Judging by the odd references of manga and TV shows from the 60"s, Fujishima-sensei must have watched lots of reruns, since some of them were aired before he was born. He could, of course have watched them during the 60's show revival boom more recently.

Giant Robot Show

Ultra Seven vs. King Joe
The show on the big screen TV that inspired Urd to destroy Keiichi's house with a robot (AMS manga ch 35 vol 5, Dark Horse Terrible Master Urd part 2) is Ultra Seven, a live action show that aired around 1968 (date approximate). Similar to Ultraman in concept, Ultra Seven was/is considered to be a lot more cerebral and appealing to more mature audiences (well, not that mature). So much so that it didn't do as well as Ultraman (kids found it boring) and Tsuburaya production stayed away from the Ultraman genre for several years. The robot shown is a slightly modified King Joe, which is I believe the very first Gattai-robot in history, being formed by fusing 4 spacecrafts. In the original AMS, Ultra Seven is uttering "Heaaa!!", a meaningless but typical Ultra Seven vocalization, but in the Dark Horse version, he is uttering "Curses!" This is not inappropriate. King Joe was the first foe to defeat Ultra Seven, and in that scene, Ultra Seven is in dire trouble. I wonder if people of Studio Proteus knew this? My hats off, in that case!

Incidentally, the hero's method of transformation to Ultra Seven was by putting on a special goggle, and in AMS manga 32 (sorry guys, don't have the Dark Horse version), Skuld utters the same word ("Duwa!!";) when she puts on her HUD. (I can hear 'Sheesh, talk about detail.' from you guys. Hehe..) Even more incidentally, if you have seen Dragonball Z anime series, the base which launches the little capsule spaceships containing Ginyuu tokusentai is identical to the base of the good guys in Ultra Seven.

Big Z

This is the TV show that Urd is watching as Skuld is making Bampei-kun. (ch 43 in vol 7 of AMS manga, should appear this summer from Dark Horse) It is of course, Big X, a classic by the late master Osamu Tezuka (comics as well as serialized TV airing 1964-65). The show was about a hero who would inject a drug to his body as tough as steel, and also enlarge to a gigantic size, the strength and size depending on dosage (5 units being maximum)/ Later on, the drug was changed to an imbibable form. Either way, it is no wonder that drug maniac Urd loves the show. It is tailor made for her tastes.


Banpei-kun Marine Parts "Blue 6-go

A most esoteric reference, but my favorite, "Blue 6-go"* (appearing in ch 50, vol 8 of AMS, also featured in Dark Horse omg part IV vol 2 cover) obviously stems from Ao no Roku-go. This serialized manga that ran in Shonen Sunday in the late 60s by Satoru Ozawa (all this must be taking up valuable memory space in my head!) about futuristic submarine combat. His earlier series, "Submarine 707" was also a classic, but there was more longitudinal plot in Blue 6. However, due to Mr. Ozawa's health, the series ended early, much to my everlasting disappointment. The whole series was like a never-ending version of underwater combat scenes from The Hunt for the Red October, and was in many ways a precursor to the style of space combat in later manga and anime. One of the stories in Blue 6 is the story of Blue 6-go "Yamato Wonder", in which bad guys repair the old Japanese navy battleship Yamato as an 'unsinkable' submarine. Sound familiar? This was written years before Reji Matsumoto brought us Space Cruiser Yamato.

G2G's Notes: "Blue 6-go" was translated as Banpei Deep-Six in the Dark Horse release


References to Armageddon

"In AMS ch 35 vol 5 (Dark Horse OMG Terrible master Urd vol 2), God is describing to Belldandy what would happen if the Lord of Terror returns:

Earth shall be rent asunder and shall rock upon its axis. After 7 days of fire all shall be destroyed.

"7 days of fire" must be a reference to Nausicaa of Valley of Winds, but "rock upon its axis" (chijiku wa nejimagari...)? Hey, wait a minute, that first sentence is the opening narration for Conan, the future boy (whose OP by the way had the most terrific bass rif in the history of OPs, at least in Japanese it is. I haven't seen the English version of Connan to see if that was preserved.) In other words, this little dialogue is in homage to the great master Hayao Miyazaki dai dai-sensei."

A Little Monster Doll in the Shed

In the episode "Final Exam" (AMS ch 19 vol 3, Dark horse part 2 vol 4? I only have the compiled book version), when Urd is looking for a broom by going through what appears to be a shed, one of the things being cast aside is a little doll that looks a bit like Gumby. Now my memory is on autopilot here, so I'm not 100% certain, but this appears to be none other than alien "Banderu" from a little known live action TV show Captain Ultra. (Though amazingly, I did find a laser-karaoke video of its theme song in a Japanese karaoke house once! Even more amazingly, I remembered the song! But I digress... ^_^) It was based on manga by the same name, (forgot author) and both manga and Tv show didn't last long. The show, however, had a spaceship called 'Spiegel', which as far as I can tell, is the first spaceship that could separate into subparts (3 parts). Now, the aforementioned Ultra Seven also had a plane that could seperate into 3 parts, and i don't remember which came first. Pioneering, never-the-less. Are you getting tired of reading about the roots of anime yet? ^_^
(P.S. I found out Captain Ultra preceeded Ultra Seven.)

The Evil Urn

"The urn that was the key to awakening Urd's bloodline as the Lord of Terror (Terrible master Urd vols 1-3, AMS chs 34-36, vol 5) is none other than the urn from Hakusshon Dai Maou, a TV comedy series by Tatsunoko production in the 60s. In that series, a genie appeared whenever someone sneezed near the urn. It is also interesting that yawning initiated the urn's power in OMG.

In the original TV series, yawning summoned another genie in the shape of a little girl ("Akubi-chan" or "little yawn";). Arguably, Akubi-chan could be described as an ultimate destruction program since she was out of control most of the time. I have a vague feeling that this series might have reached the U.S. Does anyone know?"

The Octopus Demon

The booster demon in the shape of the octopus (AMS ch 31 vol 5, Dark Horse unknown, also cameo appearence in OP) eventually becomes named Sudaaru. (in AMS anyway, I don't know the Dark Horse version) This was the name of a giant octopus monster from another old (b&w even!) Japanese monster series Ultra Q airing in 1966. Well, ok, maybe it's not even worth mentioning, but what the heck

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I did not create the original article. This was originally posted on AMG overnalysis and G2G fansites in the late 1990's and early 2000's.Credit belongs to Satoshi Amagai, the original creator.