Customer Reviews

Gigantor - Boxed Set 1 (Episodes 1-26)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After the success of Astro Boy in both Japan and the United States, a new anime series was born. It's name was Tetsujin 28 or Iron Man 28. In 1965, it came to the states under the name Gigantor. Now, for the first time in 37 years, you can re-live the experience that drew a crowd of many children.

Despite the age of the material, Gigantor is quite amazing. At first, it sounds pretty simple. A 12-year-old boy named Jimmy Sparks pilot pilots a giant robot to help catch the bad guys. However, each episode has enough plot twists and action to keep any viewer glued to the screen. Following Jimmy Sparks on his adventures are other characters with odd names including Bob Brilliant, Inspector Blooper and Dick Strong. Even the villains have odd names like Cats Meow and Swami Tommy.

Keep in mind that this show was distributed before TV stations started having censorship laws so don't be surprised when you see someone smoking a cigarette. Also, there is one episode where Jimmy Sparks helps a bunch of cowboys by shooting at some indians so you might be offended by some of the racism in these episodes. My only problem with this show is the music. It sounds good, but do they always have to put the same melody into each song?

The extras (yes, there are extras) are on discs 1 and 4. The first disc features commentary by the original English director, Fred Lad, on episodes 3-5 which feature the villain The Spider. Lad mostly talks about how four voice actors did all these voices, but he does make some comments on how he Americanized it and why some changes were made. The extras on disc four include a lengthy interview with Fred Lad, an interview with an old anime historian (I don't know why they included this) and a biography on the original Japanese creator. I enjoyed the interview with Fred Lad since he has done lots of research on Tetsujin 28 including the sequels to it, but the anime historian interview feels like stating the obvious to all anime fans.

Overall, I enjoyed Gigantor and I think anyone can appreciate it, regardless of the fact that it is in black and white. Highly recommended.

Who wouldn't want a remote control towering machine that's as big as a skyscraper, flies, fights and can do anything you want? I recall his cartoon being played on Sci-fi weekday mornings after Robotech. It was originally a black & white comic called Tetsujin 28 or Iron Man 28 turned to cartoon series "Tetsujin 28-Go," the animation similar to Astroboy. Eventually it became "Gigantor" a few years later. The plot consist of a young boy, Jimmy Sparks controlling the huge robot Gigantor Dr. Brillant created the robot, and acts as a mentor for Jimmy.

A little strange at first but after a while you warm up to the big metallic guy! I'm new to G but my wife's a gigantic fan (ha!)and the quality of these DVDs is exceptional. Enjoy!

So many animated movies are based on 60s shows. Before there was a Lion King there Kimba. Before there was Iron Giant there was Gigantor--bigger than big :) This is great stuff and brings back memories of sitting in front of the B/W TV drinking chocolate milk.

This was a favorite of mine as a kid! Gigantor The Space Age Robot was one of the coolest carttons from the early 60's and I thought this stuff might be lost for good. This volume one set included the first 26 episodes of the series and they look great! If you are a fan of this show......Buy it, but you can find this much cheaper if you look around. There is a volume two with the remaing episodes on it.

I was thrilled to find that the Gigantor show had been released on DVD. I was always furtively looking in the Anime sections of DVD stores for years, hoping to find something of it, or 8th Man or the Amazing Three,which were the other early anime shows I remembered. Rhino has done a fine job of packaging and presenting the episodes (1-26 is what I have)--the only drawback is that the discs are hard to pop out of the holders! Gigantor was my absolute favorite show when I was a kid, and I must have seen the original seasons around 1966 as I was born in 1960. My brother and sister want to have the set now, too, even though they weren't hooked on the big robot like I was. Very interesting interview with American producer Fred Ladd in the bonus features. And it's been a therapy item to realize to what extent I identifed with the 12-year old boy who because of his brains rather than brawn was able to command great power...
I appreciated reading the other reviews, one of which gave the opinion that the first set of episodes is the best in terms of story line. I particularly remembered the episodes with the Smoke Robots and the one where G. helps to collect wild animals for the zoo. There are anachronisms--the technology in the show in terms of cars, telephones and computers looks much more like 1965 than "the Year 2000", and a modern show wouldn't have the film noir smoking and some ethnic stereotypes. But I am very glad to see these episodes again.
I can also recommend very highly the first 5 episodes of Tetsujin 28, the Japanese show of which Gigantor is the American version. The 10-year-old boy detective Shotaro is different from the completely confident Jimmy Sparks, and the robot has a mixed and rather sinister history and feel. The setting of postwar Tokyo provides a backdrop for a truly engaging human drama. I got it (from Amazon.com, of course) as a novelty source item, but I have enjoyed the Japanese shows with their English dubbing just as much as I have "Gigantor".

Soy uno de los niños que crecieron viendo al HOMBRE DE ACERO y su amigo, el increible CARLOS CENTELLA, como lo conocimos quienes lo vimos en Mexico.
Un viaje maravilloso que me hizo recordar mis modelajes en plastilina y tantas y tantas historias que dibuje con estos personajes.
Es una pena que los productores no pensaran en el publico latino.
Escucharlo en ingles pasa..................mas o menos, pues el doblaje al español definitivamente le dio la mitad de la vida a la caricatura.
A pesar de estar en ingles es sumamente recomendable.
Debo ver la caja con la segunda parte de la coleccion, pues en las transmiciones televisivas de antaño no salieron al aire todos los capitulos.

I cannot believe that my all-time favorite cartoon Gigantor can now be brought online and then sent to me over in australia.Sometime i get home sick even after all these years here and i love things that remind me of home and boy this sure will.Speed Racer 2 box set just arrived today another favorite of mine,and to top that today i find Gigantor's is also on amazon and ordered it right away.So i guess Speed Racer can help past the time until Gigantor arrives thanks amazon for giving me a big part of my childhood.

I used to run home from school to see Gigantor. Thank you for putting this series on DVD. It brings back lots of good memories.

I'm very upset, I never received this item and as of today have not heard back from the person who I purchase this item from through your site. It's been a week since I notify this individual via e-mail regarding this issue.

I want my money back or my purchase within the next (2) weeks. This is a reasonable time frame to execute this request. Otherwise, I will take this matter to the authorities for resolution.

Not a happy customer!!!