Eight Man

Eight Man ( Japanese エイトマン , Eitoman , also 8 マン , 8 Man ) is a manga series by Kazumasa Hirai and Jiro Kuwata , which was published in Japan from 1963 to 1966. The series was implemented as one of the first anime television series in the year it was first published and was implemented many years later in the form of two real-life films. The American version of the anime also became known as Tobor the Eighth Man . In the 1990s, the manga and the anime series was continued by 8-man After . The work can be classified into the genres of shons , science fiction and action.

content

The policeman Hachiro Azuma dies while working against a gang of gangsters, but Professor Tani is able to save his memories. With them he creates a cyborg , the eighth prototype of a series of military tests for the land of Amarco. With this body, Eight Man now fights organized crime, criminal cyborgs and mutants. Eight Man replenishes his spent energy by smoking radioactive cigarettes.

publication

The series appeared from May 1963 to 1966 in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from Kodansha . The chapters have also been published in ten edited volumes. The manga was not translated into other languages, but several new editions followed in Japan at Akita Shoten , Daitosha , Fusosha and Manga Shop.

Anime adaptation

production

Directed by Haruyuki Kawajima , an anime television series based on the manga was created in the Eiken and TCJ Animation studios in the year the manga was first published . The scripts were written by Kazumasa Hirai , Ryo Hanmura , Tsunehisa Tomita , Tetsuyoshi Onuki and Masaki Tsuji , with Hirai and Hanmura bringing their experience as science fiction novelists to the table. Jiro Kuwata was responsible for the character design and Tetsuaki Akibara composed the music for the series . The artistic direction lay with Minori Izumitani , Tadashi Igarashi and Toshiyuki Ozeki . The responsible producer was Toshimichi Miwa . Like all anime series of its time and most of all, Eight Man in Limited Animation was produced.

Release history

The 56 half-hour episodes of the series aired on November 7, 1963 by TBS in Japan. The first broadcast ended on December 31, 1964. In 1965 the series was distributed by ABC Films to regional broadcasters in the USA. The localized version Tobor the Eighth Man was heavily edited for this purpose by Gene Prinz , Frank Schuller, and Reuben Guberman . So all names were replaced by American ones and the consequences were edited. So Eight Man was now taking pills instead of smoking cigarettes. Only 52 of the 56 episodes were shown in the US. Winston Sharples wrote a new text for the opening credits. The premiere was on September 7, 1965 at the WPIX station in New York. The series was also shown on Moroccan and Portuguese television.

synchronization

role	Japanese speaker ( seiyū )
8 Man / Hachiro Azuma	Sakae Takayama
Ichiro Hikaki	Kazue Tagami
Sachiko	Miyuki Ueda
Senyūemon Tanaka	Shirō Amakusa

Actual films

The first real film adaptation of the material was shown on August 31, 1987 8 Man Has Returned by Fuji TV . Akinori Kikuchi directed the production and Masakazu Shirai wrote the screenplay . In 1992 the film Eitoman - Subete no Sabishī Yoru no Tame ni , directed by Yasuhiro Horiuchi , followed . the script was written by Mitsuyuki Miyazaki and Junko Suzuki .

Other adaptations and sequels

Further adaptations of the manga came out in the 1990s. First, in 1991, SNK released a video game for the Neo-Geo machine and the Home Video Game System.

In 1993 the original video animation 8-man After came out. The four-part anime was created by JCStaff and was supplemented by a manga series of the same name by Masahiro Suematsu the following year . Like the original series, this was published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine . In Magazine Z another manga, written by published 2005-2006 Kyoichi Nanatsuki and drawn by Takayuki Takashi , under the title 8 Man Infinity .

meaning

The manga influenced subsequent science fiction series by expanding on the Astro Boy established theme of a friendly robot helping people. The anime was a precursor to works like Cyborg 009 and Robocop and directly influenced the 1970s series The Six Million Dollar Man . The Anime Encyclopedia regrets that some of the charms and allusions that the science fiction writers have brought into the plot have been lost in the English version. Nevertheless, the series was shown on American television until the early 1970s. However, the anime was not perceived as a Japanese production in the US.

Eight Man is credited by Hikawa Ryūsuke for being one of the first television series to appeal to an older audience by paying attention to more complex character drawing and motivation.

Web links

Manga and Anime in Anime News Network (English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition. Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 1-933330-10-4 , p. 174.
↑ Animania 03/2005, p. 28f.
↑ Thomas Lamarre : The Anime Machine. A Media Theory of Animation . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-8166-5154-2 , pp. 187, 202 .
^ ^A ^b Trish Ledoux, Doug Ranney: The Complete Anime Guide . Tiger Mountain Press, Issaquah 1995, ISBN 0-9649542-3-0 , pp. 10 f .
↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004. p. 364.
↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004. p. 193.
↑ Hikawa Ryūsuke: Anime Tokushu Gihō no Hensen . S. 187. In: Misono Makoto (Ed.): Zusetsu Terebi Anime Zensho . Hara Shobō, 1999. Quoted from: Jonathan Clements : Anime - A History . Palgrave Macmillan 2013. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-84457-390-5 .

[encyclopedia-1] Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition. Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 1-933330-10-4 , p. 174.

[animania-2] Animania 03/2005, p. 28f.

[3] Thomas Lamarre : The Anime Machine. A Media Theory of Animation . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-8166-5154-2 , pp. 187, 202 .

[animeguide-4] A ^b Trish Ledoux, Doug Ranney: The Complete Anime Guide . Tiger Mountain Press, Issaquah 1995, ISBN 0-9649542-3-0 , pp. 10 f .

[5] Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004. p. 364.

[6] Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004. p. 193.

[7] Hikawa Ryūsuke: Anime Tokushu Gihō no Hensen . S. 187. In: Misono Makoto (Ed.): Zusetsu Terebi Anime Zensho . Hara Shobō, 1999. Quoted from: Jonathan Clements : Anime - A History . Palgrave Macmillan 2013. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-84457-390-5 .