8th MAN
8th Man was a B/W Japanese Anime television series about a detective - Special Agent
Brady, killed with
his mind being incorporated into a robot named 8th Man; used to fight evil.
56 episodes were produced for ABC films by Gene Prinz with scripts by Reuben Guberman, and
were released in Japan in 1963 and shown on Melbourne TV in July 1966 on channel 9 at 4pm
weekdays, through ABC Films. They were produced /dubbed in Miami by Gene Prinz and his
staff at Copri Films International. The actors hired to do the dubbing were thought to be
lost to history until Andy Shepherd uncovered who they were. They were college students
and local actors From Miami's little theatre,
Jerry Berke (voice of Tobor the 8th Man - Top guy and loves to hear from fans); email = anjer@verizon.net
Frank Schuller (Director and provided the occasional voice)
Reuben Guberman (screenwriter/various voices)
(passed away on March 19th 2000 )
Sandy Warshaw (voice of Jenny, Skip and Dr. Spectra)
email = sanwarsh@aol.com
Arnie Warren (various voices); arniewarren@msn.com
Bob Gaynor (Chief Fumblethumbs ) = rbgaynor@worldnet.att.net
Jack Metger - Did various voices and took over the voice of Dr. Spectra after that first
episode in which Sandy Warshaw provided the voice.
Peter Fernandez dubbed the series pilot or a single sample episode for 8th Man before
the series was shipped off to Copri Films in Florida for production (production info from
Andy Shepherd - andrewshepherd@mailcity.com).
The animation and scenery were basic but the story line was exciting and well ahead of its
time.
There are still alot of fans out there today that have great memories of 8th
Man which formed a great part of their childhood and mine. The introduction wasn't from
the original Manga artists. The producers of the English version were given a modest
budget to do a title sequence and a theme song. HAL SEEGER PRODUCTIONS (Milton The
Monster) did the work. Their credit is on the 16mm print, on the countdown
leader film that proceeds the opening. As stated below Ralph Bakshi may have
been contracted out by Hal Seeger Productions to do the sequence.
I recently had this email from Dennis Freeland in NJ of the U.S.A.
(BookValue@webtv.net)
Reuben Guberman told me a few years back that one of the few indulgences/production
values they were allowed was a modest budget to do a title sequence and a theme song.
I asked him who did that sequence, and he told me, "A kid from New York named
Ralph Bakshi." (Mighty Heroes, New Adventures Of Mighty Mouse)
When the show aired in the mid 60's on WPIX-TV, it laid waste to its competition. Other
New York tv stations moved some of their choice shows out of the 4 pm slot, apparently,
because no show could beat 8th Man. Reuben said-- in amazement, not bragadaccio, "We
OWNED that time slot."
The plots and dialogue came entirely out of Reuben's head. He had no translated scripts,
so he just "winged it"--cutting out huge chunks of one episode, pulling a scene
from a completely different episode to replace it, etc.
In the anime series, 8th Man was made by Professor Genius. He had defected from the
Country Armaco which wanted him to make weapons to help conquer the world. He left his
wife and son Ken behind. 8th Man’s face was moulded from Ken’s face so they
looked alike. In the episode titled ‘Battle of the brothers,’ Ken lets himself
be made into a robot so he could be strong enough to destroy 8th Man, but Ken is defeated.
8th
Man was disguised as Tobor (robot spelt backwards) and had his own detective agency named
‘The Tobor Detective Agency.’ In times of danger he changed into the 8th man, a
robot of steel, capable of incredible speed and strength. He gained his energy from
cigarette-like pills kept in his belt. His secretary’s name was Jenny, the chief of
police was Chief Fumblethumbs and his enemies included Saucer Lips, Dr Spectra and The
Butterfly Gang.
The Original Japanese Name for 8th Man in his Human form was Detective Yokota.
(Special Agent Brady was his American Name). After he was rebuilt his new identity was
Private Detective Hachiro Azuma. The Original name for Chief Fumblethumbs was Chief
Inspector Tanaka. 8th Man's secretary and girlfriend was Sachiko and the Professor who
rebuilt him was Professor Tani. (Thanks to Dave Sternberg for Japanese names)
Thanks to E. Bernhard Warg (EBWarg@aol.com) for the following
information
First off, the Japanese title was "8 Man," and the OAV was "8 Man
After". According to the live action movie he was named this due to Japan's
Police Departments having seven divisions and 8 Man being like an entire department unto
himself, but I don't know if that was the case in the TV series (my Japanese isn't that
good yet).
Second, though 8(th) Man used different names before and after his death in the dub and in
the live action movie (Brady/Tobor, Yokota/Hachiro Azuma), he was always just Hachiro
Azuma in the original TV series (no idea about the manga).
In 1993 a four part video series was made in colour titled '8 Man After' (an OAV -
Original Animation Video, or OVA - Original Video Animation). The original 8 Man has died
and a new police officer, slained on the streets, takes his place
8TH MAN EPISODE GUIDE This
site has a complete guide with a synopsis of each episode plus lots of
pics and information. The best 8th Man site on the web!
LINKS
8th Man (By Frank Kaya)
www.8thman.com