Tetsujin 28-gou

Dr.Haneda was developing experimental giant robot warriors to fight the allies during the Second World War, but before his creations could see action, Allied bombs destroyed the facility and killed him. A decade later criminals discovered two of the surviving prototypes, #26 and 27 in the series, and used the remote controlled robots to commit a number of crimes. Young Shotaro Haneda, the twelve year old son of Dr.Haneda, did some investigating and discovered that the mob were hunting for the twenty-eighth robot in the series, rumoured to be the most powerful of them all. Racing the villains, Shotaro discovers the robot first, along with Dr.Shikashima, a colleague of his father's who was also believed killed by the Allied bombing. Together the two prevent Tetusjin-28 (the robot's official designation) from falling into the hands of the bad guys, and decide to dedicate him to peace rather than war.

Shotaro fought crime for a long time, supported by Dr.Shikashima, who would repair Tetsujin-28 when he was damaged, and by police officer Otsuka. Shotaro even battled the alien Magmans, invaders from the planet Magma, who came to Earth late in his career, bringing their own giant robots, Magma X and Gold Wolf, with them.

(Source: AniDB)

Kaneda, Shoutarou Main

Takahashi, Kazue Japanese

Murasame, Kenji Supporting

Andou, Toshio Japanese

Von Folger, Franken Supporting

Ootsuka, Chief Supporting

Tomita, Kousei Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Fujimoto, Yuzuru Japanese

Murasame, Ryuusaku Supporting

Shikishima, Professor Supporting

Yada, Minoru Japanese

Okawa, Toshimichi Script

Duke Aces Theme Song Performance

Yokoyama, Mitsuteru Original Creator

Furukawa, Taku In-Between Animation

Reviews

Dec 6, 2019

LacrimaMosa666

Recommended

Tetsujin 28-gou is an production that concluded my journey with 1963 animes. And hell naaaah, I didn't expect dat. It was definitely one of the best animes I've seen in my life. What a great, great work. I'm stunned and truly sad this anime has come to an end. And wondering why I skipped it for so many years. Journey through 1963 was fair, without suprises - well until I finally got to see infamous Gigantor. And as it's quite common - the series is another 'first ever' this time it's first ever super robot anime ever (Laputa or Gurren Lagan are other famous animes ... in the genre). And definitely the best one.

STORY: 10
There's no joke, you'll find further some more heavy praising. One of the best sories I've encoutered in a while. 96 episodes writted over quite amount of time, great arcs; first one will be from now on among the best stories I've ever seen, so strong storytelling, not to mention the final one, I never felt so sad with anime ending that wasn't sad by itself. More or less it's a story of Shotaro Haneda, 12 years boy that fighting crime (and sometimes true evil) along his friend (created by his deceased during WWII father), robot named Iron Man 28. Over the story he's joined by his gather friend Dr.Shikashima and local policeman Otsuka. Story takes a few good years as we see Shotaro growing up a bit as well as became finally Interpol agent that will be continued in (pretty crappy unfortunately) in Tetsujin 28-gou from 1980 and then (in great, much darker) Chou Dendou Robo Tetsujin 28-gou FX from 1992. 2004 remake is worth watching tho.
But the story quality over whole length of the show is only great, bit childish and archaic, yeah, but among the greatest of all time. Each arc is greatly introduced and explained for which as well the plots and storytelling is fairly great. Enjoyed it much, much more than ever expected.

ART: 5
Well, it's 1963 production, so it barely surviving the time flow unfortunately, but nothing out of order there, some animes are being watched for the story quality not the art, that comes especially for the older titles. So here we have some decent classic art, good development, nice backgrounds and truly amazing setting. It aged badly tho, not very, very badly but it can be unbearable for many viewers tho.

SOUND: 5
Mediocre as it is, the usual soundmixing and recording quality sucks but this time we have some nice OST, veery catchy, however, archaic in every way u can think of. Great opening song, especially remastered version and good voice sync (what is actually not that common), I liked as well the first ending and the main theme. Main theme is actually well know even if u didn't see the anime itself. That will be about it. Nice, old-sytyle music with some decent tunes that is quite weakened by it's age and quality of the recording. Still decent.

CHARACTER: 10
Starting from our mc, Shotaro Haneda - he's one of the best written characters I've seen as well. His backstory, life, choices are greatly explained and psychological characterology os over the average a good couple of times. Aur electric Iron Robot is... lovely, no jokes here. On the beginning when Haneda finds him he's very funny to become by the end the strongest example of great character development I've ever privilege to see. Dr.Shikashima's backstory is the most tragic, however, as for anime for kids it's fairly reduced, however, adults will see much more, starting from the WWWII shadow behind doctors back all the time. The last one to mention is officer Otsuka, last member of Haneda's squad. Typical sidekick that brings a lot of humour and good gags along with nice backstory and some decent role.
Whole character development is on great level, not to mention that even after all this years it seems to be fairly done, reliable and most important - greatly written. Same goes to HUGE gallery of villains and other characters like other police officers, crime lords and mob bosses, thieves and even evil aliens.

ENJOYMENT: 10
After seeing Sennin Buraku I didn't expect anything to give me more enjoyment from 1963 animes. I was wrong. And wrong in every possible way I can actually think of. Not only great humour but as well amazing dramatisation, plot and overall great pace just giving me chills even after finishing it. Truly one of the best animes I've seen in my life.
Over 2/3 days I spent watching this gem I never had a single though about dropping it, going for a tea or anytning, after one episode finished I was so curious how it'll go further that I ended up watching 33 eps on the first day and 53 the next one with only 10 left for this morning. Truly amazing anime. with godly levels of enjoyment.

OVERALL: 10
Yeah, I know giving 10/10 to nearly 60 years old anime can be bit... too much, but not for me. I'm not only watching on it as on average mecha anime but as well consodering how it was received in 1963 as well. Not to mention it's story is still great until today and the only thing that aged here is the art ann sound. Still hell out of a great story that keeps u at the enge of ur chair for the most of the time, godly opening arc, no modern anime comes even near this opening, very strong plots quality and amazing final arc that left me completely speechless. Speechless because 96 episodes gone so fast and that's it. Like - what the hell, is that it?
Yeh, I saw the 1980 version a while ago, been thinkings it's a remake of this one, I was bloody wrong, it's some kind of a sequel (1992 version is great tho), quite poor back then but now I can actually understand half of references I didnt understand when I was watching 1980 version. 2004 remake is nearly as great as this one. But nowhere on this level after all.

This title concludes the journey as it is. 1963 was good, Sennin Buraku was great piece of comedy and quite mature ecchi (the first one of all time), Tetsuwan Atom and Ookami Shounen Ken were decent, bit mediocre but still good animes while Eightman and Bouken Shounen Shadar were TRULY TERRIBLE.
It's nice to finish 1963 journey with one of the best animes of all time in my opinion. Great piece of hostory and even greater piece of fun.
I will proceed now to 1964, see u around. ;)

Thanx for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 5, 2021

AlanDSouza1

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (1/96 eps)

I just checked this out for the purposes of satisfying my curiosity. As the first anime revolving around a robot and I suppose being the progenitor of the mecha genre, its an interesting artifact to take a glance at. The episodic nature of the show isn't particularly suited to my taste, but it is certainly an interesting glimpse back in time to what people perceived the major scientific problems of the day were - radiation (cold war), polar exploration (another competition centered around a clash of political ideologies) and a forward looking scientific idealism and obsession of robotics that continues to this day in Japan. ...

Scoring this after a single episode doesn't make much sense, but it wouldn't allow me to post the review otherwise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 29, 2024

joemaamah

Not Recommended

The third of the Big 3 Japanese animations that aired on American TV back in the 60's and 70's. I've seen however many were released here in the States, but I doubt there were 96 back then. I'm guessing it was likely 24 or 48, but whatever it was, I saw all of them multiple times as a kid.

It was not as popular as Kimba or Astroboy. But local TV stations could get the rights really cheap, so someone was usually airing it. The artwork made Rocky and Bullwinkle look like daVinci. The animation quality was the worst of the three, which is saying ... something. There was no plot and the episodes all seemed to be slapped together on the fly. What will today's world saving adventure be? And the English dub was beyond brutal. Sounded like they had picked some drunks up off skid row to do the VA work.

It was a gigantic PoS even back then, even worse than Astroboy. No way I could recommend this to a modern audience. But it might be of some interest to those wanting to study the history and evolution of anime as an artform. Every single Mecha trope and cliche started right here, and has been rolling downhill ever since.

If I had to grade this today, it would get about 20/100. A total failing F. It's so bad on so many levels. But that is usually the case with any prototype. Only valid today as a curiosity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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