Movies - 8 Man

	Movies - 8 Man

8 Man (8マン) or Eightman (エイトマン) is a fictional manga and anime superhero created in 1963 by writer Kazumasa Hirai and artist Jiro Kuwata. He is considered Japan's earliest cyborg superhero, before even Kamen Rider (the same year, Shotaro Ishinomori created Cyborg 009), and was supposedly the inspiration for RoboCop.

The manga was published in Shonen weekly magazine and ran from 1963 to 1966. The anime series, produced by Eiken/TCJ Animation, was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System, and ran from November 17 1963 to December 31 1964, with a total of 56 episodes (plus the "farewell" special episode, "Goodbye, Eightman").

8 Man After

In the mid 1990's, the mantle of 8 Man was taken up by Hazama Itsuru in the OVA series '8 Man After'. Existing in a world far more corrupt than his predecessor, the new 8 Man had no qualms about being extremely violent towards cybernetic criminals, who had murdered him previously.

The story

Murdered by criminals, Detective Yokoda's body is retrieved by Professor Tani and taken to his laboratory. There, Tani performs an experiment that has failed seven times in the past; Yokoda is the latest subject to have his life force transferred into an android body. For the first time, the experiment is successful. Yokoda is reborn as the armor-skinned android 8 Man, able to dash at impossible speeds, as well as shape-shift into other people. He shifts himself into Yokoda, this time christening himself as "Hachiro Azuma". He keeps this identity a secret, known only to Tani, and his police boss Chief Otsuka. Even his girlfriend Sachiko and friend Ichiro don't know he's an android. As 8-Man, Hachiro fights assorted crime (even bringing his murderers to justice) to uphold justice and save the innocent.

The US version

In 1965, 8 Man was brought to the U.S. as 8th Man.

The characters were renamed as follows:

Yokoda/Azuma/8 Man - Peter Brady/Tobor ("robot" spelled backwards)/8th Man
Tani - Professor Genius
Tanaka - Chief Thumblethumbs

Trivia

Ralph Bakshi
did the US Version's opening sequence.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for 8 Man ]

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