Mania Grade: B
Disc Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: Not Rated
Voices: Billie Lou Watt, Gilbert Mack, Ray Owens, Peter Fernandez
Writer: Fred Ladd (English version)
Director: Fred Ladd (English version)
Distributor: Rhino Home Video
Original Year of Release: 1965
Retail Price: $59.95 each
Extras: four-disc box sets; commentary tracks; interviews; galleries

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GIGANTOR

Manga artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama, inspired by the work of Osamu Tezuka (ASTRO BOY), created a best-selling series about a giant robot and the young boy that controlled it. Tezuka and others had used big robots in their stories before, but TETSUJIN ("Iron Man") 28 was the first time a huge mechanical man was portrayed as a continuing protagonist, doubling the appeal by linking the robot to a dynamic boy hero. In 1963, new animation studio TCJ turned the comics into a television series, dramatically expanding its success. With ASTRO BOY already a hit on US television, producer Fred Ladd was on the lookout for more Japanese cartoon series to adapt for American audiences. Renaming the hero GIGANTOR, Ladd's dubbed and rescored version of the show debuted in US syndication in 1965.

GIGANTOR's greatest success is with its target audience of small children, fulfilling the fantasy of commanding a powerful genii friend to fight evil. Besides working the controls of the world's most powerful robot, 12-year old Jimmy Sparks also got to play in an adult world, hanging out with a police inspector, having adventures with secret agent Dick Strong, and living with an adoptive parent that was a great scientist. Jimmy can drive a car, carry a gun, and is never treated as "just a kid". Despite this, he sometimes uses his robot like a big toy, ascribing emotions and thoughts to the robot to explain his actions. And while TV heroes like Superman used their power of flight for transportation and spent most fight scenes standing around bending gun barrels, the missile-shaped Gigantor could often be seen in aerial combat, his rocket jets sending him smashing through buildings, planes and enemy robots in a very satisfying way.

Seen today, these old black & white shows are terribly out of date, with awkward animation and simple-minded stories. The robot hero is kind of pudgy-looking, and the remote control box wielded by his little pal Jimmy Sparks is bulky and clumsy. However, the artwork also has a retro-tech look that is endearing, and though Gigantor himself has no artificial intelligence, the artists gave him a certain kind of personality. He's even a little scary at times. Also, despite the goofy characters and situations, the early 21^st century stories contain some remarkably prescient details, such as the little portable radiophone Jimmy carries, and the frequent appearance of terrorists from the Middle East. 

Rhino's two box [IMG2R]sets hold all 52 of the GIGANTOR episodes in their original air date order, with 26 episodes on each 4-disc set. For my money, the episodes in set 2 are more enjoyable, with more of an emphasis on robot vs. robot action. Those looking for an origin episode will be disappointed at least a third of the episodes, including the first 26, were never translated for broadcast in English, as TCJ considered them of too poor quality to be distributed outside Japan. All are transferred from the original 16mm elements, and though an occasional splotch shows up, look surprisingly clean better than they've likely ever looked on the air. The DVD menus do a good job of mimicking the style and spirit of the episodes. Even better is Rhino's packaging of the series the four discs in each set are held in a folding album illustrated with black & silver artwork, with liner notes in a small booklet slipped into a special pocket. The whole thing is held in a plastic slipcase with transparent cut-out sections revealing some of the inner artwork they're just beautiful packages, and though one wishes that Rhino had had access to some original Japanese material to include in the sets, they still contain some nice extras.

On the first set, Fred Ladd contributes a commentary track to the story arc of three episodes in which Gigantor battles Prof. Katsmeow at the South Pole. He explains his method of choosing new names for the characters, talks about the music and voice actors, and how some footage was altered by TCJ to meet certain specifications for US broadcast. Though Ladd explains that most of the new music cues were calculated to be distinctive by repeating certain notes, his decision backfires when episodes are viewed en masse, as the music quickly becomes one of the series' more monotonous features. Ladd returns to provide commentary on another trio of episodes on set 2, a storyline in which Gigantor's designs are replicated by villains. Ladd repeats a lot of the info he provided for set 1, and often falls back on minimal play-by-play, but also delves into certain elements of the series' history he hadn't covered before.

The final disc carries a small photo gallery, with a shot of the voice cast and a syndication print ad for the series. It also offers a fine article written by anime/manga historian Fred Patten that explains the series' origins (Gigantor was originally created to fight against the Allies in World War II!), production history (like Astro Boy, Gigantor had a primitive live-action interpretation before being animated), and the reason why GIGANTOR has been so scarce in the decades since. Fortunately for fans old and new, now you can hold the power of the entire GIGANTOR series in your hand.