Mirrorman (1971)

Original title

ミラーマン

Directed by

Ishirō Honda

Genre

tokusatsu

Country

Japan

Length

1 season, 51 episodes

Rating

8.5 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A scientist transforms into a reflective superhero to fight giant monsters and alien threats. The series starts with a darker dramatic tone but later shifts to a lighter action adventure style.

darkly broodingsci-fiaction-orientedseriousshifting tonedramaticretrosuperhero

What happens

Mirrorman (ミラーマン, Mirāman) is a Japanese tokusatsu science fiction television series produced by Tsuburaya Productions, the series aired on Fuji TV from December 5, 1971 to November 26, 1972, with a total of 51 episodes. This was Tsuburaya Productions' first non-Ultra superhero (even though there were concepts that were similar to Ultraman, which became Tsuburaya trademarks). Like Ultraseven, Mirrorman was more of a dark and brooding science fiction drama than most other shows of its ilk, but by Episode 26, after major changes were forced upon the series by the network (making the action lighter and the hero more like Ultraman), it became a typical action-oriented superhero adventure of its era. A short spinoff series titled Mirror Fight was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 1, 1974 to September 27, 1974, with a total of 65 short episodes. It was similar in concept to the earlier Ultra Fight. After years of sequel series rumors, the 2005 straight-to-DVD series Mirrorman REFLEX was released and later compiled into a film. Featuring no characters or connection to the old series, REFLEX has a darker tone on par with the first half of the original television series. In July 2018, the series was released in United States, after 47 years, on the television channel Toku. A month later, the series was added to its streaming platform. On June 7, 2021, Tsuburaya announced a manga reboot, Mirrorman 2D, written and drawn by Nobunagun's Masato Hisa, to celebrate Mirrorman's 50th anniversary. The series was made available on Tsuburaya's subscription service Tsuburaya Imagination and the Japanese online manga site Comiplex. Tsuburaya also made English subbed episodes of the original series available weekly on Mondays on the official Ultraman YouTube channel. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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