Jonni Kuesto!

I'd heard the theme before but I never knew that JQ had such a following over here. There were all kinds of tie-ins such as this B&W manga, two Sonosheets, and an incredible sketchbook. There was even Japan's version of Pogs, めんこ, 面子 (Menko).

 For my Japanese viewers, here is a little more info including the blogger's top 5 hits.

I love the original theme song, it's one of the reasons I love Jazz. I never thought it could be topped until I heard this theme song, 科学少年 ジョニー・クエスト, from the 1964 anime-ted toon which is all flavours of awesome. For those of you who can't be bothered clicking, here it is again...



and again...



I really really wanna get my hands on some of the above goodies!

HMV Final Wars.

Back in 2005, when Godzilla was undergoing forced retirement, HMV brought out a boxed set of 15 Glow in the Dark figures. I just happened to be in Tokyo when these debuted, so I snapped up a box and forgot all about them. We have ゴジラ、轟天号、ガイガン、マンダ、ラドン、キングシーザー、アンギラス、エビラ、モスラ、ヘドラ、ミニラ、モンスターエックス、カイザギドラ、クモンガ、カマキラス。
They are all pretty cool and one day I'll display them, in the meantime I'll keep them sealed in plastic.

Coming home from joining a couple in Holy Matrimony today, I managed to snap a few shots of rainbow between buildings. It was raining off and on all day and it just happened to stop in time for the couple to take photos outside. Someone put in a good word!

Like My Father Before Me.

It's my third Shinkansen trip to Fukushima in 2 weeks. So this time it was such a lovely day, I decided to take some photos en route back. If you want to skip the pics of the lovely foliage, you can scroll down to the bottom to see what I've really been up to.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto.

Happy Black Friday Eve to all my American friends.



I want everyone to wish me luck tomorrow! I make my debut as a ********.

Aw, I'll show you a picture afterwards. Then you can make whatever comments you like. Still, wish me luck.

Sour Grapes.

I have a new employer who manages to make a 20 minute conversation last 2 hours. This desperately cuts into more important things such as blogging. Thus I only have time for an odd little ad...

Welcome to the Mystery Zone.

After a brief hiatus, I'm back and hopefully able to update daily, but the Real world has begun to suck me dry. (After Saturday, I can let you in on my mysterious absence, in the interim, keep your fingers crossed for me.)

Who doesn't like a bit of Mystery, anyway. The Japanese certainly do, for they renamed "The Twilight Zone" as ミステリーゾーン (Mystery Zone) and started a 3-episode collected series collecting the first season, 3 episodes at a time. (For some reason, they skipped the pilot, Where Is Everybody?) Instead, it started with One for the Angels where a pitchman makes a deal with Death to continue living until he makes one great sale. Ed Wynn is a joy as the salesman and keep an eye out for the Robby the Robot toy!

The next feature is Mr. Denton on Doomsday, where a washed-up gunslinger (Dan Duryea) is given another chance by a mystery man. Martin Landau is particularly nasty and a very young Troy Doug McClure appears. The final episode in the premiere DVD set is The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine, a Sunset Blvd. clone with a still-striking Ida Lupino as an aging film star who lives a life of seclusion in her private screening room.

You also get a 22 page booklet with it, with several photos and features, including トワイライト・セレブリティ (Twilight Celebrity),　ミステリー・ゾン (Mystery Zone's history & other media) and　for some reason, ロスウェル (Roswell)! Here are a whole whack of photos from the mag:

What follows are some of the YouTubes I could find featuring the opening in Japanese, still sounds pretty cool, even with out Serling's dulcet/raspy tone.


Oops, that was the Twilight Zonettes.


Doh, that was Jack Benny. Let's try again. (The ending is a killer!)


Nope, that was the トワイライトゾーン・タワー・オブ・テラー (Twilight Zone, Tower of Terror).



That's better.
I truly wish that I could afford further dvds in the series, but the first one cost me 790￥ and future ones jump to 1790￥!