The Phantom Agents and The Samurai

[Dr Wolfenstein]

   Hi,
Growing up in Australia in the 70's (I was born in1966) we only had 4 channels to watch.From memory I think they were only on from  6.00 am until midnight when the television station would have a break.Most of the programs were either British,Australian or American with two exceptions.They were The Samurai and The Phantom Agents.Both were Japanese television shows made in the 60's.I got to see the repeats in the 70's.These shows were huge here.Here's a little excerpt of an article I found:

"At the height of The Samurai sensation, merchandising made a fortune. Children bought the Scanlen's bubble gum collect-a-cards, toy samurai swords, ninja stars, and samurai and ninja costumes literally by the truck load. Those who couldn't afford the merchanise, made their own. Dyed black pajamas became ninja costumes, kids made wooden samurai swords and tin lids were cut into ninja flying stars. In playgrounds and backyards, 'cowboys and indians' was replaced by 'samurais and ninjas'. Home made, razor sharp flying stars were confiscated by parents and teachers across the country.

In 1965, a Sydney promoter, booked The Samurai's star, Koichi Ose (Shintaro) for a promotional tour and live action shows based on the series.

On Christmas Day 1965, Koichi Ose arrived from Japan and was greeted with a superstar's welcome by 6,000 fans at Mascot Airport, many wearing ninja costumes. On the night of 5 January 1966, Ose flew to Melbourne to a deafening welcome from over 7,000 fans. He had no idea of his popularity and was completely overwhelmed. It was the biggest crowd at Essendon Airport since the arrival of The Beatles, a fact reported in the astonished Japanese press.

Koichi Ose performed 12 shows in 15 days at the Sydney Stadium and at Festival Hall in Melbourne before returning to Japan. Before capacity crowds of 6,000 people he slew dragons and fought fight Ninjas to the delight of his young audience and their possibily bewildered parents."
 
  As a kid I always loved The Phantom Agents.Both these shows were quite violent and had there fair share of gimmicks.The Phantom Agents could jump backwards into trees and use their cloak of invisibility to hide from  enemies and had throwing stars,swords and pistols.The Phantom Agents was set in the then modern times.Shintaro The Samurai was a master swordsman.This show was set in the 1700's I think.From what I've read these shows were only popular in Australia and Japan.I'm not even sure if they were shown in the US.
  I've added some clips to see if this jogs anyones memory.Most of the people I know remember The Samurai but not The Phantom Agents.
  Cheers
   Gab

The Phantom Agents English intro
Phantom Agents - English Intro
The Phantom Agents Japanese
OS AGENTES FANTASMA - ENCERRAMENTO E ABERTURA DA SÉRIE / ORIGINAL EM JAPONÊS / IMAGEM DIGITAL
The Phantoms Agents
Ninja Butai Gekko
Excerpt from the Samurai
The Samurai Shintaro 隠密剣士・・カラオケ

[RedKing]

Very cool shows! I would love for the english dubs of these to be released (if they even still exist!) on DVD. They were never shown here in the US unfortunately.  growing up in the 70s and 80s in rural upstate NY we also only had 4 channels, but later we got 2 more, but they were at least on all night(usually showing old monster movies!). However, I don't see only having 6 channels as bad because there was always good stuff on unlike today when there are 500 channels on cable and hardly ever anything on worth watching!