Anime Review: Tetsujin 28, Complete Series

Here’s some good advice to grow on: “Never judge a book by it’s cover.” Too true and good advice to use in life. You can also apply said advice to anime by rewording it to say: “Never judge an anime by it’s character design.”

I was fully guilty of prejudging an anime and consigning it to my ever increasing “sucks” list of anime almost solely on the fact that I did NOT like the style it was drawn in. Shame on me! If I hadn’t felt guilted into watching Tetsujin 28 by Dave and to a lesser extent, Chikashi, I would have missed out on one of the best anime of the year.

Tetsujin 28 is actually a remake of one of many series of the same name (Tetsujin nijuhachi-go) that first aired in Japan in 1963. The original series was itself based off the manga written by Mitsuteru Yokoyama in 1958 and published in Shonen magazine. In 1964 Fred Ladd helped create the English version of Tetsujin 28 and dubbed it “Gigantor”. Subsequent sequels and variations followed Tetsujin 28’s 1963 release with Geneon’s 2005 re-imagining of the series being one of the latest.

Plot Summary

It’s 10 years after the Pacific War (aka World War II) and Japan is struggling to regain its sense of self and direction. Many hurts from the war are trying desperately to heal themselves. One of the war’s causalities is 10 year old Kaneda Shotaro, the orphaned son of the great military scientist Professor Kaneda.

Shotaro really can’t complain too much, however, beyond being orphaned by the war. He’s the prodigy of Chief of Police Otsuka and is the ward of Professor Kaneda’s assistant, Professor Shikishima. Shotaro lives in the mansion willed to him by his father, drives (yes, a 10 year old frick’n drives; it’s Japan) a convertible, and helps Chief Otsuka solve crimes. Wow, this kid’s got it good! Well at least he had it good until a rocket lands in the middle of Tokyo and unleashes a hold-over from the Pacific War and Shotaro’s father’s ultimate creation ; Tetsujin 28.

While Shotaro investigates a robbery by the Murasame brothers, he discovers the rocket (actually, it practically lands on him) which has his name written on its side. Stunned by this, he manages to retain his composure when the rocket cracks open to reveal the giant robot his father developed to help win the war. Tetsujin 28 at this point is running on automatic and unknowingly kills citizens and destroys a good portion of Tokyo before Shotaro takes Tetsujin’s remote control in hand and and commands him to stop.

So begins Shotaro’s journey as Tetsujin’s controller as one tragedy follows another after Tetsujin’s awakening. Many people desire Tetsujin’s power and will stop at nothing to obtain it, Shotaro, however, has bonded with the robot and is a master at controlling it. He uses Tetsujin’s might to stop those with evil intentions and to help rebuild Japan. Specters of the war, loathe to be forgotten, rise up to confront a weary and heart sore Shotaro who tirelessly wields his giant robot to protect Japan. The tragedies that confront Shotaro are centered around his father and Tetsujin’s creation. He wades through lies and intrigue in an effort to discover who he is, who his father was and what Tetsujin is/was to both.

Review

This series was one of deepest and most sincere series I’ve ever watched. It had such pure intent that it made the story shine. Too often series get sidetracked and lose focus. Tetsujin 28 never strayed from its story and never slowed down. While no high flung action series, Tetsujin28 maintained a sense of suspense and drama that more than made up for any lack of non-stop action .

The characters were well developed but I would have to say that the story is what drove this series. None of the characters annoyed me (which is rare) and they acted as more as the means to an end rather than the ends themselves.

The story itself was heavy with morals and life lessons but the underlying theme through it all was Japan’s strengths and weakness after the war. I didn’t feel preached at, however. I actually felt incredibly sad at some of the stories being told. Many ordinary people faced with extreme and debilitating decisions did what they thought best and suffered the consequences of their actions. These people weren’t necessarily bad or malicious, just horribly crushed in spirit by a tragic war and did what they did out of a twisted logic created by the circumstances.

It seemed the story was actually an analogy for the country itself and its evolution after the war. My thoughts are that pre-war Japan was represented in the story by Tetsujin 28. There were real stories and actual people from post war Japan featured in many of the episodes. This made Tetsujin 28 seem that much more an historic anime than a sci-fi one.

We watched this series with the Japanese voice actors since it seemed a better idea to do so with this type of anime. We still checked out the English dub, however. In a word; laughable. Stick to the Japanese for this series.

The score was very grandiose and Dave’s review for that can be found here. The opening song made me want to stand up, grab a Japanese flag and march in the streets for the glory of the Japanese Empire. It was a total propaganda song, but it was so perfect for the series that I wasn’t miffed, just amused.

As to the animation; that did miff me at first. It took me a long while to take the animation seriously since it was so retro in style. Retro to me equals lil’ toddler, but Tetsujin 28 proved itself to be on par with the best anime, story-wise. I’m not a fan of Cyborg 009’s or Astroboy’s animation so I had a pre-existing bias towards this style of animation. I got over that real quick-like and will never judge an anime by its style again. That said-many of the character designs made me laugh my ass off. We could always tell the professors by their crazy hair and impossible beards. The robots featured were impractically designed and not very well thought out but, I know that was in keeping with the retro feel of the anime.

What cinched Tetsujin 28 for me as being a truly awesome series, was the ending. Almost every single anime I’ve watched just loses its momentum at the end or it spins wildly out of control; completely disconnecting from the storyline. Even good anime is guilty of this at times, effectively taking away one half to one whole gummy from its rating. Tetsujin 28, on the other hand nailed the ending. There was no yelling at the screen, no pillows being thrown at the TV, and no plaintive looks at friends trying to eke out why a perfectly good anime ended so poorly. I actually smiled at the ending. Tetsujin’s finale took the storyline and smoothly wrapped all loose ends (there really weren’t any loose ends at this point any way) in a way that fit with the feel of the storyline.

I didn’t expect to like Tetsujin 28, and I sure as hell never expected to respect an anime. Yet, after watching this series I have nothing but admiration and respect for it and its creators.

out of a possible four gummies.

Thanks to Geneon for sending us the screener of the Tetsujin 28 anime series!