Tetsujin 28-go

Tetsujin 28-gō (Japanese: 鉄人28号, Hepburn: Tetsujin Nijūhachi-gō, lit. "Iron Man No. 28") is a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who also created Giant Robo. The series centers on the adventures of a young boy named Shotaro Kaneda, who controls a giant robot named Tetsujin 28, built by his late father.

Tetsujin 28-go
鉄人28号
(Tetsujin Nijūhachi-gō)
GenreAction, Adventure, Mecha, Dieselpunk
Manga
Written byMitsuteru Yokoyama
Published byKobunsha
MagazineShōnen
DemographicShōnen
Original runJuly 1956 – May 1966
Volumes24
Television drama
Directed bySantaro Marune
Original networkNTV (1960)
Original run February 1, 1960 – April 25, 1960
Episodes13
Anime television series
Gigantor
Directed byYonehiko Watanabe
Produced byKazuo Iohara
Written byKinzo Okamoto
Music byToriro Miki
Nobuyoshi Koshibe
Hidehiko Arashino
StudioTCJ
Licensed by
Siren Visual (former)
Madman Entertainment (2010–present)
NBC Enterprises (1964–1966)
The Right Stuf (2009–present)
Siren Visual (former)
Madman Entertainment (2010–present)
Original networkFuji TV (1963–1966)
English network
ATV-0 (1968)
TEN-10 (1968)
SAS-10 (1968–1969)
WPIX-TV (1964–1966)
Adult Swim (2005)
Original run October 20, 1963 – May 25, 1966
Episodes97 (original)
52 (English dub)
Anime television series
The New Adventures of Gigantor
Directed byTetsuo Imazawa
Produced byShigeru Akagawa
Toru Horikoshi
Written byHideo Takayashiki
Yutaka Kaneko
Keisuke Fujikawa
Masaaki Sakurai
Noboru Shiroyama
Yoshihisa Araki
Music byYasuaki Shimizu
StudioTMS Entertainment
Original networkNippon Television
English network
Original run October 3, 1980 (1980-10-03) – September 25, 1981 (1981-09-25)[1]
Episodes51
Anime television series
Tetsujin 28-go FX
Directed byTetsuo Imazawa
Produced byJin Totani
Mikihiro Iwata
Toru Horikoshi
Yuko Sagawa
Written byFumihiko Shimo
Hideki Sonoda
Hiroshi Minamino
Isao Shizuya
Nobuaki Kishima
Ryoe Tsukimura
Satoru Nishizono
Toshimichi Okawa
Music byHiroaki Kondo
StudioTMS Entertainment
Original networkNippon Television
Original run April 5, 1992 – March 30, 1993
Episodes47
Game
DeveloperSandlot
PublisherBandai
Music by
GenreAction
PlatformPlayStation 2
Released
  • JP: July 1, 2004
Anime television series
Tetsujin 28-go Gao!
Directed byTatsuji Yamazaki
Produced byShotaro Muroji
Daisuke Hara
Written byMitsutaka Hirota
Tatsuji Yamazaki
Music byFutoshi Sato
StudioEiken
Original networkFuji TV (2013–2016)
Original run April 6, 2013 – March 26, 2016
Episodes139
Manga
Written byAtsushi Oba
Published byShueisha
MagazineSaikyō Jump
DemographicShōnen
Original runJune 2013 – present
Anime

The manga was later adapted into four anime television series, a Japanese television drama and two films, one live action and one animated. Released in 1963, the first series was among the first Japanese anime series to feature a giant robot. It was later released in the United States as Gigantor.[2] A live-action movie with heavy use of CGI was produced in Japan in 2005.

The series is credited with featuring the first humanoid giant robot controlled externally via remote control by an operator.

Plot

In the final phase of the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Army were developing a gigantic robot "Tetsujin 28-go" as the secret weapon to fight against the Allies. However, Japan surrendered before they could complete its construction. After the war, Dr. Kaneda (the developer of Tetsujin 28-go) passed his robot to his son Shotaro Kaneda.

Characters
  • Shotaro Kaneda (金田 正太郎, Kaneda Shōtarō): The ten-year-old son of Dr. Kaneda. He is Tetsujin's assigned controller, with a deep emotional attachment to the robot. Shotaro is a boy detective famous throughout Tokyo, and in the manga, 1963 series, and 2004 series, can be seen frequently driving a car.
  • Professor Shikishima (敷島 博士, Shikishima-hakase): Dr. Kaneda's assistant, later Shotaro's mentor and guardian. He is caring and very dedicated to his work, but usually looks serious and deadpan. He is married, and has a son named Tetsuo.
  • Inspector Ootsuka (大塚 署長, Ōtsuka-shochō): The Chief of Tokyo Police. He is warm in personality and very enthusiastic, which isn't to say he doesn't take his job seriously. He is very close to Shikishima and also takes care of Shotaro, even acting as a surrogate father in the 2004 series.
  • Kenji Murasame (村雨 健次, Murasame Kenji): A former intelligence officer who begins to help Otsuka and Shotaro's work. His appearances in the 1960s and 2004 series are starkly different; he is immediately Shotaro's ally in the 1960s, but in the 2004 series, his brothers Ryuusaku and Tatsu are killed during Tetsujin's revival, causing him to seek revenge for several episodes. In the original manga, he and Ryuusaku are the leaders of a criminal organization.
  • Professor Shutain Franken (不乱拳酒多飲 博士, Furanken Shutain-hakase): A reclusive mad scientist who created the robot Black Ox. He is calm and very knowledgeable, but unfortunately uses his talents to create dangerous robots. In the original version of the 1960s series, his name is Dr. Black Dog.
  • Superhuman Kelly (超人間 ケリー, Chōningen Kerī): An American man who volunteered himself to be turned into an android as part of a wartime experiment. As a result, his body is entirely robotic with the exception of his brain, and is often covered in bandages. In the 2004 series, he steals his brother Johnson's identity in order to kill the doctor that made him this way.

Publication

Tetsujin 28-go was serialized in Kobunsha's Shōnen Magazine from July 1956 to May 1966, for a total of 97 chapters. The series was collected into 12 tankōbon volumes, which are re-released every ten years.

Design

Yokoyama's Tetsujin, much like Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, was influenced by the artist's wartime experiences. In Yokoyama's case, this was through the bombing of Kobe in World War II.[3]

As he had written in Ushio magazine in 1995, "When I was a fifth-grader, the war ended and I returned home from Tottori Prefecture, where I had been evacuated. The city of Kobe had been totally flattened, reduced to ashes. People said it was because of the B-29 bombers...as a child, I was astonished by their terrifying, destructive power." Another influence on Tetsujin's creation was the Vergeltungswaffen, a set of wonder weapons designed for long-range strategic bombing during World War II, and the idea that Nazi Germany possessed an "ace in the hole to reverse [its] waning fortunes".[4] The third work to inspire Yokoyama's creation was the 1931 film Frankenstein, which shaped Yokoyama's belief that the monster itself is neither good or evil.

Adaptations

1963 television series
Main article: Gigantor

The 1963 television incarnation of Tetsujin 28-go aired on Fuji TV from 20 October 1963 to 25 May 1966. The series initially ended with 84 episodes, but then returned for 13 more, for a total of 97 episodes. The series had mostly short plots that never took up more than three episodes, but was generally more light-hearted than the anime that would succeed it. Shotaro, Otsuka, Shikishima and Murasame functioned as a team in this version. Only 52 of the 97 episodes were ever dubbed in English.

1980 television series
Main article: The New Adventures of Gigantor

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

Tetsujin 28-go FX

Chō Dendō Robo Tetsujin 28-go FX is a sequel to Tetsujin 28-go directed by Tetsuo Imazawa and produced at the Tokyo Movie Shinsha studio. It ran on Nippon Television from April 5, 1992 to March 30, 1993, totaling 47 episodes.[5] It has been brought over to Latin America, but never released in English-speaking countries.

The show follows Shotaro's son, Masato, who controls a new edition of Tetsujin and works at a detective agency with other children. Among them are Shiori Nishina, granddaughter of Chief Otsuka. The Tetsujin FX (Iron Hero 28 Future X) is controlled by a remote control gun, which has to be aimed at the robot for it to take commands.[5]

Cast

2004 television series
Main article: Tetsujin 28-go (2004 TV series)

Written and directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa, the 2004 remake takes place ten years after World War II, approximately the same time as the manga debuted. The new television series has been released in the United States under its original name Tetsujin-28 by Geneon and in the United Kingdom by Manga Entertainment, the first time a Tetsujin-28 property has not been localized to "Gigantor" in America or other English speaking nations. The television series focused mainly on Shotaro's pursuit to control and fully understand Tetsujin's capabilities, all the while encountering previous creations and scientists from the Tetsujin Project. While not fully based on the original manga, it followed an extremely different storyline than in the 1960s series.

On March 31, 2007, a feature-length film, entitled "Tetsujin 28-go: Hakuchu no Zangetsu" (which translates as "Tetsujin #28: The Daytime Moon") was released in Japanese theaters. The film used the same character designs and scenery as the 2004 television series, albeit the film remade the series from the beginning. Among the changes, a new character "Shoutarou" debuted, Shotaro's older half-brother who was in the same airforce troop as Ryuusaku Murasame. Also a character named Tsuki, with a heavily bandaged body, attempts to murder Shotaro.

2004 PlayStation 2 video game

In Sandlot's videogame adaption, released July 1, 2004, you control Tetsujin 28 from the point of view of Shotaro Kaneda—able to control both Shotaru and Tetsujin 28. The control method is slightly simplified compared to Sandlot's other giant robot games such as Robot Alchemic Drive, in that you are not asked to control each leg separately. But you gain the ability to fly Tetsujin 28, and well as have him pick up buildings, enemies, and even Shotaru.

The game uses the same voice actors as the animation, though it takes presentation cues from the anime, the manga, as well as the kaiju film genre.

2005 live-action film
Main article: Tetsujin 28: The Movie

A live-action adaptation of the series, directed by Shin Togashi, was released in Japan on March 19, 2005. It was later released on DVD in the US by Geneon Entertainment and by Manga Entertainment in the UK. The film centers on Shotaro (Sosuke Ikematsu), who is living in the modern age with his widowed mother. He discovers Tetsujin 28, a giant robot left for him by his father (Hiroshi Abe). With the help of Chief Otsuka and classmate Mami Tachibana, Shotaro learns to control Tetsujin and does battle with the villainous Dr. Reiji Takumi and Black Ox.

Cancelled Imagi Animation film

On December 26, 2008, Felix Ip, the creative director of Imagi Animation Studios, revealed screenshots from a computer-animated teaser trailer featuring Tetsujin and Black Ox.[6] On January 9, 2009, the Japanese animation company Hikari Productions and Imagi launched the projects website, as well as the full teaser featuring Shotaro and Dr. Franken.[7] The film was subsequently cancelled, along with several other projects, when Imagi went defunct in 2010.

U.S. live-action film

Idlewild director Bryan Barber reportedly acquired the rights to Gigantor in 2011, with plans to adapt it into a feature film. The project never came to fruition, however, and no further developments have been made since.[8][9]

US adaptations
Main article: Gigantor

In the US adaptation of the 1963 Tetsujin 28 series, which was done by Fred Ladd, all of the character names were changed, and the wartime setting removed. Shotaro Kaneda became Jimmy Sparks, Dr. Shikishima became Dr. Bob Brilliant, Inspector Otsuka became Inspector Ignatz J. Blooper, and Kenji Murasame became Dick Strong. The series' setting was pushed forward to the year 2000. The 1980 television series was also exported to America in 1993, retitled as The New Adventures of Gigantor, with most of Fred Ladd's names intact. The 2004 television series, released by Geneon, retained all of its original names.

Despite the fact that the Tetsujin 28-go manga (which debuted in 1956) predates the Marvel Comics character Iron Man (who debuted in 1963), Tetsujin 28-go (which literally means "Iron Man No. 28") could not be released as Iron Man in North America due to the Marvel character Iron Man appearing in that market before Tetsujin debuted there, so the series was renamed Gigantor for the American version.[10]

Legacy
  • The shotacon genre of Japanese fiction, which focuses on a sexual attraction to young boys, is said to be linked to Tetsujin 28-go's Shotaro as an early example of the archetypal boys the genre focuses on; indeed, the term "shotacon" is said to be short for "Shotaro Complex".[11]
  • Guillermo Del Toro has cited the series as an influence on his movie Pacific Rim, depicting a series of battles between human-controlled giant robots and giant alien monsters.[12]
  • Shotaro's name was borrowed by Katsuhiro Otomo for the protagonist of his manga, Akira. He also borrowed the name Shikishima for the colonel and the name of Shikishima's son, Tetsuo, for the character Tetsuo Shima, he has stated in the Akira Club book that it could be said that Akira is based on Tetsujin 28-go (Akira himself is referred to as "No. 28" by the scientists experimenting on the espers).
  • The U.S. edition of the show, Gigantor, was spoofed in SNL's 'Torboto' sketch.

References
  1. "鉄人28号 @ Tokyo Movie Shinsha". TMS (in Japanese). Retrieved October 21, 2011.
  2. "Fire kills Japanese manga artist". BBC. 16 April 2004. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
  3. Hornyak, Timothy (2006). Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots. Kodansha International. pp. 58–59. ISBN 4-7700-3012-6.
  4. Anne Allison, Gary Cross (2006). Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. University of California Press. pp. 103–114. ISBN 0-520-22148-6.
  5. "鉄人28号 @ Tokyo Movie Shinsha" (in Japanese). TMS Entertainment. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
  6. "New "Tetsujin 28" Teaser". Felix Ip. 26 December 2008.
  7. "Imagi Launches "Tetsujin 28" Site with CG Test Teaser". Anime News Network. 2009-01-09.
  8. "OutKast Video Director to Pitch Gigantor/Tetsujin 28 Film - News". Anime News Network. 2011-10-21. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  9. Fleming, Mike (20 October 2011). "After Getting Close On Several Big Jobs, Director Bryan Barber's Taking His Next Meetings With 'Gigantor' In His Corner". Deadline New York.
  10. Erickson, Hal (1995). Television cartoon shows: an illustrated encyclopedia, 1949 through 1993. McFarland. pp. 232 & 324. ISBN 9780786400294. The character names were then "westernized": Dr. Kaneda became Dr. Sparks; his son Shotaro became Jimmy; and finally, since there already was an "Iron Man" on the market (see Marvel Superheroes), Tetsujin 28GO was not translated as Iron Man No. 28 but completely rechristened as Gigantor.
  11. Saitō Tamaki (2007) "Otaku Sexuality" in Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi ed., page 236 Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine University of Minnesota Press ISBN 978-0-8166-4974-7
  12. "Mr. Beaks Talks PACIFIC RIM, World Building And Gargantuas W/ Guillermo Del Toro And Travis Beacham!". Aintitcool.com. 2013-07-08. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
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