8th Man

Although not available commercially, "grey market" tapes of this show are sometimes found at science fiction conventions. I vaguely remembered this show from my childhood. Seeing it again was a shock; I didn't realize anime was done this simply.

A police detective is shot and killed, 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" 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."

I first saw this cartoon around 1967. I used to watch it when I came home from school.It centers around a detective who was mortally wounded; his persona was transferred to that of a robot.So,he had a human mind inside of a robot's body.I remember he could run very fast and morph into any living being.Also, when things got too rough for him, he would sometimes consult Prof. Genius for help.The last time I saw this series was in 1969.Perhaps you can get videotapes at your video store.

It is repeatedly claimed that Eight Man is the fountainhead from which RoboCop and similar cyborg fiction comes. In point of fact, the crime fighting cyborg was introduced with or before DC's Robotman (not to be confused with later characters of the same name) in the Apr 1942 Star-Spangled Comics. (The original Robotman appeared routinely until 1953. He was occasionally reprinted, and revived later.)

Setting that issue aside, I remember that as a child I loved "Tobor" (which is how this show was marketed in the US).

I remember watching the 8th man cartoon series. He could run very fast and he would occasionally get weak and need what he called energy boosters located in a compartment on his belt or on his forearm, don't quite remember, he smoked them like cigarettes to recharge his powers I can remember his arch enemy had a bunch of rockets in his cape that he would unleash in an attempt to destroy Tobor, whose name was robot spelled backwards. I also recall a Mechanical like Tiger named Pulse or Pounce. I can remember a lot of perspective and different camera angles that produced different affects from sinister to extremely fast motion, especially being done in black & white.

TOBOR the 8th Man can be found at Diamond Entertainment Corporation.

I have a VHS copy of the "Gold Gang" episode from them.

It's still in Black and White but the tape cover has a stunning colorized rendering of a Red with Black trimmed TOBOR.

It's Tape or Product number is 13085 of the "Cartoon Favorites" series.

It's like old times when I was in the 5th grade in Granite City, Illinois.

I'm still trying to locate more since DEC is only a distributor someone had to furnish the masters!

Vern