Man-Eating Moths

Man-Eating Moths
Operation: Mystery, episode 2
Information
Airdate	September 22, 1968
Directed by	Hajime Tsuburaya
Written by	Tetsuo Kinjo
Special Effects Directed by	Toru Matoba
Continuity
Previous	Man Through the Wall
Next	White Face

Man-Eating Moths is the second episode of Operation: Mystery.

Synopsis

A human figure melting into scales falling from swarming moths—. Blastomyces, once rampant in the American West, is detected from the skeletal remains of a decomposed body. Misawa becomes convinced of the crime based on information obtained from an old acquaintance at Mars Motors, but he ends up being captured by the criminal group.

Within the hideout where he's been abducted, a large number of moths are being kept.

Cast

• Shiro Maki : Shin Kishida
• Kyosuke Misawa : Homare Suguro
• Tadashi Matoya : Yasumi Hara
• Hiroshi Nomura : Seiji Matsuyama
• Saori Ogawa : Reiko Kobashi
• Taizo Machida : Akiji Kobayashi
• Jiro : Hiroshi Nakashima

Guest Actors

• Uno : Ko Sugita
• Midori Nitta : Yoko Machida
• Kuramoto : Hiroyuki Sugi
• Hidemi Nitta : Shuichiro Moriyama
• Yokoyama : Tomonori Kenmochi
• Imai : Kosuke Osawa
• Saijo : Katsumi Munakata
• Yoko Kuramoto : Keiko Yumi

Voice Actors

• Narrator : Isao Sakuma

Appearances

Kaiju

• Flesh Eating Moths

Home Media

• Operation: Mystery Volume 1 features episodes 1-5.
• Operation: Mystery Blu-ray BOX features all episodes except 24.

2003 release

2012 release

Blu-ray BOX

Trivia

The scene where Maki attacks the Flesh Eating Moths with a spray gun called the "Chemical Fang" was ultimately cut from the final version.

• The episode was originally intended to be the first episode, but after an internal test screening of the pilot version, additional scenes were reshot, edited, and composited, and some background music was replaced, leading to delays in production. As a result, it aired as the second episode. The pilot version is considered an unaired version, with some scenes, background music, and the ending sequence being completely different.
• There is testimony suggesting that Eiji Tsuburaya directly instructed Hajime Tsuburaya to reshoot specific scenes. The breaking of the pattern where the first episode was written by "Tetsuo Kinjo and directed by Hajime Tsuburaya" had a significant impact on Kinjo. This event also became one of the reasons for Kinjo's subsequent departure from the Tsuburaya Productions company.