Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier

I don’t understand why people focus on small things like it’s a show for adults or kids, there are some peeps who keep their kid side even though they’re older. This is a show that is for everyone as it conveys good messages to lil jimmy's and adults (It’s an universal underrated masterpiece ). This show have some crazy adult themes with no sexual content, so It's a safe show to watch with the family. What I like is that It's a show that is smartly done and both the younger and older peeps can enjoy it.

Back in the day saying you like anime is ... like a death sentence for your social personal life so I had some fun with that stuff for a while until it began slowly but surely to change later on thankfully. And cyborg 009 is a great example of a show that gives output on how great animation can convey special emotions to the audience. It isn't mainstream by any means but It stays as a true classic that delivers whenever you watch it.
I have many memories with Cyborg 009 as I watched some parts randomly on tv long ass time ago, while being a kid I felt different things at the moment like sorrow, fun, cool heroes, they work as a group complementing each other’s abilities, staying true to themselves, missing their countries, fighting back against evil entities and never giving up when the situation became dire.

This is a rare anime that you could watch with anyone be it young or old which is F*king amazing… They talk about disasters, poverty, war, homelessness, greed, culinary, love, family, unity and much more. It didn't matter to see blood. I didn’t even feel like it was needed to be shown as we have cyborgs here so you can understand when they’re in pain, the way they convey it through little details is easy to understand and follow. It's a smart choice made by animators.
This series is really old by today’s standards and I understand that, it may not appeal to you graphically. however For me
It's a timeless series that truly go beyond time which is unbelievably awesome.

The cyborg’s as you know have different backgrounds and different personalities so they clash more often with each other on the decision-making side of things, I find it interesting to see the human side of them which brings up the tension and mindless arguments that make them hate the opposite side without even listening and not to give a chance to understand which is relatable to me. Working with a group of people is always is a hassle and pain the ass.
They get emotional when they are forced to kill robots. They sympathies with them and they know that it's needed to be done for peace although it's painful, 009 and 003 for instance shows it a lot throughout the story.

The SAKUGA passages are top notch and you kind of see the love they pour into it, the care that was put through is an outstanding art by it's own. It has one of the best fight choreographies I’ve seen in anime. I wish to see that kind of dedication on the battle genre as it lacks this level of detail.
The music is powerful! and what I mean by that is It's used carefully. While listening I tend to sing along with it and get hyped up a lot, what I liked also is they use some moments with nothing but silence which elevates the dark moments even more. But yeah, the sound of this show is pretty good. VA’s performance is fine, it didn’t ruin the experience although the source image quality needs to be remastered as it isn't good enough for today's standards. I still listen to the anime's battle Ost’s, the openings and endings are hype action scenes have the best ambiances but also the emotional moments.

The main group of characters have a lot of depth to them apart from 2, 006 and 007, although 007 have a solid background story I still find his role is limited in the show to being a comedy relief character and they get forgotten rather quickly where we focus more on cyborg 009.
The characters design is a matter of opinion so I don't really cherry pick on this too much, I find it good enough, It does the magic beautifully.
The different cultures displayed throughout the anime is really outstanding as you get to see different cities around the world which had reminded me of Lupin III franchise, every episode after the death of Skull are small arcs, I find it hella interesting to see every character’s connection to the world through those events. After the incidents with black ghost, they kept visiting countries all over the earth scared that he may be revived, searching for clues and solving issues like war and helping as much as they can.
Black ghost representing humanities dark history really well as even currently you can imagine a lot of black ghost's through human’s real history. As he keeps popping up in different shapes and forms Because people are evil by nature.

The misuse of robots is a topic I really love about this show because it may happen in the near future (in real life) that’s why I always feel that this is a timeless masterpiece on steroids, I may have exaggerated a lil but personally as a kid back then and as an adult now I could see different meanings conveyed. In my childhood it seemed like something like super heroes saving the day, but now I see it as a way to represent our world in the future like Climate change maybe or lack of application of human rights in some places.

I personally love how they made this show so much relatable in some degree like for an example when they got to Africa and there were people fighting for their life to free their country, or when they've gone to another world with alien children and try to teach them to man up and defend themselves.

If you pick this show, watch it in Japanese. Back in the day the translation wasn’t connected to the real script so they tend to change everything to the worst. I hated how they’ve done that and thanks to them this show is viewed as trash because of that shitty translation to censor everything.
This masterpiece will always get negatives about its ways of representing things or because it isn’t violent enough or it shouldn’t be recommended to anyone… On the contrary! This show actually is so much enjoyable minding the time it came out of course. But at the end of the day, I find it great to share the experience I love about anime using this series and other classics to show people that anime is also a great way of using art medium to express yourself. It’s entertaining regardless of age.
‘It’ll always have a special place in my heart.’

Cyborg 009 has, in my opinion, one of the greatest endings out of any anime. It also has some of the best stand-alone episodes such as "Frozen time" but this is also mixed with filler. The music and art designs are some of my favourites, especially when the cartoony art contrasts with the dark themes. Each character has a unique backstory and are based from around the world. Some characters are serious while others are usually comedy relief (they can be serious and reliable when called upon) so there is a good variety. This anime has it all: heroism, rebellion, mystery, a great story and ... fight scenes.

Story 6/10

To tell a great superhero story, a great hero needs a great villain to fight, but that's where this show's problem lies.

Black Ghost is a great villain; he's ruthless and doesn't even care if his own henchmen get killed. He's also smart and devious which are all great qualities in a villain, but the problem is, despite being the main antagonist, Black Ghost only appears in a handful of episodes leaving all the other episodes just feeling like filler.

The cyborgs do fight other villains besides Black Ghost with some cool fight scenes, but the other villains are all just forgettable with nothing ... that interesting about them.

Characters 6/10

While all the cyborgs do have some cool powers (009 having super speed, 006 breathing fire, and 007 being a shape shifter) that doesn't make them great characters.

It's not that I don't like any of the MC's, but they just all feel like tokens with 009 being the token leader and 003 being the token girl and 007 being the token comic relief character.

It doesn't help that the characters don't have the best chemistry either or demonstrate the best teamwork. Good team members should compliment each other and work together, but whenever there's a fight it's like everyone splits up and does their own thing.

Art 5/10

The fight scenes are well animated and I do like this 1960's SciFi aesthetic they use for things like the ray guns and giant robots. However, the character designs are another story.

There are some characters that look fine like 009 and 003, but then there are other characters like Dr. Gilmore and 007 that just look plain ugly. Gilmore's nose is the size of a watermelon and 007's eyes are way too close together.

I understand that this what the characters looked like in the 1968 version, but, in my opinion, they just look ugly.

006 is even worse, however. I understand that 006 is Chinese and anime artist like to draw Chinese people with weird looking eyes like Brock from Pokemon, but seriously, what are those things? Those aren't eyeballs! They look more like little mouths!

I know it may seem like I'm making a big deal about it, but it's an understood rule of character design that it is extremely important that you get the eyes right because, as they say, the eyes are the windows to the soul.

Sound 5/10

I don't want to use the word robotic to describe the voice acting, but I does sound like the actors aren't putting much emotion behind their words which really hurts the characters.

Also, I can't really explain it, but I feel like there's too much silence in each episode. What I mean is there's too many moments where there are no characters talking and no background music playing or a character is talking, but with no background music. I know that may seem like a nitpick, but I do think it hurt the quality of the show.

Overall 6/10

I'm glad I watched Cyborg 009, if only because it's such a classic anime in the same way Astro Boy is, but I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone. If you want to watch some good superhero anime, One Punch Man and My Hero Academia would probably be a better choice.