GIANT ROBO review and cast

''MASHII!"


Information on JAIANTTO ROBO

Episodes: 26

Mecha: GIANT ROBO

Enemy Force: Terror Empire BIG FIRE

CAST:

Kusama Daisaku / U7: KANEKO MITSUNOBU
Minami Juro / U3: ITO AKIO
Unicorn Chief Azuma: DATE SHOZABURO
Nishino Mitsuko: KATAYAMA YUMIKO
Hanamura Mari: KUWABARA TOMOMI
Taitei Guillotine: SATO HIROHIKO
Spider: TAMBA MATASABURO
Black Dia: MURATA HIDEO
Over-Hakasei: MITSUO ANDO
Red Cobra: MIEMACHI KOHJI

PLOT:

The terrorist group Big Fire has invaded Earth, the secret organization UNICORN has been formed to stop it. A young boy named Mitsunobu is taking a cruise on a ship alongside Unicorn Agent U3 Minami Juro, when the ship is captured by Big Fire.

Both of them are taken to an unnamed island controlled by Big Fire, who has also kidnapped a prominent scientist to create a giant, Egyptian-styled humanoid robot to conquer the Earth. The scientist develops a voice-activated control watch that can summon & guide the semi-sentient robot, but only the first voice it hears will be its master.

While attempting to escape, the three are nearly captured again by Big Fire, with the scientist being gunned down. As his final wish, the robot's control watch is given to Mitsunobu, who gives the robot its first command to help him and Juro escape. Now fully in control of Giant Robo, Mitsunobu is inducted into UNICORN as Agent U7, aided by Juro / U3 as his constant bodyguard, mentor, and confidant.

REVIEW:

After AMBASSADOR MAGMA and ULTRAMAN hit the waves, tokusatsu began to bloom. In 1967, Tsuburaya was working on ULTRASEVEN and MIGHTY JACK, but at the same time, Toei Animation wanted to cash in on the giant hero boom. Toei had already established a hand in toku with GEKKO KAMEN and AKAKAGE. They decided the manga GIANT ROBO by Mitsuteru Yokoyama would be perfect to adapt. Produced partially by Toru Hirayama, the tokusatsu brought a number of key performers into it, but is not very fondly remembered today.

Mitsuo Ando, who played Doctor Over, would later go on to be a major contributor to 1970s Toei villainy.

Hideo Murata/Black Dia would go on to find success in Toei's yakuza and samurai films.

Most of the other actors, however, would not appear again. The series contributed several new factors to the world of tokusatsu. It was the first tokusatsu to have an organized group as an opponent. Organized groups would become the primary enemy type until the late 90s. The series had the first giant robo in tokusatsu history. There were giant heroes in the past, but neither of them were purely robotic.

The series was moderately successful, and was later brought to the US as Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot. It was well loved by kids at the time and was surprisingly minimally cut, which was surprising considering the body count racked up by the two youngest protagonists. Later, it was turned into an anime OVA that had little to do with the tokusatsu, only retaining the primary hero and villain organization's names. Everything else was changed. However, the toku and anime both are well loved even today.