Spiral Zone is a 1987 American science-fiction animated series produced by Atlantic/Kushner-Locke. Spiral Zone was animated by Japanese studio Visual 80 as well as South Korean studio AKOM. Based in part from a toy line made by Japanese company Bandai, the series focused on an international group of soldiers fighting to free the world from a scientist who controls much of the Earth's surface. It only ran for one season, with a total count of 65 episodes.
Tonka acquired the license from Bandai and created a different treatment to the series, plus a short-lived toy line.
Plot
In the year 2007, a brilliant but twisted military scientist named Dr. James Bent uses a neon military space shuttle to drop his deadly Zone Generators across half of the Earth, thus creating a region called the Spiral Zone due to its shape.
Millions of people are trapped in the dark mists of the Spiral Zone and transformed into "Zoners" with lifeless yellow eyes and strange red patches on their skin. Because they have no will to resist, Dr. James Bent - now known as Overlord - makes them his slave army and controls them from the Chrysler Building in New York City.
His followers are known as the Black Widows: Bandit, Duchess Dire, Razorback, Reaper, Crook, and Raw Meat. They are immune to the mind-altering effects of the Zone because of a special device called the Widow Maker. However, due to prolonged exposure to the Zone, they display the same physical effects to their bodies as normal people caught inside the Zone, which has dark skies and Zone spores growing in many places. Overlord seeks to conquer the world by bringing everyone under control with the Zone Generators. The Zones feed off human energy, which is why Overlord does not kill anyone inside.
With major cities Zoned, the nations of the world put aside their own differences to fight the Black Widows. However, only five soldiers using special suits to protect themselves from the Zone could do it. While easy to destroy, Zone Generators are impossible to capture because of booby traps. Overlord would also drop more generators on remaining military and civilian centers and force the Zone Riders into a standoff.
Characters
Black Widows
Bent not only invented the Zone Generators but also an antidote process giving him immunity to the bacteria. He uses this process on his small group of soldiers. While immune to the mind-altering effects, each Black Widow still has lesions on their skin and have yellow dilated eyes.
Overlord (Dr. James Bent; voiced by Neil Ross) - commander and rebel scientist. Bandit (information unknown; voiced by Neil Ross) - master of disguise, a terrorist of Middle Eastern origin. Duchess Dire (Ursula Dire; voiced by Mona Marshall) - a charming woman of British nationality, she is an assignment expert, hardened criminal, and Overlord's mistress. Razorback (Al Krak; voiced by Frank Welker) -an aggressive loudmouth who specializes in bladed weapons. Reaper (Mathew Riles; voiced by Denny Delk) - manhunter. Crook (Jean Duprey) - French scientist who tricks Reaper into becoming immune to the spiral zone in the episode " Shall You Reaper." Rawmeat (Richard Welt; voiced by Hal Rayle) - a truck driver who got tricked through Bandit in episode called " Bandit and the Smokies ".
Black Widow vehicles
Overlord rides the Bullwhip Cannon, an eight-wheel all-terrain vehicle equipped with a large laser cannon. The other Black Widows ride Sledge Hammers, a one-man minitank that has triangular caterpillar tracks and has whirling mace arms on either side. They also have a special delta-winged aircraft called the Intruder.
Zone Riders
Overlord's initial strike put all the major capitals of the world in the Zone. The chaos sparks international cooperation even between the United States and the Soviet Union. To counter the effects of the Zone bacteria, British scientists create a rare material called Neutron-90. However, only a limited amount of Neutron-90 is remaining in the world after the British government orders the destruction of the only laboratory where the material is produced. There is only enough material left to build combat suits for five specially-trained soldiers called the Spiral Force, also known as the "Zone Riders."
Colonel Dirk Courage (voiced by Dan Gilvezan) - Zone Riders leader, United States MSgt Tank Schmidt (voiced by Neil Ross) - heavy weapons specialist, West Germany Lt Hiro Taka (voiced by Michael Bell) - infiltration specialist, Japan 2nd Lt Max Jones (voiced by Hal Rayle) - special mission expert, United States Cpl Katerina Anastacia (voiced by Mona Marshall) - medical officer, USSR