8 Man or Eightman 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, predating even Kamen Rider (the same year, Shotaro Ishinomori created Cyborg 009), and was supposedly the inspiration for RoboCop.
The manga was published in Weekly Shonen Magazine and ran from 1963 to 1966. The anime series, produced by Eiken with the TCJ Animation Center, 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").
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.
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
Sachiko - Jenny
Ichiro - Skip
Theme song:
"There's a prehistoric monster who came from outer space. Created by the Martians to destroy the human race. The FBI is helpless, it's twenty stories tall! What can we do, who can we call?
Call Tobor the 8th Man, Call Tobor the 8th Man. Faster than a rocket, quicker than a jet. He's the mighty robot, he's the one to get. Call Tobor the 8th Man. Quick call Tobor, the mightiest robot in the land!"
Ralph Bakshi did the US Version's opening sequence.
The 8 Man franchise was revived in the early 1990s by a live action film, video game and new animated series.
In 1991, small Japanese video game developer Pallas released a video game edition of Eight Man for the Neo-Geo arcade and home video game system (both versions are identical) where the player took the role of 8 Man and his robo-comrade 9 Man in a fight against an invading evil robot army. The game was released internationally. While the game stayed true to the concept of a crime-fighting super-robot, it was widely panned for being tedious and relying too much on the gimmick of its speed-running effect
In 1992, a live-action film version of 8 Man was produced in Japan. Titled Eitoman - Subete no sabishii yoru no tame, it was directed by Yasuhiro Horiuchi and starred Kai Shishido as the title character. Distributed in the United States by Fox Lorber video, the movie was widely panned for its choppy editing, mediocre direction and low-budget feel. Many modern American viewers, unfamiliar with the older animated series, felt the movie was an inferior version of RoboCop, despite the fact that the latter was a much more recent franchise.
In mid 1993, 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 manga was published in Weekly Shonen Magazine and ran from 1963 to 1966. The anime series, produced by Eiken with the TCJ Animation Center, 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").
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.
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
Sachiko - Jenny
Ichiro - Skip
Theme song:
"There's a prehistoric monster who came from outer space. Created by the Martians to destroy the human race. The FBI is helpless, it's twenty stories tall! What can we do, who can we call?
Call Tobor the 8th Man, Call Tobor the 8th Man. Faster than a rocket, quicker than a jet. He's the mighty robot, he's the one to get. Call Tobor the 8th Man. Quick call Tobor, the mightiest robot in the land!"
Ralph Bakshi did the US Version's opening sequence.
The 8 Man franchise was revived in the early 1990s by a live action film, video game and new animated series.
In 1991, small Japanese video game developer Pallas released a video game edition of Eight Man for the Neo-Geo arcade and home video game system (both versions are identical) where the player took the role of 8 Man and his robo-comrade 9 Man in a fight against an invading evil robot army. The game was released internationally. While the game stayed true to the concept of a crime-fighting super-robot, it was widely panned for being tedious and relying too much on the gimmick of its speed-running effect
In 1992, a live-action film version of 8 Man was produced in Japan. Titled Eitoman - Subete no sabishii yoru no tame, it was directed by Yasuhiro Horiuchi and starred Kai Shishido as the title character. Distributed in the United States by Fox Lorber video, the movie was widely panned for its choppy editing, mediocre direction and low-budget feel. Many modern American viewers, unfamiliar with the older animated series, felt the movie was an inferior version of RoboCop, despite the fact that the latter was a much more recent franchise.
In mid 1993, 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.
