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Gigantor

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Gigantor
Gigantor Volume 1 DVD
GenreAdventure, Mecha,noir, science fiction
Manga
Written byMitsuteru Yokoyama
Anime
(first series)
Directed byMitsuteru Yokoyama (JP), Fred Ladd (USA)
StudioTele-Cartoon Japan(now extinct)

Gigantor (originally Tetsujin-nijūhachi-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.

Gigantor occasionally airs on Adult Swim's 5 a.m. slot, which is currently occupied by another classic giant robot series, Voltron.

Plot And Symbolism

The series is set in the "future" year of 2000. A boy named Jimmy Sparks (Shotaro Kaneda - 金田 正太郎 Kaneda Shotarō - 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, carries a firearm and occasionally drives a car. 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 move, and incredible strength, but no intelligence. Whoever has the remote control controls Gigantor.

There is a notable resemblance between the characters of Jimmy and Gigantor and the characters of the boy Hogarth and the giant robot in Ted Hughes' well-known children's book The Iron Man, which was published in 1968. It is not known whether Hughes ever saw the Gigantor series.

In post World War II and then Cold War era Japan, it is likely that the plots for the episodes were symbolic of the things going on in the world at the time. This assumption can be made given how many plots revolved around one oppressive country invading another peaceful one, requiring Gigantor's aid to save them. It is debatable whether or not the writers meant for the oppressive country to be representative of the United States (Like many writers of the time did in the Japanese genre of giant monster and robot heroes) or of the Soviet Union, or even both. The same is true in the reverse, as peaceful countries could be the United States or symbolic of a country under the 'Iron Curtain' (Both would fit with the Soviet Union being portrayed as the oppressor) or as Japan itself (Which would fit if the oppressing country was the United States).

History

In 1963, Fred Ladd, while working on the animated feature Pinocchio In Outer Space and on the animated TV series The Big World of Little Adam had seen artwork of Mitsuteru Yokoyama presenting a giant robot remote-controlled by a young boy. The Tokyo-based artist had designed the robot for a Japanese shonen manga series Tetsujin 28 and later a black-and-white animated TV series called Tetsujin-28-go.

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 babysitter class".

Even this reviewer, however, had to grudgingly admit the popularity of Gigantor, writing, "Ratings so far are reportedly good, but strictly pity the tikes and their misguided folks". [1]

Gigantor became a 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." The series was also screened in New South Wales (presumably around the same time) on the 0-10 Network's Sydney affiliate Channel 10.

Gigantor was one of a number of Japanese TV series that enjoyed strong popularity with young viewers in Australia during the 1960s. The first and undoubtedly the most successful of these was the hugely successful live-action historical adventure series The Samurai, the first Japanese TV series ever screened in Australia, which premiered in late 1964. It was followed by a contemporary ninja-based live action espionage series, Phantom Agents, and a number of popular Japanese animated series including Astro Boy, Prince Planet, Marine Boy and Kimba the White Lion, the cartoon series which is reputed to have been the uncredited basis for Disney's The Lion King.

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,("The Great Gildersleeve") was Ray Owens, who also played Dr. Elefun (Professor Ochanomizu, later 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 Reece Thompson.

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 natives "savages" and, instead of being Aborigines, are Native Americans 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 English phonology but did not come close.

Sequels and Spin Offs

The 1980-81 Iron Man #28 (Tetsujin-nijūhachi-gō) series was created with 51 color episodes based on a modernized take upon the original concept art. In 1993, Ladd and the TMS animation studio converted the series into The New Adventures of Gigantor and broadcast it on America's Sci-Fi Channel from 9 September 1993 to 30 June 1997.

There was also a sequel series, Iron Man #28 FX (Tetsujin-nijūhachi-gō-Efu-Ekkusu), about the son of the original controller operating a new robot (with Daddy and the original, FX-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 references 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 TV anime series (broadcast 4 April to 29 September 2004) were produced one year earlier in the retro-style of the original manga/anime series (with the TV series even taking place ten years after World War II, approximately the same time as the manga debuted). The new TV series 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. [2]

Creators behind Gigantor have unveiled plans for another updated design, a "Gigantor for the New Millennium." This newest form of the giant robot is called G3 and differs from past designs. The new Gigantor is a meld of robot and cyborg. According to the main site: "Driven by a complex neuro-system of DNA-impregnated neurochips, Gigantor G3 is a living Cybot! [1]"

Trivia

  • Gigantor seems capable of significantly altering his size depending on the situation. This is obviously due to animation problems. He may go from the size of Jimmy Sparks to the size of a ship without warning.
  • Although the series is set in the year 2000 none of the things mention exist so far as of 2007.
  • Gigantor was parodied an Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse as Torboto. Torboto was controlled and looked much like Gigantor and was built by the US Government to torture prisoners in Gitmo
  • Gigantor's name resembles Giganta from the DC Comic universe

Footnotes

  1. ^ Variety, January 26, 1966
  2. ^ Tetsujin 28 volume 1 insert
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