurs reappearing on Earth, stronger and more intelligent than before, led by Dinosaur Satan Gottes, and this time they are back to rule Earth once more and wipe out humankind.

They are alive and even thriving, in an underground Empire they built. In 1986, Ururu, the leader of dinosaurs, declares war against humanity. In an attempt to reclaim the Earth's surface, some of the dinosaurs evolve into deadly monsters, and start wreaking havoc on the human population centers around the globe. Story revolves around the D Force, and its two members, a brother and sister team of Tachibana Ai and Tachibana Zen, the Special OPs force, whose mission is to combat monsterized dinosaurs and protect the humanity at all cost.

Publication Information

Title : Dinosaur Great War Izenborg
Japanese : 恐竜大戦争アイゼンボーグ
Directed by : Kanji Otsuka, Kazuho Mitsuta, Jun Oki, Kiyosumi Fukazawa, Shohei Tojo, Toshihiko Nakajima
Produced by : Takao Niimi, Hiroshi Ishikawa (Tokyo 12 Channel), Tadashi Matsushima (Tokyu Agency), Akira Tsuburaya, Jun Oki (Tsuburaya Productions)
Written by : Keiichi Abe, Hiroyasu Yamaura, Kazuo Takagiwa, Shigemitsu Taguchi, Kimio Hirayama, Bunzo Wakatsuki, Yasushi Hirano
Music by : Toshiaki Tsushima
Studio : Tsuburaya Productions (Tokusatsu part), Studio Deen (Anime part)
Network : Tokyo 12 Channel
Original run : October 17, 1977 – June 30, 1978
Genre : Tokusatsu, Mecha, Superhero, Daikaiju
Episodes 39

But during the early in the series the siblings suffered a near fatal injury from the massive explosion during the test of a prototype super-tank, "predecessor to Izenborg". However they survived, barely clinging to life.

But in order to keep them alive they needed to receive a cybernetic body parts and other implants so they could function normally within the society, and to synchronize with their combat vehicle and form Aizenborg (Ai + Zen + Cy"borg"; called Gemini in the US movie) and fight the Dino-Army. A few episodes were released in the US a decade later in a compilation movie called Attack of the Supermonsters.

Trivia

Ururu, the Tyrannosaurus villian of the first 19 episodes was a reused suit from from The Last Dinosaur (1977). Many of the dinosaur suits would go on to star in Koseidon.
Dinosaur War Izenborg was created after the stop motion and puppet show series, Born Free. The sequel series, Koseidon, had a human sized hero and did fairly well.
- The show is both live action & animated.