Actually, Any villain wh ogets hold of the control box can control Gigantor. But is REALLY bizarre is how thios little kid gets to shoot guns at bad guys weather he grabbed it from said baddie or makes use of ones that he was issued. The kid's 12! Whatzup with that!!??
shareActually, Any villain who gets hold of the control box can control Gigantor. But whats REALLY bizarre is how this little kid gets to shoot guns at bad guys weather he grabbed it from said baddies or makes use of ones that he was issued. The kid's 12! Whatzup with that!!??
shareIn the original comic (which was syndicated in a monthly magazine called "Shounen" which means "boys" in Japanese), Jimmy Sparks was Shotaro Kaneda who was a boy private detective. His friend Tetsuo is the son of Gigantor's inventor Dr. Shikishima and that's where he gets his connection into Gigantor. Since the magazine was created for boys, all its comics had a pre teen boy as their main character.
shareYes, in the original Gigantor was practically made for Shotaro (Jimmy) to control by his father though in the Western version Bob Brilliant is the inventor instead. They changed it back to Jimmy's father as the inventor and Brilliant simply as the one who built/maintained Gigantor in Western version of the 1980 remake remake though.
It's a common theme in Giant Super Robot anime. We see it again with Mazinger Z as Kouji Kabuto's grandfather built the Mazinger and he's a teen without any experience who learns to use it. Even the original Gundam is like this, where Tem Ray is one of the most important figures in developing the Gundam and his son Amuro ends up piloting it. Gigantor/Tetsujin was where the cliche started though.
Dr. Shikishima did indeed create the robot - during WWII! We got roughly 52 of the 83-odd episodes here because several of the early episodes were blatantly anti-American in theme.
I'm in possession of the complete collection of the original comics that were reprinted in the early 70's...There's little, if anything in them indicating the WWII connection though. In an old Japanese manga history book from the 70's there's a pic that's obviously Tetsujin stomping through the water with a bunch of American warships in tow behind him - like toys.
Oh yeah...Yokoyama (the creator of Tetsujin) did not like America....Something about a war.........
The old adage about cigarettes being hazardous to your health is true, Yokoyama's ghost will attest to that.....He burned to death while smoking in bed in '04.