Episodes
Disc One: “Struggle At The South Pole”, “Battle At The Bottom Of The
World!”, “Sting Of The Spider!”, “Return Of The Spider!”,
“Spider’s Revenge!”, “The Secret Valley!”, “The Diamond
Smugglers!”
Episodes
Disc Two: “Dangerous Doctor Diamond!”, “Force Of Terror!”, “World In
Danger!”, “Badge Of Danger!”, “The Smoke Robots!”, “The Freezer
Ray!”, “The Magic Multiplier!”
Episodes
Disc Three: “The Submarine Base!”, “Treasure Mountain!”, “The Mystery
Missile!”, “The Giant Cobra!”, “The Great Hunt!”, “The Deadly
Web!”, “The Atomic Flame!”
Episodes Disc Four: “The Incredible Speed Machine!”, “The Monster Magnet!”, “Target: Jupiter!”, “Trap At 20 Fathoms!”, “Monster From The Deep!”
Writer:
Fred Ladd
Director:
Fred Ladd
Created
By: Mitsuteru Yokoyama
Feature
length: 650 minutes
Extras:
Interview With Director/Producer/Writer, Fred Ladd, Interview With Anime
Historian, Fred Patten From Anime World Magazine, Director’s Commentary For
The Spider Series (Episodes 3-5), Photo Gallery, Manga Max Magazine’s
“Renegade Master” – A Portrait Of Gigantor Creator, Mitsuteru Yokoyama
Languages:
English Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
N/A
Packaging:
Digipack Style Gate Fold Within A Slip Case
Chapter
Stops: 4 Per Episode/104 Total
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2002
Home
Video Distributor: Rhino Home Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Bigger
than big, taller than tall, quicker than quick, stronger than strong. Ready to
fight for right against wrong!” These lyrics sank into a generation of young
American anime viewers in the early 1960s. I was not even born yet when those
immortal worlds captured children’s imaginations eager to follow the
adventures of twelve-year-old Jimmy Sparks and his remote joystick controlled
robot Gigantor in far off future of the year 2000. With the assistance of Dick
Strong, Dr. Bob Brilliant, and Inspector Blooper, Jimmy and his huge robot
friend kept the world safe from such villains as “Cat’s Meow,”
“Spider,” “Doctor Diamond,” and other hostile aliens and enemy robots.
Created
by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the series came stateside through
Director/Producer/Writer Fred Ladd after the success of “Astroboy.” In fact
“Gigantor” blazed a new trail in the west for Japanese anime along with
other classics like “Kimba, The White Lion.” “Gigantor” spawned a
spin-off that aired on the Sci-fi Channel from 1993 through 1997 and a third
series with another giant robot that dwarfed “Gigantor,” but the third
series never found the great success of the first two series in America and
Japan. One could credit “Gigantor” with helping to fuel the fascination kids
have for robots that has carried on with non-related animated TV shows like
“The Transformers” and the Warner Brothers animated feature film, “The
Iron Giant.” “Gigantor” circa 1964 does look antiquated compared to the
1990s color anime version, but there is something about the round retro featured
robot that I think is just as charming as “Robby, The Robot” and personally
for what it is, I would never want to see “Gigantor” any other way now that
I have finally seen the first season of adventures on Rhino Home Video’s
“Gigantor: Part 1: Episodes 1-26 DVD Boxed Set.”
The
original “Gigantor” anime series ran for approximately 56 episodes and was
shot on black and white 16mm film. Time has not been kind to “Gigantor” in
terms of the various scratches and flecks that still exist even after the
digital mastering to DVD-Video and a few episodes look a little shaky too, but
despite these imperfections inherent to the source materials, a lot of love and
care has gone into the making of this DVD set and it helps transcend the package
as a whole beyond the limitations age and wear has bought to the original film
stocks. All 26 episodes from season 1 are presented in their original television
broadcast order and in their original (1.33:1) television broadcast aspect ratio
with a clear two-channel English Monaural Soundtrack. The picture quality has a
good grayscale to it and the soundtrack is surprisingly free from analogue
background noise. Unfortunately no
captions for the hearing impaired are encoded on to the four-disc set.
Director/Producer/Writer
Fred Ladd provides a commentary for the “Spider” storyline episodes on disc
one and proves something that never ceases to amaze me, which is animators
provide some of the best commentary tracks on DVD today. I am not sure why, but
from feature films to TV shows, I have noticed that many animators are very
gifted oral storytellers and passionate people, which comes across in this
commentary as well with references to how the “Gigantor” character is
humanized to a point that the viewer associates him with the forces of good
despite the fact that he is essentially a giant radio controlled machine with no
mind of it’s own. Through the way the characters speak about “Gigantor” to
his large human like eyes and pointy nose, the viewer is meant to understand and
empathize with “Gigantor” as a hero and not think about questions like,
“why would a robot need a nose?” Mr. Ladd also participated in a new
videotaped interview (34:12) that appears on disc four where he goes into great
detail about how the series was developed for American audiences, why the
original series has never been colorized, and the legacy “Gigantor” has left
behind in the over 30 years since he first appeared on American television. He
also discusses the cultural differences that sometimes make anime difficult to
bring to a wide general American audience as well as the impact “Gigantor”
had on the anime genre as a whole. Another interesting anecdote to note was that
only four voice actors were ever used for the entire original “Gigantor” TV
series and Mr. Ladd does give some explanation as to how four people were able
to carry out 56 episodes of characters using technical tricks as well as various
character voices.
Anime
Historian for “Animation World Magazine” Fred Patten gives a much more
academic dissertation on the impact shows like “Gigantor” have had in the
development of animation and even the backlash expressed by American Animation
Producers, who did not see eye to eye with “Gigantor” so to speak. This
videotaped interview has running length of 28 minutes and 45 seconds and is a
little dry at times, but is never the less an important supplement for the
series on DVD. The “Manga Max” magazine article “Renegade Master” –
portrait of “Gigantor” creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama has been republished for
this DVD set and can be read on screen on any DVD-Video player. A still gallery
and a 12-page season one episode guide with a short synopsis for every episode
in the set as well as scene selection information and the lyrics to the
“Gigantor” theme song is enclosed within the book like Digipack gatefold
that is put together in such a way that the set has a durable spine so one does
not have to worry about creases developing with usage and age on the packaging.
The set comes within a partially transparent light plastic like slipcase
that accentuates the artwork within as it enhances the outer packaging to create
an almost 3-D like effect.
The
menus are fully animated with animated transitions and sound effects as well as
full motion scene selections and all of the interactive menus are easy to
navigate. For adults who grew up with “Gigantor” as well as a new generation
of children and animation enthusiasts, Rhino Home Video’s “Gigantor: Part 1:
Episodes 1-26 DVD Boxed Set” is terrific and is available in stores on and
offline now.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.