Chikyuu Bouei Shoujo Iko-chan

One of the interesting side effects of defining this blog's scope in the way that I have is that, for better or for worse, only focusing on magical girl manga that don't have anime adaptations automatically filters out almost every multimedia franchise. Sure we've talked about a couple manga adaptations of big live action productions, but there's a difference between that and a series that spreads itself across a handful of mediums simultaneously. Most magical girl multimedia projects from Japan will throw an anime of some form into the mix. Which is to say most, but not all. Today we'll be taking a look at a series which, throughout the late 80s and early 90s, released manga, a video game, a live action series, and more, but has no anime.

Chikyuu Bouei Shoujo Iko-chan (Terrestrial Defense Girl Iko) started as a live action direct-to-video series in 1987. The protagonist is Iko Kawai, a middle schooler who one day helps a member of the intergalactic police she sees lying unconscious on the pavement, and as a reward she is gifted a high tech headset called the Super Incom. The Super Incom allows her to use ESP to do what she believes is right, giving her abilities including but not limited to instant outfit changes, teleportation, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, shrinking, and communicating with beasts. In using her newfound powers, she catches the attention of an Earth defense squad known as the Light Terrestrial Defense Team, LTDT for short. They recruit Iko as a new member, and now armed with her Super Incom and gadgets from the LTDT, it is her duty to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats.

The first entry in the series, an approximately 47 minute movie, was released on February 28, 1987. The monster designs were done by Toru Narita, who had done special effects work for Godzilla, and co-created Ultraman; so his involvement helped draw attention to the project. The series even has an Ultraman parody character in the form of Miracleman, who can grow to enormous size, but passes out when he does so.

A second movie was released on July 14, 1988, at the start of which Iko bequeaths her Super Incom to a new girl, coincidentally named Iko Sugekawa, who also goes on to work for the LTDT. While the original Iko was played by Akiko Isozaki, a relatively obscure child actress, the new Iko was played by Mia Masuda, a popular idol who was just getting her start around this time. This meant many Iko-chan fans were also Mia Masuda fans, and vice versa. Even now many people seem to know of the series predominantly through her involvement. This movie gives Iko a new (and more iconic) outfit, plus a spectacularly intelligent and accomplished rival named Runna Hakuba. Mia Masuda would stay on as Iko for the third movie, released on June 22, 1990, but each subsequent production would cast a different actress in the role. As for the series director, Minoru Kawasaki is known for producing tokusatsu parodies on the cheap, with Terrestrial Defense Girl Iko being one such example.

Due to the success of the original movie trilogy, a video game based on the series was released for the PC98 engine on December 4, 1992. Titled Chikyuu Bouei Shoujo Iko-chan ~UFO Daisakusen~ (Terrestrial Defense Girl Iko ~The Great UFO Strategy~, this is a turn-based battle game with visual novel elements, in which the LTDT face off against various aliens. Unfortunately, the game didn't sell well. It's speculated that the gameplay style didn't capture the appeal of the title's tokusatsu origins. The in-game art is very pretty though, for whatever that's worth.

Iko would continue starring in live action sequels and spinoffs after that, and a number of companion books were released for the series as well, but the release most relevant to this blog is the Iko-Chan manga.

Running in monthly Comic Comp from the May 1988 issue to the May 1991 issue, this manga was created by Yoshito Asari, with writing input from Minoru Kawasaki, the original director. Asari is best known for his involvement in the production of the original Evangelion anime, for which he was an assistant character designer, and he penned a 4koma spinoff titled Evangelion Yonkoma Zenshuu. However, he is an accomplished mangaka in his own right, creating works such as Wahhaman, Manga Science, and Space Family Carlvinson, the lattermost of which would get an OVA adaptation in 1988.

Over the course of its' run, the Iko-chan manga would amass a total of 32 chapters. The first tankobon volume, containing chapters 1 through 18, was published by Kadokawa on September 13, 1990, but the remainder of the series would not be compiled until a new edition of both volumes was released by Hakusensha under their Jets Comics label on December 25, 1999. A digital rerelease, also by Hakusensha, was made available on December 26, 2014.

This manga makes some changes to the original plot, particularly in Iko's backstory. In this version, Iko already works for the LTDT part-time at the start of the series, and she gets the Super Incom after helping Miracleman while he's drunk. It's less momentous, but I actually prefer it given how poorly the original Iko's buddying up to cops has aged. The way the Super Incom works is slightly different too: it activates when she says please, enunciating each syllable (o-ne-ga-i). This makes whatever she thinks will help happen, but if she attempts to use this power for selfish reasons, the device will malfunction.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read very much of the manga, and the language barrier made it difficult to get into any version of this series. Huge shout-out to the surprisingly detailed Japanese Wikipedia page, which was a tremendous help in researching for this overview. They also have quite a bit of information on later installments in this series I glossed over. There is a lot more I could get into, but I wanted to mainly focus on the meat of the franchise, and this post is long enough as is.

I really hope fan translations of the series become available one day, because Terrestrial Defense Girl Iko seems like a lot of fun, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of older tokusatsu. There are elements of it I don't vibe with, but still, it has an interesting premise, some decently entertaining humor, a super catchy theme song, and a killer aesthetic.

地球防衛少女イコちゃん。20年前にお絵かき掲示板で描いたファンアート。

Earth Defense Girl Iko Chan 地球防衛少女イコちゃん

The December 1988 issue of Dragon Magazine featured a story on Earth Defense Girl Iko-chan ( 地球防衛少女イコちゃん), a sorta Ultraman/tokusatsu parody series from Minoru Kawasaki.

Kawasaki also directed The Calamari Wrestler, one of the best films of all time.

河崎実さんの「 #地球防衛少女イコちゃん 」30周年DVD #クラウドファンディング のリターン届いた！　DVDもさることながら #あさりよしとお さんトート、サイン入りバッジ、イコちゃん生写真にハァハァ。 #イコちゃん

ゲスト◇河崎 実（Minoru Kawasaki）映画監督

明治大学在学中から特撮８ミリ映画を製作。卒業後ＣＭプロデューサーを経て、森田健作の復活のプロデュースを機にフリーとなり「地球防衛少女イコちゃん」でプロデビュー。映画「いかレスラー」「ヅラ刑事」「日本以外全部沈没」「コアラ課長」「かにゴールキーパー」「猫ラーメン大将」「ギララの逆襲洞爺湖サミット危機一発」「地球防衛ガールズP9」「地球防衛未亡人」「アウターマン」「大怪獣モノ」「ロバマン」「三大怪獣グルメ」「メグ・ライオン」など。2021年8月27日には、最新映画「遊星王子」が公開。テレビ「世にも奇妙な物語」、Vシネマ「まいっちんぐマチコ先生」シリーズなども監督。中野にあるレンタルスペース「ルナベース」も経営している。 ・リバートップ オフィシャルサイト

『「干支天使チアラット」写真・ウルトラセブン爆音上映・ 「地球防衛少女イコちゃん」DVD』 辰巳ゆい。・希崎ジェシカ・友田彩也香

Earth Defense Girl Iko-chan 地球防衛少女イコちゃん

Earth Defense Girl Iko-chan (full episode here)

gotta love that Space Harrier bit 😎

Earth Defense Girl Iko-chan (full episode here) 

「地球防衛少女イコちゃん」30周年DVDクラウドファンディングのリターン届いた！

河崎実さんの「地球防衛少女イコちゃん 」 30周年DVDクラウドファンディングのリターン届いた！ DVDもさることながらあさりよしとおさんトート、 サイン入りバッジ、イコちゃん生写真にハァハァ。

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[過去記事]#mangadesign #otakudesign 「地球防衛少女イコちゃん」30周年DVDクラウドファンディングのリターン届いた！ 河崎実さんの「地球防衛少女イコちゃん 」 30周年DVDクラウドファンディングのリターン届いた！ DVDもさることながらあさりよしとおさんトート、 サイン入りバッジ、イコちゃん生写真にハァハァ。 https://bit.ly/2QsG6kZ