Planet Prince is a 1958 Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series. Created by Masaru Igami and produced by Nippon Gendai and Senkosha, the series aired on NTV from November 4, 1958 to October 6, 1959, with a total of 49 episodes (divided into several segments). 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.). Planet Prince was 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). The hero in these two movies was played by Tatsuo Umemiya. The movies were released a week apart. The films were titled:
Planet Prince ( Released: May 19, 1959)
Planet Prince - The Terrifying Spaceship (Released: May 25, 1959)
For TV release in America, these two Planet Prince movies were compiled into a 95-minute movie entitled Prince of Space in 1962.
Prince of Space was originally a children's series that was produced for Japanese television. The episodes were chopped up and edited together to produce the feature film. The film suffers from this greatly. While again the acting, special effects and story were intended for children's TV the production is nowhere close to the standards of other Japanese sci-fi films made around the same time period, most notably, The Mysterians.
Although the film may be cheesy, it's influences will be obvious to any fan of Japanese sci-fi cinema. The Krankor warship may very well have been the inspiration for the design of the more famous Atragon. The film also would have been the for-runner of what would be an onslaught of Japanese superhero films and TV series. Again fans will see a lot of what would become Ultraman in Prince of Space.
A group of chicken beak-nosed space men from the planet Krankor who refuse to wear underwear underneath their suits are led by their leader, Phantom, to invade Earth. But a superhero named Prince of Space (actually a bootblack in disguise) arrives to defeat the spacemen. His superpowers include a magical laser-proof grill lighter, reasonable skipping ability, and the knack for saying some variant of, "Your weapons are useless against me!", which is apparently quite accurate, although he dodges their laser blasts anyway, just to be safe. Although the weapons of the aliens are indeed useless against the Prince of Space, the Phantom continues to fight, and many plot twists (including capturing a group of elderly scientists) ensue.
Things that make you go Wha?:
The villain travels through space to the planet Earth, so that he can steal a formula for rocket fuel that will allow him to...travel through space. This is even hand-waved in the film itself, by a group of journalists who ask the head scientist why such an advanced race needs Earth technology. The scientist's explanation—their fuel technology lags behind ours—is wholly unconvincing. How could they master space flight with inferior fuel technology to 1950s earth?
The Phantom claims that the planet Krankor is "half a million Earth miles from Earth". To put it in perspective, our moon is just under a quarter of a million miles away. A half a million miles wouldn't put them out of our solar system... it wouldn't even get them halfway to Mars! Although Krankor being quite close to Earth would close several plotholes...
The Prince of Space has stated numerous times that the aliens' weapons won't work on him. He's even proven it, by easily dodging and/or deflecting their ray gun shots. He's even managed to reflect their shots right back at them, killing or injuring numerous alien invaders with their own attacks. So, what do the aliens do about this? Why, keep trying to shoot him, of course! They do eventually try one other tactic against him: leading him through an Asteroid Thicket. When he survives their first response is "hey, let's try it again."
PRINCE OF SPACE (1962)
AKA: Yusei oji (Original Japanese Title), Invaders from the Spaceship, The Star Prince
Toei Co. Ltd. (1959)
Directed By: Eijirô Wakabayashi
Written By: Masaru Igami & Shin Morita
Cast:
Tatsuo Umemiya as Wally / Prince of Space
Ushio Skashi
Joji Oka as Phantom of Krankor
Hiroko Mine
Takashi Kanda
Ken Sudoh
Nobu Yatsuna
Runtime: 121 min
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Color: Black & White
Sound: Mono
Released: March 19, 1962
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