Gigantor

Gigantor (originally Tetsujin 28-gō 鉄人28号, literally Iron Man #28) was a manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama published in 1958 which was later made into several anime series, the first in 1963. It was the first "giant robot" series. A live action motion picture with heavy use of computer generated graphics was produced in Japan in 2005 based on the old comics as opposed to the newer version in "New Gigantor" which was translated into many languages including Arabic.

There are many indications that Gigantor is a predecessor to another "retro-style" anime, Giant Robo, including the main characters' design/personality similarities.

Cartoon Network's Adult Swim aired the original English version at 5:30 AM (Eastern and Pacific) from Monday/Tuesday overnight to Thursday/Friday overnight, and Saturday/Sunday overnight. It is shown on this block perhaps due to its violent nature for a children's cartoon, and often "comical" portrayals of villain deaths. But others believe it is to attract the adults who once watched this series during its time back in 1968. As of July 10, 2006, Gigantor airs on Adult Swim Monday-Thursday at 5:30 AM.^*

Plot

The series is set in the future year of 2000. A boy named Jimmy Sparks (Shotaro Kaneda (金田正太郎 Kaneda Shotaro) in the Japanese version) is the nephew of Dr. Bob Brilliant (Dr. Shikishima (敷島博士 Shikishima-hakase) and lives with him on a remote island. Jimmy usually wears shorts and a jacket, and even carries a firearm. Jimmy fights crime around the world with the help of a huge remote-controlled robot, Gigantor. The robot is made of steel, and has a rocket powered backpack for flight, a pointy nose, eyes that never moved, and incredible strength, but no intelligence. Whoever has the remote control controls Gigantor.

History

Fred Ladd, who had produced the successful international, English-language adaptation of Astroboy, and Al Singer formed a corporation called Delphi Associates, Inc. in order to produce and distribute an English-language version of Tetsujin 28-gō. They took only 52 episodes of the Japanese series for the American market, and renamed the series Gigantor. Peter Fernandez wrote much of the English script, and participated in the dubbing. The series became an immediate hit with juvenile audiences, though adult reactions were sometimes hostile.

It was playing at 7:00 p.m. on New York's WPIX-TV in January of 1966 when Variety gave it a particularly scathing review, calling it a "loud, violent, tasteless and cheerless cartoon," which was "strictly in the retarded baby sitter class."

Even this reviewer, however, had to grudgingly admit Gigantor's popularity, writing, "Ratings so far are reportedly good, but strictly pity the tikes and their misguided folks." Variety, January 26, 1966

Gigantor became the most popular Japanese export during this time. The series was shown on Melbourne television in January 1968 through Trans-Lux, on channel 0 at 5:00pm. It was described by the TV Week as an "animated science fiction series about the world's mightiest robot, and 12 year old Jimmy Sparks who controls the jet propelled giant."

Voice acting

Jimmy's voice was that of Billie Lou Watt (who was female, not male as many people are led to believe). She was also the voice of Astroboy and Kimba. The voice of Inspector Blooper (Dr. Otsuka (大塚署長 Ōtsuka-Hakase)), an imitation of comic actor Harold Peary, was Ray Owens , who also played Dr. Elefun (Professor Ochanomizu, also known as Dr. O'Shay) from Astro Boy and Dan'l Baboon from Kimba. Gilbert Mack was the voice of Dick Strong, who also played Mr. Pompus from Astro Boy and Pauley Cracker from Kimba. Peter Fernandez was the voice for many characters as well. In the 2004 version dubbed by Geneon/Ocean Group the voice of Shotaro Kaneda is played by Reese Thompson (better known as Taromaru in InuYasha).

Characters

The names were all whimsical with characters such as Dick Strong who was a secret agent, and a funny policeman named Inspector Blooper who joined with Jimmy, Bob and Gigantor on their adventures against enemies such as the Spider, Ungablob, General Von Que Ball, Dubble Trubble, Dr. Katzmeow, and Prince Abdul Ben Hothead, and there were plenty of other robots that Gigantor had to defeat.

Secret Valley

In the last episode titled "The Secret Valley", the Gigantor team decide to holiday in Australia. They end up in the bush on a sheep station. They call the native "savages" and, instead of being Aborigines, are Indians with feathers on their heads riding horses. It showed what little the Japanese knew of Australia at that time. The dubbing team tried to imitate the Australian accents, but did not come close.

Sequels

The 1980-81 "Iron Man #28" (Tetsujin Ni Jū Hachi Gō) series was broadcast on America's Sci-Fi Channel from 9 September 1993 to 30 June 1997 under the name "The New Adventures of Gigantor." There was also a sequel series, "Iron Man #28 FX" (Tetsujin Ni Jū Hachi Gō Efuekkusu), about the son of the original controller operating a new robot (with Daddy and the sound effect-less #28 appearing from time-to-time to help), which ran in Japan in 1992.

An American made "Gigantor" comic book series was released in 2000 by Antarctic Press. The comic lasted for twelve issues and was later collected in 2005 in trade paperback form. The comic used elements from the anime Giant Robo as well as Marvel Comics referances though the later issues became closer to the original animation.

2005 saw a rebirth of the Tetsujin 28 franchise. Unlike the past attempts to modernize the franchise, a live action motion picture and accompanying OVA anime series were produced one year earlier in the retro-style of the original manga/anime series. The new OVA has been released in the United States under its original name "Tetsujin 28" by Geneon and in the UK by Manga Entertainment, the first time a Tetsujin 28 property has not been localized to "Gigantor" in America or other English speaking nations. The live action movie has been licensed for a UK release by Manga Entertainment, however no date has been set. Tetsujin 28 volume 1 insert

Footnotes

External links

Tetsujin 28-gō | 鉄人28号 | 鐵人28號

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