Wednesday, March 20, 2019

8th Man



Animated series about an android super-hero. He was the scientist's eighth attempt at creating a super being, hence the title. In addition to the usual powers such as flying, ray blasts, etc., he was also able to assume other identities by "morphing". Also on the IMDb:

A police detective is shot and mortally wounded, and a wise old scientist (with white hair and cape) places his consciousness into a robot body. (Yep, the genesis of "Robocop" and its descendants.) Besides super strength and speed, he can impersonate anyone; the first episode has him morphing briefly into Kruschev and John Kennedy! Mostly he hunts down criminals with technological gadgets, with the occasional giant monster for variety. His secret identity as "Detective Tobor" (robot spelled backward) is almost incidental; no serious conflict with his secret identity occurs.

Not only is it black-and-white, it's graphically simple; lots of white space with minimal detailing. One surprise is that the dubbing (done years before digital matching of animation to English dialog) works and sounds better than most early dubbed anime - especially the original "Speed Racer."

 

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