History Anime / Gigantor

''Gigantor'' -- Tetsujin Nijuhachi-go, or "Iron Man #28" in the original Japanese -- is a HumongousMecha controlled by a young boy, Jimmy Sparks (Shotaro Kaneda). They live on a remote island with Jimmy's uncle, a scientist, and fight crime. Originally set just after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the English dub portrayed the show as being set in the then future year of 2000. Based on the original manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, it is one of the first popular anime to air in America, both the original form, produced by Eiken Studios (formerly called TCJ), and in the revamped ''New Adventures of Gigantor'' originally produced in 1980 by Creator/TMSEntertainment, and aired internationally in the late '80s / early '90s. The sequel, ''Tetsujin 28 FX'' was produced by the same production that created ''New Gigantor'' and was aired in 1990's in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. It was also remade in 2004 and given a live-action adaptation in 2005. Recently, ''Tetsujin-28 Gao'' was produced by the same company that created and animated the first Gigantor series and was aired by 2013.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In the 2004 series, towards the end, with Shotaro's role as KidDetective. Because he used to be supported by the Chief Ootsuka and Professor Shikishima he could operate one. [[spoiler: But when Ootsuka is removed from his position and Shikishima dies he loses a lot of his privileges.]]

On a more unsavory note, protagonist Shotaro Kaneda is the {{Trope Namer|s}} of "shotacon" in LoliconAndShotacon ("shotacon" stands for Shotaro Complex), together with the other term "lolicon" (or, ''Literature/{{Lolita}}'' Complex).

** Manga classic ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' makes a ShoutOut to ''Gigantor'' with some character names: Shotaro Kaneda and Shikishima. ''Katsuhiro Otomo'' was a fan of the series though.

[[quoteright:283:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gigantor.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:283: ''Bigger than big! Taller than tall! Quicker than quick! Stronger than strong! Ready to fight for right! Against wrong!'']]

In late 2009, the city of Kobe in Japan completed a statue of the robot. It is ''full size,'' 60 feet tall and weighing in at more than 50 tons. [[http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/06/japan-finally-completes-its-gigantic-gigantor-statue-video/ Just looking at it]] shows how impressive a real-life Humongous Mecha would be.

''Gigantor'' -- Tetsujin Nijuhachi-go, or "Iron Man #28" in the original Japanese -- is a HumongousMecha controlled by a young boy, Jimmy Sparks (Shotaro Kaneda). They live on a remote island with Jimmy's uncle, a scientist, and [[TheyFightCrime fight crime]]. Originally set just after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the English dub portrayed the show as being set in the then future year of 2000. Based on the original manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, it is one of the first popular anime to air in America, both the original form, produced by Eiken Studios (formerly called TCJ), and in the revamped ''New Adventures of Gigantor'' originally produced in 1980 by Creator/TMSEntertainment, and aired internationally in the late '80s / early '90s. The sequel, ''Tetsujin 28 FX'' was produced by the same production that created ''New Gigantor'' and was aired in 1990's in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. It was also remade in 2004 and given a live-action adaptation in 2005. Recently, ''Tetsujin-28 Gao'' was produced by the same company that created and animated the first Gigantor series and was aired by 2013.

* PantyShot:
** Shown briefly in the 1980's series (particularly Makie's / Bonnie's).
** This also happened in ''FX'' wherein Futaba showed her underwear, depicting a blue-hued original Tetsujin in the back part, to the 2 men.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair:
** This is rarely shown in the 1980's series (notably, teal haired Gura / Coldark) and ''FX'' (notably, purple-haired Franken).
** ''Gao'' has some amount of color haired characters (i.e. Prof. Shikishima in purple-hued hair).

* DownerEnding: In the 2004 series, [[spoiler: Tetsujin got smelted along with the Black Ox clones.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In the 2004 series, towards the end, with Shotaro's role as KidDetective. Because he used to be supported by the Chief Ootsuka and Professor Shikishima he could operate one. [[spoiler: But when Ootsuka is removed from his position and Shikishima dies he loses a lot of his privileges.]]