The New Adventures of Gigantor! Sure, this 1980 remake of
the popular 1963 boy-and-robot anime series (based on the Mitsuteru Yokoyama manga) didn’t make it to American TV until
thirteen years after its Japanese premiere, and even then it ran in a weird
time slot on a niche cable station best known for Twilight Zone marathons and
later, a series of deliberately inane made-for-TV monster epics. And yeah, most
anime fans ignored it; in 1993 they were binge-watching Ninja Scroll or Ranma ½
instead. Okay, so the company that released it has been bought and sold more
times than I can count and the licensing rights are probably entangled in an
unsolvable legal morass. But all these
caveats can’t erase 51 episodes of clean, colorful, very TMS ,
very 1980s giant robot remake that doesn’t rest on its legacy, but instead
takes off running and never stops.
Part of a wave of color reboots that included Astro Boy and
Cyborg 009, 1980’s Tetsujin 28 series is
distinguished from the ’63-66 Tetsujin right from the show’s full title, which
is Taiyo no Shisha Tetsujin nijuhachi-go, or "Solar Messenger Tetsujin-28". Originally the ’80 Tetsujin series was going to be a sequel,
starring ’63 hero Shotaro’s son and featuring the first Tetsujin along with the
updated model. This storyline was abandoned for the 1980 show, but would
resurface in 1992’s Tetsujin-28 FX. Perhaps picking up on this fork not taken, original
60s Gigantor producer Fred Ladd brought over the 1980 Tetsujin series and merging
the past with the (1980) present was exactly what he did. These New Adventures Of Gigantor explicitly
link the new with the old, starting with a colorized clip of the ’63 series and
including needle drops of the original 60s theme song mixing incongruously with
the surprisingly jazzy Japanese soundtrack.
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questing for cartoons |
Cable’s Sci-Fi Channel aired the show from Sept. ‘93 to June
1997 in a programming block known as "Cartoon Quest," remembered
today mostly for having embarrassingly cheesy bumper segments. Viewers who made
it past the bumpers were pleasantly entertained by the show's commitment to
world-threatening giant robot action, and frequent use of animators like
Yoshinori Kanada to liven things up in pursuit of said world-threatening giant
robot action. The show is just as emblematic of its time period as the original
black and white 60s series; while the 1963-66 show whizzed and bumped through
its sepia-toned adventures with a whimsical mania, the 1980 series is smooth,
colorful, well-designed, and filled with a sleek yet simple modernity that holds
up 35 years later.

1980’s Gigantor launches from an underground hangar hidden
beneath a tennis court, a sports-related note that brings to mind both Mazinger
Z’s swimming pool egress and TMS ’s
successful shojo sports series Aim For The Ace.
Jimmy’s natty blazer, tie, and short-shorts ensemble has been updated to
a more casual short-sleeve high-collared IP shirt over a T-shirt. Relax; he’s
still wearing shorts. And yes, Jimmy Sparks is still duly authorized to drive
and carry a firearm. Let’s face it, you’re trusting a 12 year old to control a
super robot capable of destroying cities; might as well let him drive.

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beautiful but deadly Marana |
Gigantor faces Viking robots, Sphinx robots, space alien
monsters, evil arms dealers, and monster Mediterranean octopi. There’s an episode involving the Guinness Book
Of World Records, and a three-part Horror Thriller series involving robot
ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Yes, there is a Kung-Fu Robo. The beautiful robot designer Marana visits
from a different TMS show, maybe Cobra or
Cat’s Eye, and makes two appearances to disturb Jimmy’s tween hormones AND
use her super robot for crime. An amusement park roller
coaster turns into a giant robot and kidnaps children. A robot King Kong wreaks
havoc. The Jolly Roger pits his flying pirate ship against Gigantor. Murkybottom returns with a third, a fourth, a
fifth, even a sixth super robot. The evil
Doctor Doom hijacks bullet trains and threatens to send them into high-speed
head-on collisions. Professor Graybeard,
whom viewers of “Giant Robo” may recognize as a certain Dr. Franken Von Vogler,
creates Gigantor’s rival, the almost sentient Jackal (in Japan , “Black Ox”). Against these menaces Gigantor triumphs, usually using the Hammer Punch or his signature finishing move, the Flying Kick.
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evil master of darkest space Modark |
Halfway through the run, the show takes a left turn into
outer space with the appearance of Modark, the alien overlord who is always
referred to as The Evil Master Of Darkest Space. When his UFOs invade Earth and capture Prof.
Murkybottom, an evil alliance is formed that will take our heroes into the
void, wrestling Gigantor out of its robot crime roots and placing it firmly
into Star Wars territory. Modark and Murkybottom together throw robots and
space monsters and a cameo by vintage Gigantor foe “Brainy The Robot With The
Dielectronic Brain” as Modarkian robot Antark against Sparks, Brilliant,
Interpolice, and the Earth Defense Forces. Transformed into a far-flung space
melodrama, the series pits Jimmy against Modark and forces Bonnie to cope with
strange new feelings for the space prince Coldark. This hesitant outer space
romance would blossom more fully in TMS ’s
next robot series, another Yokoyama adaptation about a young man’s super robot
legacy, titled God Mars.
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Bonnie's space boyfriend |

Who knows whether we’ll ever see this show in North American
media again? Will it surface on a streaming video site, as its Japanese
iteration currently is? Will some forward-thinking exec cut some red tape and
release it on DVD ? Perhaps Gigantor’s new
adventures remain buried beneath a tennis court, waiting only for someone to
take the remote controls in hand and command it to life.
Thanks to Fred Ladd and Daniel Vucci for their assistance.