Now empowered beyond ordinary men, Azuma becomes (all by himself) the secret 8th division of the Tokyo Metropoltian Police. His only superior is Chief Tanaka (called Chief Fumblethumbs, of all things, in English). Now called 8 Man ("Eighth Man", in English, because according to the dub he was the eighth cyborg attempt — and the first one to work!), he has the usual array of powers: Super-Strength, Super-Speed, plus Voluntary Shapeshifting and the unusual ability to detach and remotely control his limbs. In a detail that would never get past kid-vid censors today, 8-Man recharges his power supply using "special cigarettes". He spends much of his time fighting an array of goofy enemies ranging from communist spies and robot bats to gangsters with bizarre names right out of Dick Tracy.
The manga has an anime adaptation which aired from November 7, 1963 to December 12, 1964 for 56 episodes. Although the anime was average for a TV series of its time, by modern standards it is laughable and crude (like most shows of its era). In addition to being in black and white, its production crew had almost no experience with cel animation and took several episodes to gain any skill with the form. Even then it was of low quality, with a minimal frame rate, low detail, and wooden movement.
Along with Astro Boy, Gigantor, and Speed Racer, 8 Man is historically significant as one of the first anime series to be distributed in the United States. The American version's newly animated opening sequence was the first professional animation work done by Ralph Bakshi.
In 1993, a Darker and Edgier sequel, 8 Man After, was released as an OVA; it has its own page. From 2005 to 2007, the manga had a sequel published as Eight Man Infinity. There also exists a 1991 video game adaptation in the form of a Beat 'em Up, developed by SNK for their Neo Geo arcade and home console systems.
Any similarities to another story about a dying cop revived by science are purely coincidental.
The original series contains examples of:
- Art Shift: The American theme song, mentioned below, is considerably more western-looking than the series itself.
- Expository Theme Tune: The theme to the English dub combines this trope and Never Trust a Trailer, as the theme and (American animated) opening sequence described Eight Man fighting aliens (which he never does) and flying (which he can't do). A very young Ralph Bakshi was responsible for the new (and Off-Model) opening.
- Inconsistent Dub: To name just one example, one episode features an assassin named Ice Finger. Later he appears again as the brain donor for a killer robot, but for some reason his name was changed to Cold Knuckle.
- I Surrender, Suckers: How the whole thing started in the anime. The leader of the gang that Azuma was going after pretended to surrender so that his other henchmen can run him over with their car while he was distracted, killing him. This lead to the scientist retrieving his body and rebuilding him as 8 Man.
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: 8 Man recharges his super-batteries or whatever by smoking radium-laced cigarettes.
- Ruritania: The professor who created 8 Man is said to have defected from a fictional country called Armico, to explain why all his blueprints and written communications are in a weird foreign language (Japanese, of course).
- Sdrawkcab Alias: His secret identity (In the English version) is Tobor.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: 8 Man was also built with the ability to use his artifical skin to change his appearance — usually to his secret identity of Tobor, but frequently for undercover missions. He has the Required Secondary Power of changing his voice to help impersonate other people, too.
- Weaksauce Weakness: 8 Man has to smoke (or eat) what appear to be cigarettes to keep his powers running. Great when he's facing a firing squad, but what if kids see him smoking and he sets a bad example?
- Note that the latter issue is only thanks to
Values Dissonance with the time period the character was originally created in. 60s Japan was a time when people still believed cigarettes were good for you.
- Note that the latter issue is only thanks to
