Zerosen Hayato

Aired: 1964

A TV anime produced by P Production. Based on Naoki Tsuji's manga serialized in Shonen Gahosha's Weekly Shonen King (1963-1965). Broadcast in 38 episodes on the Fuji TV network from January 21 to September 30, 1964. In the late Pacific War, young Zero fighter pilot Hayato Azuma engages in aerial battles against Allied fighter squadrons alongside his comrades in this war action work. The fated duel with the enemy ace fighter who killed his father forms the central axis, with realistic depictions of dogfights set on actual battlefields such as Guadalcanal, Rabaul, and Iwo Jima distinguishing the work from contemporaneous boys' anime. As P Production's (founded by Soji Ushio) first TV anime work, it is positioned as the starting point of the company's lineage leading to Magma Taishi and Spectreman. Due to its wartime content, post-broadcast rerun opportunities have been extremely limited, making surviving footage rare. (C)Naoki Tsuji / P Production