I’ve only recently gotten into the world of Anime. Admittedly a lot of what I’d seen in years past didn’t really impress me. Of course, I had watched “Speed Racer” when I was a kid and enjoyed it only because it was a cartoon, colorful, fast and easy to understand. As an adult I had only been exposed to “Pokemon”, “Digimon” and all the other little ‘mons” floating around out there. Seems I just couldn’t ever get myself interested enough in Anime to watch any of the supposed ‘good stuff.’

Last year, I caught part of an episode of “Cowboy Bebop.” And when I say ‘part’, I mean I only saw the last five minutes of the show. Oddly enough, in that five minutes I saw some of the best and most interesting animation I had seen in years. I immediately started looking into getting some of the shows on DVD to see what I had been missing. I found a full set of the series, watched the entire series in two days and was hooked.

Since that time, though still particular about the styles I enjoy, I’ve been a lot more open to watching Anime. I’ve even taken to looking into the background of the genre. Luckily, thanks to Rhino Home Video, I’ve had the opportunity to check out one of the early B&W Anime series, “Gigantor.”

The original “Gigantor” was created back around 1958 by a Tokyo based artist by the name of Mitsuteru Yokoyama. It was called “Tetsujin 28” and appeared as a series in Shonen, which was a popular boy’s magazine of the time. And a bit later, it spawned a successful animated TV show. In 1963, producer Fred Ladd (“Astro Boy”) saw the series and worked to produce an English version in the U.S. In an attempt to Americanize the series a bit, he changed the name of the giant robot to Gigantor.

I’d never seen or even heard of the show, but was really curious to see if it was any good. Admittedly, I was extremely impressed by the show. I’ve seen several episodes, and so far they’ve all been really good. Image-wise, the digital transfer from the original 16mm film looks great. Most of the show is kind of silly, which is why I’m sure it appealed to kids back in the 60’s, but I was surprised at the attempt to make it interesting for adults. The humor was pretty funny, and the fighting sequences are fairly graphic, with characters shooting at each other, bullets barely missing them.

Volume 1 offers the first 26 of the 52 episodes that were created (though some “Gigantor’ experts quickly point out there were really more), and the extras are entertaining. Most of these are in the form of interviews, one with producer Ladd, and another with anime historian Fred Patton from Animation World Magazine.

The packaging on this 4-disc set is also really nice. A plastic slipcover holds the DVD case. The case has an image of “Gigantor” that shows through a clear section of the slipcover. The case opens up like a book to show off the discs, and it has a pocket to hold the collector’s booklet. The booklet has descriptions of all the episodes as well as all the words to the theme song (which unfortunately has now been stuck in my head for two days).

This set is a must for Anime fans. For more information, check out Rhino.com. In the meantime, join me in a rousing sing-along:

Gi-gan-tor!
Gi-gan-tor!
Gi-gan-tor!

Gi-gan-tor the space-age ro-bot
Is at your command.
Gi-gan-tor the space-age robot
His po-wer is in your hand!

Big-ger than big
Tal-ler than tall
Quick-er than quick
Strong-er than strong
Re-ady to fight for right
A-gainst wrong.

Gi-gan-tor!
Gi-gan-tor!
Gi-gan-tor!

We'll give Gigantor an B.