Jaianto robo

This had to be one of the weirdest shows to ever come from the Land of the Rising Sun. If anyone today were to try to promote a show featuring a ten year old kid and his flying robot, that person would either be thrown out on his ear or have the guys in the white coats come and pick him up. However, this was an enjoyable show featuring not only some crazy action, but some of the wildest monsters ever created for the whole kaiju eiga genre. The only thing that undoes this show are the poor special effects. However this show is still a cult classic and for the life of me I don't know why this isn't shown on television anymore.

Giant Robo was a comic which was first featured in a weekly comic magazine "Shonen Sunday" in the late '60s by comic artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama, then turned into a TV series. Yokoyama drew another comic featuring a giant robot under a boy's control; the "Gigantor" (Tetsujin Nijyuhachi-go) which also became a TV series (four times). Giant Robo was supposed to be a weapon for the bad guys, but because U7 (Disuke Kusama) first spoke into the wrist watch remote control, it only obeyed his command. Like Gigantor, its first incarnation to TV was acted by a real live actors, then the second series was animated. I have memories of this series like many people who wrote here including having a crush on U5. I don't know what it is about these classic Japanese TV sci-fi but there's something that leaves a lasting impression on people. Yokoyama has another comic with giant robot obeying master's commands (Babyl II or Babyl Nisei) which also became a TV series. He is considered along the likes of Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy), Ishinomori Shotaro (Kamen Ryder, Kikaida, Go Rangers, Cyborg 009), and Fujiko Fujio (Obake no Q-taro, Doraemon) as a founding father of genre we now call "Manga", and has legion of fans around the world. Just a great show from a great comic artist.

I loved this show when I was a kid. The robot was incredible (keep in mind that there was very little stuff like that for kids back then, you kids today are very lucky...now get off my lawn!) especially with the finger rockets, the pharaoh's headdress, and the pre-flight cheerleader moves.

I recently sought and found a VHS copy (albeit poorly recorded) of the show and realized that you did have to be a kid, uninhibited with today's inundation of CGI and advanced cartooned robots, to enjoy it. But it was a wonderful trip back down memory lane. Now, too find a collection of the old (rubber suited and flashing chest light) Ultra-Man series.

Aah, childhood, those halcyon days, all those memories associated with them are indelible. I was five years old, and our neighbors had just got a new television. In India, we had only one TV channel then and the programs were more related to news based items or were culture oriented. Watching a Egyptian mummy faced robot fighting monsters was a dream for me as well as for every other kid I knew. I remember how hard I cried when the giant robot lost his eyes and also during the episode where he was beaten badly, I envied Johnny so much. Today I know the special effects are much much better and there are a plethora of new sci- fi based programs but they cant even hold a torch to good ol' Johnny and his robot.

For the people of my generation this is as good as gold. C'mon Johnny quit playing games, come back. I miss you.

This is a weird one, from back in the late 60s you have this Japanese import, about a kid, a Casio-watch controlled 100 foot flying robot, a guy in a real bad Squid/jellyfish papier-mache mask who shakes a trident alot(he's the evil villain, Emperor Guillotine!), fakey rubber suited monsters, a group of terrorists who shoot plastic machine guys, and intend to take over the world with their 9 inter-changeable members, a '58 Bel-air and some godawful monsters.

You have to see it to believe it-the dreaded Nuclion, a bowling ball/landmine/baby toy from outer space(!!) which rolls downhill and crushes an onslaught of plastic tanks before being hauled up by Giant Robot, who then drops it onto the '58 Belair that the 'Gargoyle Gang' have helpfully piled into(actually, the last guy diving for cover dives UNDER the car...oh its a scream...)...

You have these villains...fanger, silver-faced DrBotanus, who is some kind of Evil Plant wiz, a panther-griffin cross who likes eating toy trains whole, a giant eye Opticus(oh that one is a scream!), and this short guy with a peg-leg, who is sposedly a master of disguise(!?)...God, WHAT were they thinking??

Guys get killed and come right on back without explanation. Take 'Beatnik Man'-one of the head Gargoyle Gang guys. Has the shades, bad greasepaint beard(troweled on by the looks...) and beret. I think he winds up quite dead at least 4 times-shot up by a plastic machine gun, caught in an atomic cherry bomb explosion(don't ask), flattened by Nuclion, etc. At the end, he is now wearing a goatee, but its our guy, Beatnik Man in the flesh...

Bad models, bad acting, bad dubbing--and as a kid, I loved every minute of it! People Do remember it, not from its name but from the content, of seeing Giant Robot(who looks like a silver George Washington in a King Tut get-up...),who flies, shoots missiles outta his fingers, etc.

It is kinda fun in a MST3K way, but not more than that.

I give it *** stars outta **** on the hilarity scale, *1/2 in the actual quality scale. Its a hoot. Yes! See it if you can or dare.