Tobor (
robot spelled backwards) the 8th Man was one of (if not the first) the first
bionic heroes, and a
seminal influence in
anime and
sci-fi. I still remember a scrap of the theme song:
"Call Tobor, the 8th Man! Faster than a rocket, quicker than a jet he's the mighty hero, he's the one to get!" Created by Hirai Kazumasa and Kuwata Jiro in 1963, 8-Man was a Japanese comic detailing the adventures of a cyborg hero.
He had something in common with Captain Scarlet, in that (using words from the Captain's theme song) "you could smash him, and his body may burn, you can trash him, but you'll know he'll return, to live again!" Tobor could be destroyed, but he always came back. The villainous criminal "Saucer Lips" learned that the hard way when he killed police officer Peter Brady. Little did he know he actually would create his greatest foe, the bionic superhero known as, Tobor, the 8th Man! (This parallels the development of another famous cyborg, Robocop, who was a cop killed by a gang whose body was used to create the famous robotic crimefighter.)
Tobor was made by Professor Genius in the anime series. The professor left the fictional country Armaco, which wanted to use him him to make weapons to conquer the world. 8th Man’s face was molded from the professor's son's face. The Original Japanese Name for 8th Man was Detective Yokota, and Special Agent Brady was his American Name.