National Kid

• Genre — Tokusatsu Science fiction Superhero • Creator — Minoru Kisegawa (eps. 1–30) Ichirō Miyagawa (eps. 23–30) Unno Juza (eps. 31–39) • Writer — Takashi Tanii Nagayoshi Akasaka • Director — Nagayoshi Akasaka Jun Koike Naruo Watanabe • Starring — Ichirō Kojima (actor)Ichirō Kojima (eps. 1–22) Hidetarō Tatsumi (eps. 23–39) • Theme Music Composer — Tasaku Sano • Open Theme — "Song of National Kid", written by Masayoshi Onuki, sung by Victor Children's Chorus • Composer — Yasuo Fukazawa • Country — Japan • Language — Japanese • Num Episodes — 39 • Producer — Masamichi Sato Kazuma Nosaka Yoshi Nakai • Runtime — 30 minutes • Channel — NET • First Aired — 1960 8 4 • Last Aired — 1961 4 27

National Kid is a messenger from the Andromeda Galaxy thirty thousand light-years away, who is immortal and protects the Earth from invaders. His alter ego on Earth is Ryusaku Hata—or Massao Hata in the Brazilian dub —the son and apprentice of the world-renowned scientist, Dr. Masachika Hata, who holds his practice in a suburb of Tokyo. His powers include superhuman strength and flight. National Kid also carries the "Eroruya Ray Gun" which was similar to the flashlight sold by Matsushita. Hata raises five orphan children, which try to help investigating the strange phenomena in the series. When in danger, the kids call National Kid to rescue them via the "Magic Radio", a National radio transmitter.

The National Kid series comprises four story arcs through 39 episodes.

The first arc lasted 13 episodes. The story has National Kid defending the Earth from the Incas, an alien race who arrive from the planet Venus. • Inca Venusians Concerned that the effects of nuclear tests on Earth could spread through space, the Incas invade and unleash massive UFO attacks on Japan. They worship a God called "Abika," with altars also furnished in their ship. They also release a virus in which National Kid struggles to find a cure. The hero flies into the mountains and uses his Eroruya Ray Gun to blow apart some boulders in order to uncover some rare minerals that helped in creating a remedy for the virus' effects. The remainder of the episodes primarily had National Kid saving children and himself from Inca attacks. • Aura (Inca Venusian captain) - played by Yoshiko Nogawa Vemana and Kabia's boss. Act's cruelly, but speaks in very polite words. • Vemana (Inca Venusian executive) - played by Akira Katayama • Kabia (Inca Venusian executive) - played by Ichi Kubo

The second story arc ran 9 episodes. Already using new techniques including blue screen, the special effects are significantly improved over the first story's efforts. This time National Kid battles an army of oceanic creatures called the Undersea People Coelacanth. • Undersea People Coelacanth The Undersea People- ancient coelacanth fish that had evolved into human beings- declare war on the surface world. The Undersea People are uniformed in long black robes with triangular hoods. They have faces like a Komodo dragon, and their bodies are similar to the Creature from the Creature from the Black Lagoon movies. The Undersea People come to the surface world riding in an anglerfish-shaped submarine named Guilton, which was built in their undersea city 10,000 m below depth, causing seismic waves destroying naval ships. • Fisshu Ichi-go - played by Akira Katayama • Fisshu San-go - played by Nobuyuki Ezawa • Kawamura-Hakase - played by Haruni Kubo

The third story arc ran 8 episodes. Ichirō Kojima leaves the series, and Hidetarō Tatsumi takes over the role of National Kid until the series' end. In this arc, National Kid takes on armed forces from beneath the Earth's surface. The Underground People are looking for the formula to a rare element that will give them supreme power. Once again UFOs attack Japan killing civilians. • Underground People • President Helnstein (Underground People) - played by Koji Matsuyama

The last story arc ran 9 episodes. A space boy named Taro accidentally falls to Earth. Then Taro's father mistakenly threatens the destruction of Tokyo and unleashes the giant monster Gyabura for his boy's blunder. Taro befriends Hata's students, and tells his father Earth is a peaceful planet. After this final threat, Ryusaku Hata reveals he is the Earth's hero National Kid and returns to Andromeda.

The cast members of National Kid were: • Ichirō Kojima: Ryusaku Hata/ National Kid (episodes 1-22) • Hidetarō Tatsumi: Ryusaku Hata/ National Kid (episodes 23-39) • Taeko Shimura: Hisako (Chako) Obata • Shiko Saito: Dr. Mizuno • Isamu Yamaguchi: Dr. Yamada • Chiyoko Honma: Tsuneko Yamada • Taku Fukushima, Hideyo Kimura, Toru Shimizu, Kazuo Hara, Midori Okada: The Child Detectives, Yukio, Tomohiro, Kurazo, Goro, and Kyoko For the Brazilian version, voices were dubbed in Portuguese by: • Emerson Camargo: National Kid • Cristina Camargo: Thiako • Maria Inês: Goro • Magaly Sanches: Kurazo • Rafael Marques: Tomohiro • Sônia Regina: Yukio • Osmano Cardoso: Dr. Mizuno

To compete against KRTV's Moonlight Mask (1958), NET (now TV Asahi) commissioned the production of their own tokusatsu series from Toei Company. Sponsored by Matsushita Electric in order to promote their National brand electronics, it was considered a "relatively expensive series" by The Dorama Encyclopedia authors. Through National's high investments, it was possible to create the first flying superhero in Japanese TV history. National Kid was Toei's fourth tokusatsu series. Nagayoshi Akasaka, director of the series, was inspired by Adventures of Superman when creating National Kid. The series was shot in black-and-white. National Kids production cost was high for the time's standards: each 30-minute episode had a production budget of 1.5 million yen, when the average money invested in a TV series in Japan that time was of 10 thousand yen per minute (300 thousand yen for a 30-minute episode).