• Source: Planet Prince

Planet Prince (遊星王子, Yūsei Ōji) is a 1958 Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series created by Masaru Igami and produced by Senkosha, the series aired on NTV from November 4, 1958 to October 6, 1959, with a total of 49 episodes (comprising four separate adventures). It was created to capitalize on the success of Shintoho's Super Giant (Starman) movie series. In fact, the title hero (whose alter-ego was Waku-san, played by Toshio Mimura) bore a strong resemblance to Super Giant (known as "Starman" in the U.S.). The pair of Planet Prince theatrical featurettes, adapted from the Senkosha TV series, were produced by Toei Studios and filmed in black and white ToeiScope format.
Toei produced two theatrical movies in 1959 that featured the Planet Prince character, but wearing a completely different, more streamlined costume (and goggled helmet) than the one worn in the tv series. The hero in these two movies was played by Tatsuo Umemiya. The movies were released a week apart. The films were titled:

Planet Prince (遊星王子, Yūsei Ōji) Released: May 19, 1959
Planet Prince - The Terrifying Spaceship (遊星王子 - 恐怖の宇宙船, Yūsei Ōji - Kyōfu no Uchūsen) Released: May 25, 1959
For TV release in America, these two Planet Prince movies were compiled into an 85-minute, English-dubbed movie entitled Prince of Space that was first shown in 1965.




Production


The TV version looks very similar to Super Giant (Starman), in that both wear cowled costumes and capes. Each character also has superpowers and flies. The two-part movie version (produced by Toei) is very different, as Prince of Space wears a more streamlined costume, cape, and helmet with goggles. In the edited US version, he has no superpowers other than the invulnerability of his costume and - in a subplot unique to the Japanese version - the ability to revert a man who was brainwashed by the Ginsei aliens back to a peaceful state. In the films, he uses a wand-like laser gun and flies a small spaceship.
In the TV version, just like Moonlight Mask, the Planet Prince persona was listed in the credits as being played by "?" (even though the character never wore a mask to conceal his face).
In the film, Prince's enemy is called Ambassador Phantom of the Silver Planet (銀星のまぼろし大使) (this villain also appeared in one of the tv series' story arcs), while in the English-language version, the villain is called Dictator Phantom of the Planet Krankor. He (along with his henchmen) wears a large prosthetic nose and cowl that give him a decidedly chicken-like appearance, something that was constantly mocked when the film was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.




Cast


(Americanized names in parentheses)

Planet Prince/Waku-san (Prince of Space/Wally) - Tatsuo Umemiya
Ambassador Phantom (Ambassador Dictator Phantom) - Joji Oka
Sachiko (Susie) - Hiroko Mine
Dr. Maki (Dr. Macken) - Ushio Akashi
Ichiro (Johnny) - Akira Asami
Makoto (Mickey) - Koji Komori
Kimiko (Kimmy) - Midori Tsuzuki
Inspector Takeda - Takashi Kanda
Sawamoto (Dr. Sangamon) - Akira Tatematsu
Shibasaki - Masahiko Naruse
Mukai - Ken Sudo
Newsreporter Tabei (Mr. Tannen) - Ken Hasebe
Newsreporter Tono (Jerry the Reporter) - Giichi Sugi
Sakai - Koji Sahara
Tsunoda - Tokio Kozuka
Keichi Kawajima (Inspector) - Rin'ichi Yamamoto
Dr. Naito - Hiroshi Katayama
Newspaper reporter - Yuji Kitamine
Phantom's henchmen - Riki Iwaki, Kenji Todoroki, Hiroshi Mihara, Nobuo Yana
Dr. Tateishi (Dr. Fletcher) - Shusuke Sone
Mrs. Tateishi - Kaoru Nakano
Commander Koda - Akikane Sawa
Secretary of Defense Fukuhara - Shiko Saito
Captain Munakata - Tadashi Minamikawa
Colonel Matsuda - Junkichi Orimoto
Colonel Watanabe - Junji Masuda
The Guardian - Rinichi Yamamoto
Kidnapped American scientist (Dr. Cohen) - Osman Yusuf (uncredited)




Production credits


Planning - Sanehiko Okada
Director - Eijiro Wakabayashi
Producer - Sanehiko Sonoda
Screenplay - Shin Morita
Original Story - Masaru Igami
Music - Hirooki Ogawa (stock music; uncredited), Katsuhisa Hattori
Director of Photography - Masahiko Iimura
Lighting - Kenzo Ginya
Art Director - Shuichiro Nakamura
Recording - Shozo Hirokami
Film Editor - Yoshiki Nagasawa
Director of Special Effects - Shozo Horai
Assistant Director - Hajime Sato
Production Assistant - Takeshi Nishii
Theme Song – "Planet Prince Song"

Vocals - Kamitakada Junior Chorus
Lyrics - Masaru Igami
Composer - Katsuhisa Hattori




Reboot


In 2021, Minoru Kawasaki directed a feature film reboot of the series, Planet Prince 2021.




References






External links


Prince of Space at IMDb
Prince of Space Movie Poster by Alexander Leon of Alxlen.com
Candles, Krankor and You on YouTube on Cinema Insomnia




= Mystery Science Theater 3000

=
"Mystery Science Theater 3000" Prince of Space (TV episode 1997) at IMDb
Episode guide: 816- Prince of Space

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