Before Ultraman, before Kamen Rider, before Japan’s decades-long love affair with masked, costumed heroes even had a name for itself, there was Ken Utsui in a skullcap with antennae, frilly undersleeves, and — by every account — a genuinely unfortunate amount of padding in entirely the wrong places. Utsui played Super Giant, known to American audiences as Starman, across nine short tokusatsu films Shintoho released between 1957 and 1959. Super Giant is widely credited as Japan’s very first movie superhero, arriving on the wave of enthusiasm Godzilla had generated just three years earlier — a Japanese answer to Superman that would go on to establish the visual template countless imitators, including Gekko Kamen and National Kid, would borrow from throughout the 1950s and ’60s.
Evil Brain from Outer Space isn’t one of the original nine films — it’s what happened to three of them after an American distributor got hold of the rights. Walter Manley Enterprises and Medallion Films bought the entire Super Giant catalog for U.S. television, hacked the nine original shorts down into four English-dubbed features, and stitched this particular entry together from installments seven, eight, and nine — three entirely separate, self-contained Japanese stories, none of which had anything to do with each other, mashed into a single 78-minute film with a hastily invented connective narration. The result has been called, not unfairly, “an alternately mind-blowing and mind-numbing adventure” — and it’s in the public domain, free to watch right now.
Evil Brain from Outer Space 1964 — Movie Overview Table
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Title | Evil Brain from Outer Space |
| Release Year | 1964 (U.S. television release; some sources list 1966) |
| Country | Japan (produced) / United States (edited release) |
| Runtime | 78 minutes (U.S. edit); compiled from 159 minutes of original Japanese footage |
| Genre | Science Fiction, Superhero, Action, Adventure |
| Language | English (dubbed from Japanese) |
| Format | Black & White |
| Original Directors | Koreyoshi Akasaka, Akira Mitsuwa (segments); original series directed largely by Teruo Ishii |
| Screenplay | Akira Mitsuwa, Ichiro Miyagawa |
| Producer | Mitsugi Okura |
| Original Production Company | Shintoho (Toho’s non-union subsidiary) |
| U.S. Distributor | Walter Manley Enterprises, Inc. (with Medallion Films) |
| Source Material | Films #7, #8, and #9 of the 9-part Super Giant series (1957–1959): The Space Mutant Appears, The Devil’s Incarnation, The Poison Moth Kingdom |
| Dubbing Studio | Titra Studios, New York (voice cast included Peter Fernandez) |
| Significance | Super Giant is credited as Japan’s first movie superhero; the character predates and influenced later tokusatsu heroes like Gekko Kamen and National Kid |
| IMDb Rating | 4.9/10 |
| Public Domain | Yes — freely available to watch and download |
Full Cast Table — Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964)
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Ken Utsui | Super Giant / Starman |
| Junko Ikeuchi | Kaoru |
| Minoru Takada | (supporting role) |
Super Giant — Japan’s First Movie Superhero, and the Man Who Never Wanted to Talk About It
Super Giant’s origin is tied directly to one of the biggest cultural moments in postwar Japanese cinema. Godzilla’s massive 1954 success launched the entire tokusatsu — special-effects — genre in Japan, and Shintoho capitalized on that appetite three years later with Super Giant (1957), introducing an alien-made steel humanoid superhero, dispatched from the Emerald Planet’s Peace Council to protect Earth from crime organizations and hostile extraterrestrials. One retrospective source describes the character plainly as “Japan’s version of Superman at the time” — the country’s first true movie superhero, arriving well before the tokusatsu genre’s later, more internationally famous entries.
Ken Utsui, already an established Shintoho contract actor with more than twenty prior film credits, took on the role reluctantly — and the costume gave him good reason. One retrospective description of Utsui’s Starman outfit doesn’t hold back: “an antennaed skullcap, frilly undersleeves and touchingly overpadded crotch” that the same writer suggests explains why Utsui “did not relish his time in tights.” Despite going on to a long, respected career in Japanese film and television, Utsui reportedly refused to discuss the Super Giant role for the rest of his life, right up until his death in 2014 — a quiet but telling piece of evidence for just how little affection its star held for the costume that nonetheless made him a genuine pioneer of Japanese pop culture.
Three Unrelated Films, Forced Into One — The Editing Behind Evil Brain from Outer Space
What makes Evil Brain from Outer Space such a genuinely strange artifact isn’t its plot — it’s the process that produced it. Walter Manley Enterprises purchased all nine original Super Giant shorts and, working with Medallion Films, compressed them into just four English-language features for American television syndication. The three source films behind this particular entry — The Space Mutant Appears (45 minutes), The Devil’s Incarnation (57 minutes), and The Poison Moth Kingdom (57 minutes) — were each fully self-contained stories totaling 159 minutes combined. Editors compressed all three down into a single 78-minute film, discarding roughly half the original material and welding together three entirely separate plots that were never designed to connect.
One dedicated retrospective spells out exactly how disjointed the resulting narrative actually is: the American narrator essentially invented a connective story about “an evil brain from Zemaria that can control people, create mutants and has an army” to loosely tie together elements that “resembles Episode 7,” then simply tacked on unrelated material from episode 8 — involving a scientist who turns his dead daughter into a witch who kills women — and episode 9, concerning an entirely separate Arab terrorist army plot. A further technical wrinkle compounded the editing challenge: the first source film was shot in the older 4:3 aspect ratio, while the latter two were filmed in widescreen, forcing editors to use pan-and-scan techniques just to make the three visually match well enough to cut together.
Full Plot Summary — Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964)
Starman (Ken Utsui) is once again dispatched from the Emerald Planet’s high council — described by one reviewer as “a motley collection of cardboard/papier-mâché extraterrestrials” — to defend Earth from a new menace: Balazar, an evil genius from the planet Zemar whose prodigiously overdeveloped brain has been carefully preserved following his own assassination. Balazar’s disembodied brain, now transported in a suitcase, commands loyal followers and unleashes an army of hideous, disease-spreading monster-mutants against Earth’s population.
Chases, Captures, and a Suitcase Full of Brain
The narrative that follows is, by design, less a coherent story than a rapid sequence of set pieces stitched from three unrelated source films: chases, captures, rescues, and fight scenes follow one another with little connective logic, punctuated by an opening chase sequence involving Balazar’s brain being physically carried in a suitcase — a sequence one reviewer singled out as a genuinely exciting opening despite the surrounding confusion. Starman, aided throughout by two young Japanese children he’s befriended, flies to trouble spots using a clearly visible support harness and dispatches monsters using exaggerated martial-arts-adjacent dance moves that rarely appear to make direct contact with his opponents.
A Story Assembled from Fragments
Beneath the surface-level Balazar plot, the film also folds in material entirely unrelated to the brain storyline: a subplot involving a scientist transforming his deceased daughter into a murderous witch, and a separate thread concerning an armed insurgent force with no meaningful connection to Balazar’s schemes at all. The film ultimately resolves its various threads through Starman’s continued interventions, though the underlying editorial patchwork means the connections between villains, victims, and motivations remain, by design, considerably looser than any single self-contained Super Giant episode would have offered on its own.
Part of a Wave of Re-Edited Japanese Sci-Fi for American TV
Evil Brain from Outer Space was one of four Americanized Starman compilations Walter Manley Enterprises produced from the original nine Super Giant shorts — alongside Atomic Rulers of the World, Invaders from Space, and Attack from Space. All four followed the same basic formula: heavy re-editing, English dubbing through Titra Studios of New York (whose voice cast included the prolific Peter Fernandez), and a wholesale replacement of the original Japanese musical score with generic library music tracks, stripping away much of what had made the originals distinctly Japanese productions in the process.
One reviewer situated the finished product usefully within its era of American television programming, noting the original series “started out as a Japanese TV series back in the days when George Reeves was playing Superman, and is of comparable quality” — while also drawing a surprising comparison to early Doctor Who, particularly in the “council of extraterrestrials” framing device that opens each Starman adventure. It’s a useful reminder that Super Giant emerged from roughly the same cultural moment as several other early television superhero properties across different countries, even while taking on a distinctly Japanese visual and tonal flavor entirely its own.
Where to Watch Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964) Free Online
Evil Brain from Outer Space is in the public domain and legally available across multiple platforms at no cost.
| Platform | Format | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Internet Archive | Stream + Download (multiple formats) | Free |
| YouTube | Stream | Free |
| Public Domain Movies | Stream | Free |
Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964) on Internet Archive:
Is Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964) in the Public Domain?
Sure. The Evil Brain from Outer Space version made in America is in the public domain in the United States. That means you can watch it online, download it, pass it around, and record your screen, with no fees and no legal limits.
Critical Reception — Then and Now
The movie has a 4.9 rating on IMDb. Critics have talked about it for years, and they usually land on the same issue. The cut feels broken and jumpy. That is often seen as the biggest problem.
Still, some people like it for that same reason. One site gave it 2.0 out of 5. In their words, it was “a total nonsensical mess.” They also said that if you realize it was put together from three separate episodes that were not really connected, the odd feeling can be understood. In that view, it looks more like a deliberate way of making the film than just a mistake.
Other reviewers have found real, if modest, entertainment value in the chaos. One IMDb review concluded that despite the material being “understandably not very fresh,” the film still “features a relatively high dose of Starman action, villains, and gimmicks,” praising Balazar and his minions as better-than-average villains for a film this thoroughly recut. The film has also found a durable home on genre compilation releases — appearing on two separate Mill Creek Entertainment multi-film sets, Nightmare Worlds and Pure Terror — a fitting afterlife for a picture whose very existence is the product of compilation and recombination in the first place.
Frequently Asked Questions — Evil Brain from Outer Space 1964
Q: What is Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964) about?
The superhero Starman must defend Earth from Balazar, an evil alien genius whose preserved, disembodied brain commands an army of disease-spreading mutants. The film was edited together from three unrelated Japanese short films, so it also includes tangential subplots involving a witch created from a scientist’s dead daughter and a separate terrorist army plot.
Q: Is Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964) in the public domain?
Yes. This American-modified version of Evil Brain from Outer Space is in the public domain in the United States and is freely available on the Internet Archive, YouTube, and other public domain film platforms.
Q: Is Evil Brain from Outer Space a Japanese or American film?
Both. It was edited together in 1964 for American television from three original Japanese short films (parts 7, 8, and 9 of the 1957-1959 Super Giant series), produced by Shintoho and starring Ken Utsui, then dubbed into English and released as a standalone feature by Walter Manley Enterprises.
Q: Who played Starman/Super Giant?
Ken Utsui played the character across all nine original Super Giant films. Super Giant is widely credited as Japan’s first movie superhero, predating later tokusatsu heroes. Utsui reportedly refused to discuss the role for the rest of his life.
Q: Why does the plot of Evil Brain from Outer Space feel disjointed?
The film combines three separate, self-contained 45-to-57-minute Japanese films (totaling 159 minutes) into a single 78-minute feature, cutting roughly half the original material and inventing new narration to loosely connect three unrelated storylines.
Q: How long is Evil Brain from Outer Space?
The U.S.-edited version runs approximately 78 minutes.
Q: Are there other films like Evil Brain from Outer Space?
Yes. It’s one of four English-dubbed American compilations made from the original nine Super Giant films, alongside Atomic Rulers of the World, Invaders from Space, and Attack from Space.
Q: What did critics say about Evil Brain from Outer Space?
Critics generally describe the film as a disjointed but entertainingly campy mess, criticizing its choppy editing while praising its steady supply of monster fights, villains, and action sequences typical of 1950s Japanese tokusatsu cinema.
Q: Where can I watch Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964) for free?
Evil Brain from Outer Space is freely available on the Internet Archive, YouTube, and Public Domain Movies. All versions are legal to stream and download under public domain status.
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