When it comes to Tokusatsu series, I can solely state that Magma Taishi, aka Space Giants in the USA, is the oldest series that I have ever watched.

Space Giants is special for it is the very first color Tokusatsu show broadcast in the world, the first one to star giant monsters, beating also Ultraman, because this series was aired three weeks before Ultraman, in 1966.

Alike the Tokusatsus produced in the 80s and lots more upwards in time, there is no focus on single characters armed to the teeth, smashing their enemies with powerful guns and laser swords. In my viewpoint, such characteristics have made the 80’s generation badly accustomed to what Tokusatsu heroes ought always to be, and should they not bring together all those ingredients of the 80s, the series are deemed just ridiculous. That is unacceptable to me, such a generation is just badly accustomed and they do not really appreciate a well told story, a good plot, they are just interested in special effects, rendering the old just, unfairly, poor and unbearable.

The series from the 60s and 70s seem to be more concerned with the message to be transmitted through the story, doing their best with the technology and funds available at their respective times. As a result, we usually have very well elaborated plots and story development, making it attractive, eye-catchy, with characters that make friends with us to the point that we do miss them when the series ends.

Space Giants is a story based upon the evil alien Rodak (Goa in the original Japanese broadcast) who have conquered many countries across the outer space and chosen the Earth as his next target. Fortunately, for us, a scientist called Mathusam (Earth in the original) had created a rocket that could transform itself into a giant robot, Goldar (Magma in Japanese), aimed at fighting the evil. Alongside, he constructed Silvar, his wife, and after making sure that Rodak came to Earth, he brought to Earth both robots and combat Rodak and protect the planet against Rodak’s plans. Silvar is human sized, and once here, she was given a son, created by Mathusam and taking as blueprint for its construction the size and appearance of a little boy, Miko (Mamoru in the original), who had made friends with Goldar.

Rodak, as his first warning to humans, visited the famous reporter Ito “Tom” Mura (Atsushi Murakami in the original), requesting him to relay the information that he was about to conquer the Earth, making use of his powers and giant monsters controlled by him. The option was to either surrender or die. In order to demonstrate his powers, he transformed the entire city around Mura’s house into a jungle, besides having one of his monsters attack Miko, Mister Mura’s son, who managed to take Rodak’s pictures with his camera.

Fortunately, Goldar turns up and introduces himself to Miko, explaining who he is and that he needed the film with Rodak photograph. Miko initially refused, claiming that it was going to be handed in to his father, thus Goldar had to take it from him by force. After a short conversation, Goldar took Miko with him to his hideout, wherein he met Silvar and Mathusam, thereby prompting to ask Mathusam for a son, who was created upon Miko’s image.

Rodak’s image was revealed and later on Goldar had his first clash with him. They undertook to destroy each other if they came to oppose themselves, immediately demonstrating how determined they were in their personal pursuit.

Together with his personal assistants, the Lugo Men, Rodak pushes through lots of plans, accompanied by widespread threats through his voice going through the air, always assigning gigantic creatures from space to destroy the Earth, spacial bacteria, Lugo Men stealing human’s bodies and assuming their control, and he even destroyed the Statue of Liberty in New York, bringing to rubbish the Manhattan buildings. Rodak became more and more terrible as long as he was running out of patience, after sequential defeats posed to him by Goldar and his friends.

Not only did Goldar combat Rodak, but the police would also join him as further help, also calling the Navy and the Army upon the need, firing Rodak’s monsters too fiercely, despite that being ineffective at times.

As opposed to what many ones may think, Goldar is not the central character, the one that takes the story ahead. On the contrary, he is summoned usually as the last resort, after Gam’s and sometimes, Silvar’s help, are useless. Miko and Gam turned out to be nice friends and they direct everything in the story, planning, carrying out plans, fighting Rodak’s Lugo Men, sometimes sharing their findings with the police that lots of times came as an additional aid to vanish with the evil.

What really drew my attention was the fact that mankind had not yet gone to space, to the moon, but we had battles in space, space trips, in 1966, that was amazing. The last battle against Rodak was in Goldar’s planet, that was certainly a positive aspect of the series. Additionally to that, the scenario's constructions on Earth, the destructions of the buildings, bridges, avenues, cars, etc., that was of undeniable quality, very well done, if we recall that everything took place in 1966. In my viewpoint, it is one of the greatest attractions of the series.

I have never seen a perfect series, and the imperfections of this one, to my perception, refer to:

- Goldar’s outfit was not attractive at all. I do not think it is something that we can put the blame on the technology of that time, because I believe, if that hair was absent, or replaced for another thing, that could be a lot better

- Goldar’s could barely move, specially in the beginning; his maneuvers were just embracing the monster, sometimes falling down with it. It was gradually improved along the episodes development, fortunately


- I reckon, Rodak lacked some intelligence at times, our heroes were too dependent on Miko’s whistle, used to call Goldar and his family. It would be a matter of destroying it earlier to prevent Goldar from coming to spoil his plans


- There was an occasion at which Miko’s mother, Tomoko, was kidnapped, but I did not see any point in it. Also, her return was slightly unreasonable


- I did not like Rodak’s end, his body should have been blown up, and he could have uttered some final words, since he was the type of villain that deserved such an end, a more dramatical one


- The last episode was bright, awesome, but it seemed to have ended all of a sudden. No sooner had the final battle finished than the rocket heroes were telling everybody goodbye. That was too sudden.

Apart from the aforementioned negative details, I do think it is a worth watching series, a masterpiece from the past, with an appreciable plot and well conduction of the story, counting on captivating characters with whom you easily make friends with.

This is it, so long, Goldar!


by Marcos Silvestri