Cyborg 009 (1979 Anime) (2024)

Cyborg 009 (1979 Anime) (1)
Cyborg 009 (1979 Anime) (2)

The second television anime adaptation of Cyborg 009 aired from March 6, 1979 to March 25, 1980, on TV Asahi. It was co-produced by Toei Company and Sunrise (then known as "Nippon Sunrise"), and was directed by Ryosuke Takahashi. It ran for 50 episodes. It also was the first Cyborg 009 series to air in the United States.

Contents

  • 1 Overview
  • 2 Characters
    • 2.1 The 00 Cyborgs
    • 2.2 Allies
    • 2.3 Enemies
    • 2.4 Norse Gods Cyborgs
    • 2.5 Neo Black Ghost
    • 2.6 Others
  • 3 Episode List
  • 4 Production Staff
    • 4.1 Voice Cast
  • 5 Theme Music
    • 5.1 Opening
    • 5.2 Ending
  • 6 Releases
  • 7 Tie-in Manga
  • 8 Notes
  • 9 External Links
  • 10 References

Overview[]

Five years after the defeat of the Black Ghost organization and returning to their average lives, the 00 Cyborgs are called back into action to fight off cyborgs based off the Norse Gods, followed by a new enemy organization known as the Neo Black Ghost.

With this new adaptation, aspects from the 1960s animated works were discarded; 007 was no longer depicted as a 9-year old boy and was now at his proper adult age, while the character designs and color schemes were generally closer to Ishinomori's artwork.

Most of the series' plot is original, but the first nine episodes ("The Universe Tree Yggdrasil" arc) are loosely sourced from the "Edda" chapter of the manga that was published in Kodansha's Shojo Comic in 1976, along with carrying along the "Gods vs. Humanity" theme from the discarded "Battle with the Gods" arc. Ishinomori briefly oversaw these episodes, but the plot was wrapped up prematurely at episode 9 due to his busy schedule and creative differences with Ryosuke Takahashi. It was then decided to shift focus to the Neo Black Ghost organization. While there was also a Neo Black Ghost organization in the ongoing manga at the time, the anime had its own take on the concept, with different characters (Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu) that were newly-created by Takahashi.

The remainder of the series had complications in its production which lead to its cancellation at episode 50, and the pre-emptive wrap-up of the "Neo Black Ghost" arc, which had originally been scheduled to last until a 52nd episode. The reason for this cancellation had to do with Nippon Sunrise abruptly pulling out of the production, leaving the finale of the Neo Black Ghost arc to be compressed and rushed. This also affected the adaptation of the "Mythos" arc, which was being plotted out at the time and had been planned to follow the Neo Black Ghost arc as the true finale. At the time the cancellation order came, three episode scripts of the arc had been drafted out of the thirteen that were planned, and Ishinomori had also contributed redesigns of the Mythos Cyborgs.

Characters[]

The 00 Cyborgs[]

Cyborg 009 (1979 Anime) (3)
  • Cyborg 001
  • Cyborg 002
  • Cyborg 003
  • Cyborg 004
  • Cyborg 005
  • Cyborg 006
  • Cyborg 007
  • Cyborg 008
  • Cyborg 009

Allies[]

  • Dr. Isaac Gilmore
  • Ghandal
  • Dr. Cassel
  • Liz
  • Sahaal
  • Catherine
  • Paul
  • Jacob
  • Jiro

Enemies[]

Norse Gods Cyborgs[]

  • Odin
  • Thor
  • Freyja
  • Loki

Neo Black Ghost[]

  • Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu
  • Dr. Gamo Whisky
  • Kilados
  • Igor
  • Dr. Gordon
  • Rigella
  • Khan
  • Red Shadow
  • Dr. Cassel
  • Liz
  • Kiltor
  • Clark
  • President Gingal
  • Harris
  • The Messengers from Hell
  • Gorg
  • Tsutomu
  • Garuda

Others[]

  • Cochise
  • Lola
  • Sahaal's and Lola's Child

Episode List[]

  1. The Awakening of Gods
  2. The Giant that Sleeps in Ice
  3. The Demon of the L'Arc de Triomphe
  4. The Star Of Africa
  5. Sleep, Giants of Legend!
  6. I Desire Not the Tears of a Goddess
  7. Trap of The Gods
  8. The Violin that Cries Out for Love
  9. The Village of the Cosmic Tree
  10. Friendship in the West
  11. The Resurrected Phantom Fuhrer
  12. I Won't be Turned into a Fighting Machine!
  13. The Shapeless Assassin
  14. The Boy Who Came Riding on a Dolphin
  15. The Terror of the Anomalous Vegetation
  16. The Duel at West Side
  17. The Catastrophe of X must be Averted!
  18. Vampire of Our Heart
  19. Marchenland, The Man-eating Island
  20. The Desert of Deception
  21. Sleep for All Eternity, The Dinosaur Deinonychus
  22. The Challenge of Neo Black Ghost
  23. The V2 Operation: A Battle to the Death!
  24. Protect the World Peace Conference!
  25. Gilmore, Our Benign Father
  26. Demolish the Weapons Route of the Fiery Desert!
  27. Long Live the Princess!
  28. Destroy the Realm of the Cyborg
  29. Run Oscar! With Peace in your Heart!
  30. Joe! Follow your Father!
  31. The Kick of Death! The Suicidal Soccer Match of Assassination
  32. Trap of The Fairy, the Luxury Liner
  33. The Lonely Boy
  34. The Bell of Love Will Ring Tomorrow
  35. A Sad Memory
  36. Battle at the Casino
  37. Escape from the Great Forest
  38. The Wild Cries of the King Lion
  39. Cheers to the Radish Actor!
  40. The Last Race
  41. Tragic Mistake
  42. Searching for Parents
  43. The Secret of the 3 Brothers
  44. The Island of Death
  45. Oriental Messiah, Pt. 1
  46. Oriental Messiah, Pt. 2
  47. The Secret of the Four, Pt. 1
  48. The Secret of the Four, Pt. 2
  49. The Terror of Shangri-La Operation Must Be Averted!
  50. The Demise of the Neo Black Ghost

Production Staff[]

  • Director: Ryōsuke Takahashi [1]
  • Producers: Yoshiaki Koizumi (TV Asahi), Takashi Iijima , Takeyuki Suzuki
  • Animation Direction and Character Design: Toyoo Ashida
  • Art: Shigemi Ikeda , Nobuto Sakamoto, Miyamae Mitsuharu, Ichiro Nakano
  • Sound Direction: Katsumi Ota
  • Special Effects: Mutsuko Shibata
  • Casting Director: Toshio Furuichi (Aoni Production)
  • Production Cooperation: Nippon Sunrise
  • Production and Copyright: TV Asahi, Toei Animation

Voice Cast[]

  • 009: Kazuhiko Inoue
  • 001: Sachiko Chijimatsu
  • 002: Keiichi Noda
  • 003: Kazuko Sugiyama
  • 004: Keaton Yamada (as Shunji Yamada)
  • 005: Banjō Ginga (as Takashi Tanaka)
  • 006: Sanji Hase
  • 007: Kaneta Kimotsuki
  • 008: Kōji Totani
  • Professor Gilmore: Kōsei Tomita

Theme Music[]

Opening[]

Taga Tame ni

Performed by Ken Narita and Koorogi '73

Ending[]

Someday

Performed by Koorogi '73

Releases[]

On June 4, 2015, Toei announced that the series would be re-released in Japan on Blu-ray in commemoration of the franchise's 50th anniversary and the release of Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman in the fall. The first volume of the set was released on September 9th, 2015 and the second one would be released on November 11th, 2015. Both sets contain 5 discs and have extras, including booklets on the development of the show and content that originally came with the LaserDisc and VHS releases back in 1999.[2]

These would also include the Animage articles on the series, which contained early looks at the team members' origins (some which changed for the series, some which never got mentioned). The "Mythos" arc outline is also included with the extras.

The series had a subtitled US broadcast run in the 1980s, on UHF stations such as WJNU in New York and New Jersey, an unspecified station in San Francisco and KIKU in Honolulu, Hawaii. A common practice in those days for TV stations and networks to save on storage costs was to magnetically wipe tapes so they could be re-used or to throw them away. (The cult British sci-fi show Doctor Who is an infamous example of this). It is presumed by viewers who remember seeing the show that all the tapes of the subtitled version of the series have been destroyed, as no video releases were made for any format in the years since its broadcast.[3]

Tie-in Manga[]

Two manga adaptations of the anime itself ran as monthly features in Kodansha's TV Magazine and Shogakukan's TV-kun. These tie-ins were aimed at elementary school-age readers. Shotaro Ishinomori was not involved in their creation, with the TV Magazine manga being drawn by Yoshiki Tsuchiyama, and the TV-Kun version being drawn by Sugar Sato (who would go on to illustrate the manga of Cyborg 009 The Movie: Legend of the Super Galaxy).

Neither feature has been fully reprinted, though there have been requests by fans for the publisher Fukkan to do so [4].

Notes[]

  • While the 1979 Mythos arc never happened, a few of its concepts were repurposed for the 2001 anime series. In particular, Helena was replaced by Artemis, while Poseidon received a more prominent role.
  • Due to the Weekly Shonen Sunday phase of the manga being done to run alongside the anime series, Joe's car "The Stranger", Gilmore's mansion, and the Dolphin II were concepts that were imported into a few stories.
  • Joe was depicted with brown hair in early concept art and some early merchandise for the Yggdrasil arc, but his design was tweaked so that he'd be blond instead. Curiously, the aforementioned Weekly Shonen Sunday run also depicts and refers to Joe as being blond.

External Links[]

References[]

Cyborg 009 (1979 Anime) (2024)
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