Boken Shonen Shadar

Aired: 1967

A TV anime produced by Toyo Enterprise. Based on an original concept (planning and script by Toshiichi Yukimuro and others). Broadcast in 156 episodes (Monday-Friday belt programming, 5 minutes each) on the NET (now TV Asahi) network from March 13 to September 25, 1967. The boy Shadar (voiced by Masashi Amenomori), whose parents were killed by an evil organization, uses ninjutsu and the special equipment 'Shadar Machine' to fight against the world-conquest scheme of the 'Gaira-dan.' This 5-minute ninja SF action work adopted a narration-driven cel kamishibai approach rather than full limited animation, symbolizing the dawn of the mini-program format. As a short-runtime belt program, each episode is self-contained, but the total episode count is enormous; the heroic image combining ninjutsu and future science is considered one of the source streams for later Super Sentai series and science-ninja heroes. (C)Toyo Enterprise