8 Man

8 Man (8マン) or Eightman (エイトマン, Eitoman) or 8th Man (8人目, 8 Hitome, in the US) is a manga and superhero anime created in 1963 by science fiction writer Kazumasa Hirai and manga artist Jiro Kuwata. 8 Man is considered Japan's earliest cyborg superhero, predating Kamen Rider. The manga was published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine and ran from 1963 to 1966. The anime series was produced by TCJ Animation Center (nowadays Eiken). It was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System and ran from November 17, 1963, to December 31, 1964, with a total of 56 episodes, as well as a "farewell" special episode, "Goodbye, 8 Man". Detective Azuma is murdered by criminals and his body is retrieved by Captain Tanaka (in the manga), or Professor Tani (in the anime). In Tani's laboratory, Tani attempts to transfer Azuma's mind into an android body, an experiment that has already failed seven times. Azuma is reborn as the armour-skinned android 8 Man and is able to dash at impossible speeds as well as shape-shift into other people. He typically takes on the form of his former body, and keeps the fact that he is a super robot or 8man secret from everyone, even his secretary Sachiko and his assistant Ichiro. To rejuvenate his powers, he smokes "power" cigarettes that he carries in a case on his belt. In Japan, the character's origin varies between the original manga, the TV series, and the live-action movie. In the 1992 movie, 8man's name before being murdered was "Detective Yokoda", and he was given the new name "Detective Azuma" to cover up his death and revival. In the manga, Detective Azuma is trapped in a warehouse and gunned down, while the TV series has him killed when he is run over by a car. The manga has several origins for the name 8 Man, such as that this is Tani's seventh attempt to transfer a human mind, that the android body was given the designation "008" by the American military, or that there are seven regular police precincts in Tokyo and 8 Man is treated as a detective not belonging to any of them (thus, an unofficial eighth precinct). The Japanese manga was presented as serial novella stories along with a set of one-shot stories. Many of these stories were edited down and adapted for the TV series. The novella stories were originally printed every week in Shukuu Shōnen Magazine in 16-page increments that consisted of 15 story pages and one title page. Ten additional one-shot stories were presented in seasonal and holiday specials of Shuukuu Shōnen Magazine. These stories were generally between 30 and 40 pages in length. In the North American version of the series, the resurrected detective/android is known as "Tobor" - the word "robot" spelled backwards. Tani is referred to as "Professor Genius" and the sobriquet of 8-Man is slightly changed to "8th-Man," the name explained as he is the 8th attempt to be a super-robot. The story content was directed toward a wider audience of both young and adult viewers. As such, much of the violence was toned down for Western audiences.