| The Terror of Monster Island Cyborg 009 (1968) | |
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| Episode 1 | |
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| Air date | April 5, 1968 |
| Written by | Masaru Igami |
| Directed by | Takeshi Wakabayashi |
| Episode guide | |
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The Terror of Monster Island (恐怖の怪人島?) is the first episode of the 1968 anime series. It is loosely based on the Monster Island Arc from Chapter 48 of the original manga.
Plot Summary[]
A giant rat smashes through Kageyama Prison and all of its prisoners escape. Three of the fugitives happen upon an old mansion and two of them become the experiments of the mad scientist Doctor Dracula, who planned their escape to transform them into mindless destructive giants with his Giant Ray. He and his colleague Doctor Semushi plan to use this invention to take over the world. Can the Cyborgs stop them?
Episode Recap[]
At Kageyama Prison in Japan, all is relatively quiet until a giant rat bursts through the prison wall and scares a guard. The guard tries to shoot at the giant rat with his gun, but bullets have no effect. The alarm sounds and more guards try to shoot at it with machine guns while the rat chews away at the guard tower and topples it. The rat then bursts through the entrance of the prison and the building causing the prisoners to escape. The prisoners split up so they cannot be captured, with three of them going into the Yomoyama woods. One of them, named Sabugo, is out of breath and cannot run anymore. The three decide to find a place to hide and see a light in the distance of a western style mansion up the road. Then the convicts decide to go there to grab some clothes to change into and to rob valuables for money to get out of the country. The one named Kegani uses a rope to scale the high wall surrounding the mansion, but not before Sabugo notices that the plants on the wall seem rather odd. Sabugo says he can't climb the wall so the other two tell him to be the lookout while they break in. As Kegani and his unnamed accomplice jump down from the top of the wall, an odd looking squirrel with glowing eyes up in a tree is watching them.
In the Mansion's laboratory, the squirrel's eyes are revealed to be cameras which transmit a video onto a monitor of the two would-be thieves. (Implying that the squirrel is some kind of robot security device.) Two scientists named Dr. Dracula and Dr. Senmushi gloat over their successful plan to break out the prisoners so they could be led to this house to be captured and used as human science experiments. Dr. Dracula then hits a button on a control panel and vines come out of the trees to ensnare Kegani and his companion. Sabugo finally climbs up the wall and sees his fellow fugitives captured, only for a trio of vines to come at him and scare him off; leaving his right shoe behind. The robot squirrel records Sabugo's escape, with Dr. Senmushi opening his hump to deploy a swarm of black bugs to chase after the escaped man.
Joe and Francoise are enjoying a nice evening drive on a mountain road listening to some rock music on the radio, when the music is interrupted by a news bulletin warning that some of the prisoners that escaped from Kageyama Prison are still at large. Francoise is worried but Joe says that Japan has some of the finest police officers in the world so the criminals will not be free for much longer. Francoise thinks that its possible the escaped convicts could be nearby in this area, but Joe dismisses this. Sure enough, Sabugo runs out in the middle of the road and Joe stops his car after realizing that the man is wearing a prison uniform. Sabugo begs for help but Joe asks where his accomplices are as Francoise sees a swarm of insects coming towards them. Joe uses his Super Gun to deal with the swarm but one insect manages to get past them and sting Sabugo before he can tell them anything. Sabugo stops speaking and goes into a fit of madness, laughing uncontrollably with a sunken look in his eyes. Joe and Francoise think that the bugs cause his sudden change in behavior and decide to take him to Gilmore Laboratories so Dr. Gilmore can examine him before turning Sabugo over to the police.
Dr. Gilmore prepares to examine the sample of a dead insect that Joe brought back with him as 006 and 007 offer ramen to Sabugo. 007 complains that it is his day off and he has to work but 006 says that they must tend to their guest. Francoise offers the food Sabugo, but he picks the bowl up and pours the ramen onto his head and laughs insanely. This shocks 006, as his cooking has gone to waste while Gilmore asks 007 to bring his encyclopedia from his study. 007 complains again, but his teammates encourage him to do his duties.
In the lab of Dr. Senmushi and Dr. Dracula, they have shackled their test subjects to the floor and prepare to activate their experimental device: the Giant Ray. The ray activates and the two convicts begin to grow, transforming into giants, but an apparent side effect of the enlarging is that they are mindless brutes as they can no longer speak and only grunt. Dr. Dracula and Dr. Senmushi toast their successful experiment of enlarging of a human being with glasses of wine. They then plan on the next phase of the experiment: capture more humans and turn them into mindless giants that they can control to take over the world.
Back at Gilmore Labs, Dr. Gilmore finds the type of bug they found in his encyclopedia: a black bug from Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa which secretes a poison that shuts off a person's brain functions for three hours. Joe thinks that if they analyze the dirt on Sabugo's shoe, they can get a clue to where the other two prisoners are. After analyzing the soil, Dr. Gilmore reveals the soil's composition of minerals match those found deep in Yomoyama Woods. 009, 006 and 007 go investigate while 003 stays behind to keep an eye on Sabugo.
009 drives to Yomoyama Woods and the trio of cyborgs search the woods until they see a mansion. They find Sabugo's other shoe and decide to investigate the house up the road. 007 disguses himself as Sabugo to look for the other convicts, which Dr. Dracula and Dr. Senmushi at first mistake for the real Sabugo after seeing him on surveillance. However, Dr. Dracula realizes that Sabugo should still be under the effects of the poison and this tips off that "Sabugo" is an imposter and sends out "spy flies" to find out if other people are with the imposter. The spy flies find 006 and 009 but 006 incinerates them with his fire breath. 009 discovers the flies are mechanical and then they both hear a scream as 007 is in trouble. 007 is captured by the vines and up a tree, despite transforming into a bird, he struggles to escape. 009 and 006 save him, with 006 unintentionally burning 007's butt by setting the vine tree on fire, which 007 puts out by becoming a faucet. The three try to enter the mansion, but are stopped by a barrage of missles that 009 quickly shoots down. 006 falls down a trap door and 007 saves him from being eaten by snakes at the bottom of the pit, 006 then burns the snakes with his fire breath. Three missile launchers then appear from out of the ground. 009 changes the direction of one to destroy the mansion and a flying saucer escapes from the wreckage. 007 tries to chase after it by changing into a missile, but the saucer burns his butt with an energy beam, with 006 catching 007 falling back to earth. The saucer chases the trio and they head into the woods and lose it by jumping into a river.
Dr. Dracula and Dr. Senmushi observed their abilities and realize they are cyborgs, both he and Senmushi decide to find where these cyborgs are from and capture them to turn into mindless weapons. They search them from a distance but then intercept a call to them from 003 that gives away the location of Gilmore Laboratories as Sabugo escapes the custody of Dr. Gilmore and 003 when the poison wears off. They capture 003 and Sabugo, taking them their island fortress just as 009, 006 and 007 return. Dr. Dracula gives the location of their base on Monster Island to the cyborgs and demands they surrender to them there or 003 and Sabugo will be harmed.
The trio arrive on Monster Island by sub and battle the enlarged creatures on the island as they progress upon the island after being detected by radar. These monstrosities include giant sharks, seagulls and crabs. Upon escaping the crabs, the see 003 being held at gun point with a Destruction Ray by Dr. Dracula and both he and Dr. Senmushi order the trio to stand down or they will kill 003. To further illustrate their point of not resisting, they show their enlarged humans which now includes Sabugo. The trio of cyborgs lay down their weapons and the two mad scientists order their giants to capture them. 007 changes into a porcupine and attacks one of them by poking it with his quill, which then sends 007 flying into Dr. Dracula's face quills first and then he retrieves 009's Super Gun. 009 catches it and stuns Dr. Dracula, releasing 003. Dr. Senmushi is repelled away from 003 by 006's fire breath and the two mad scientists attempt to escape by going into their saucer. The Giants try to stop 006 from rescuing 003 but 007 becomes a giant too and fights them. The saucer is about to escape but 009 jumps up and then places a time bomb on the ship, causing it to explode and killing Dr. Senmushi and Dr. Dracula after 009 get off of the ship. The giants somehow revert back to normal and 009 has set detonator charges on the island off-screen. 009, 003, 006, 007 and the three escaped convicts leave the island on a speedboat and 009 detonates the charges, destroying Monster Island for good as they head back to shore.
Errors[]
- Despite losing his right shoe, Sabugo somehow still has it in certain frames of animation during his stay at Gilmore Laboratories.
Notes[]
- At the end of the episode, the prisoners reverted back to normal offscreen and were inside the 00 Cyborgs' boat escaping the island despite being giants and fighting 007 a minute ago. No explanation was given for this.
- The number of doctors on Monster Island were reduced in this adaptation, with Kong, Alligator, and Shishigashira ("Lion's Mane") dropped. At the time the episode was produced, Dr. Semushi's name had yet to be altered in the manga, though later reprints used "Mamushi" due to criticism of "Semushi" ("hunchback") being a pejorative for people with disabilities.