The year is 1956, Japan was still recovering from World War II and Tokyo is getting a new landmark with the Tokyo Tower under construction and nearing completion. Akira Kurosawa and Godzilla made their marks on the world 2 years prior.
Amidst all this change, the shadow of the Second World War hung heavily over the nation after its defeat. Some became bitter, others mourned the immense loss of life of families and friends, some proclaimed their unending hatred of the US for being so cruel as to use them as a live testing target of a new weapon. Others who witnessed the horrors of the atomic bomb and the war or heard about it growing up developed an anti-war mentality, wanting to never again experience such tragedy and show the world why war was a bad thing.
We know some of their names because of this thematic narrative: Ishiro Honda and Tomoyuki Tanaka with Godzilla, Yoshiyuki Tomino with Gundam, Shotaro Ishinomori with his Cyborg 009 manga and Go Nagai with Devilman who mused humanity will inevitably destroy itself if it succumbed to violence. Among those many names was Mitsuteru Yokoyama.
Mr. Yokoyama is considered the template builder of many of the anime, tokusatsu and manga genres we now take for granted: Ninjas, Jidaigeki, supernatural and sci-fi, Magical girls and of course, humanoid robots that fight evil controlled by a human.
While Go Nagai is credited as the father of the Super Robot Genre which expanded this to involve them being piloted from the inside by humans, Mitsuteru Yokoyama is the one of the origin points of our modern association of the island nation and robots with the other being the legendary Osamu Tezuka and his creation; Astro Boy.
In an interview with a Japanese magazine, the manga artist said the inspiration of his most beloved creation was one from the terror of war as a child. He said:
“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.“
Adding to this was his fascination of experimental vehicle superweapons the Nazis tested. Despite most of them being impractical or outlandish, their size and seemingly threatening appearance made the creative spark in his mind along with that childhood traumatic horror. A final inspiration was reading Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, with Yokoyama feeling sympathetic to the Monster as he was not good or evil, just misunderstood and driven to evil by the cruelty of the world. This lead to the idea for a robot who was a superweapon made by the Japanese Imperial Military meant to destroy the Allies, but became a force for good for all mankind in the hands of the succeeding generation.
BIRU no machi ni GAOO ( Yoru no HAIUEE ni GAOO DADADADA DAAN to tama ga kuru BABABABA BAAN to haretsu suru BYUUN to tondeku Tetsujin Nijuuhachi-gou!
Original Story: In the 1950s, Dr. Kaneda revealed to his son Shotaro that he had worked on an top-secret experiment during the last phases of the war that would have turned the tide in Japan’s favor had the atomic bombs not dropped and Japan surrendered. A series of powerful giant robots that would have crushed the Allied forces.
Deciding that a device that was intended for war would be able to be used for peaceful purposes, Dr. Kaneda entrusted the 28th model and its remote to his son. Shotaro used it to stop crimes, disasters, kaiju and other robots that had been stolen, created for evil or fallen into the wrong hands. Shotaro is a famous genius private detective and despite this breaking all known reason, he can legally drive his 1953 Austin-Healey (or a Volante depending on the incarnation) around Tokyo desite being 10 years old. Shotaro also has to keep the remote on hand or others could use the powerful Tetsujin-28 for evil.
This story has been adapted several times. Aside from the manga, there was a 1960 tokusatsu TV show. The series is an interesting time capsule… if a bit primitive. See, while things like Godzilla could pull off the scale of giant things on the big silver screen, Japanese TV hadn’t perfected that trick just yet. It would take until Ultra Q and Ultraman to get it just right and the live action adaptation of Giant Robo (another Yokoyama creation) to give TV one of its first baby footsteps into live action giant robots. Thus this incarnation of Tetsujin-28 is giant…by only a foot or two. In other words, he was human sized, which I’m sure disappointed some fans. Then there was the 1960s anime which was brought over to the US as Gigantor and rebroadcast years later on Cartoon Network. (Oldtaku love this show and have fond memories of it. Remember, without this series as one of the gateways, we wouldn’t have anime here!)
Its next retellings was in 2004 with a reboot anime that followed its own story and a 2005 live action movie that transplanted the events into the 2000s.
An animated reboot film by Imagi Studios was planned, but ultimately terminated as the studio went bankrupt. Interestingly, the trailer showed it borrowed an element from Giant Robo by having Shotaro control Tetsujin-28 with a voice control radio wristwatch.
The 1980 Reboot:
The Reboot moved the story into the 1980s and several things changed. First was Dr. Kaneda built Tetsujin-28 to fight aliens (WWII was a sensitive subject to some TV viewers) who wanted to destroy Earth and conquer the universe. Another change was Shotaro was an junior agent of Interpol. But the most radical change was the star of the show, slimmed down to a sleeker design and stronger than ever. Theme song is pretty good too, because its pure 80s rock/pop.
The Sunrise made sequel series- Tetsujin 28 FX:
It is the year 2002 and robotics technology has advanced rapidly since the time of Tetsujin-28 back in the ‘50s. Shotaro Kaneda is now a middle aged man who still uses his robot every now and then and mentors young kids to succeed him in his detective agency business and his wife is part of a tech company. Sakaki Electronics wants the children of the world to live by Shotaro’s example and protect the future with new robots. Unfortunately, said robot tech attracts the attention of evil aliens called the Neo Black Group who wish to use them for war. While old Tetsujin puts up a good fight, the tech he runs on is too old to be a match for the evil space menace on his own. Fortunately, a new and improved Tetsujin called the Iron Man Future X Project or Tetsujin-28 FX has been built and is controlled by Shotaro’s son Masato via a remote gun. Together along with thier friends and family, they fight the Neo Black Group to save the Earth!
The original Tetsujin still puts up a good scrap and helps his successor when the situation calls for it, nice of Sunrise to not render the classic character useless.
(Like father like son!)
The series was planned by Yokoyama himself and is sort of a sequel to the 1960s anime. Since it was made by Sunrise, there is a G Gundam vibe as some of the mechs are very stereotypical, like Iron Eagle, the official robot of the United States of America controlled by Michael Justice! (No, I swear I am not making that name up.)
Look at him, red white and blue with gunmetal gray, covered in bullet bandoliers, has a fighter pilot helmet head and wields a shotgun weapon. All that is missing is a cheeseburger and a cowboy hat!
There was another Tetsujin series recently..Tetsujin-28 go Gao!
Powers: Tetsujin-28 is made of a super steel alloy that makes him difficult, and in some cases near impossible, to damage. It has super strength from complex hydraulics that allows it to lift buildings or smash a robot with his bare hands! Tetsujin-28 can also fly using the rocket boosters on his back to carry Shotaro to wherever he needs to go at super speed.
As to be expected from the granddaddy of Japanese Robots, he is awesome based on the fact he doesn’t need any fancy weapons. Simple brute force gets the job done!
Weaknesses: Tetsujin can be controlled by someone else if the remote is stolen or its remote frequency is jammed and manipulated. It also didn’t work well in the old days when a thunderstorm was going on as the lightning interfered with the signal and made it liable to get zapped. Since its body is made of super steel, intense heat can melt its armor. Lastly, Shotaro is both vulnerable to attack and needs to stay close to Tetsujin-28 in order for it to keep moving.
Tetsujin-28 is a classic character that has transcended its WWII origins and endured for over 60 years. Its influence is everywhere, from Akira to Pacific Rim. Here’s hoping we see more of the lovable potbellied robot in the future!
*flexes arms like Tetsujin-28*
FYI: Tetsujin 28 FX is made by TMS, the same studio that made 80s Series
The traditional short-day flowering
Euphorbia pulcherrima (poinsettia, Christmas star, Christmas flower, painted leaf, lobster plant, Mexican flame leaf) is a small tree or shrub from Mexico and Guatemala. It is cultivated for its striking bracts which are most often red but as shown here a number of cultivars have been developed showing a variety of colours. These bracts surround much smaller flowers. This cheerful display was at my local garden centre.
Does anybody have scans from the 80s Tetsujin 28 booklet (from the Blu-ray version of it)? If so, please sent me the link (if its a zip file, please don’t use the Megaupload one).
Warner Japan Sets ‘Tetsujin 28-gou’ Anime Blu-ray Box Sets
Warner Bros. Japan is digging a bit further into their vault for some very sought after releases that will arrive later this year with the Tetsujin 28-gou series that originally aired in 1980. The series is getting two Blu-ray box sets that will be priced at 40,000 yen each with a split of 26/25 …
