Review of Tetsujin 28

Introduction

Hollywood isn`t the only industry that dabbles with remakes as this release of Tetsujin 28 (also known as Gigantor) indicates. The Tetsujin story began as a manga in post war Japan, and has been brought to the screen on more than one occasion, even as a live action production. The same company behind Giant Robo created this latest version in 2004, and brings to the screen a crisp looking anime with a decidedly retro twist.

During the dying days of the war, Professor Kaneda was ordered to create a devastating last-ditch weapon to use against Japan`s enemies. His expertise in robotics, he went about creating giant autonomous weapons that were impervious to external attack, but with little enthusiasm. It was only when he learnt of the death of his wife and newborn son that he created a working prototype, Tetsujin 28, which he named Shotaro after his lost son. But a last minute crisis of conscience stayed his hand and the robot was never activated. He himself gave the island`s location to the allies and it disappeared under a hail of enemy bombs, he with it. His assistant Shikishima survived though, and returned to the mainland to learn the tragic truth, the Professor`s son Shotaro had survived the bombing of Tokyo and was now left orphaned.

Ten years later, Japan is resurgent in terms of rebuilding and industry. At the heart of it is the robotics industry, led by Professor Shikishima`s company. Shotaro has grown up to become a precocious boy detective, mentored by his father`s protégé Shikishima, and the city`s Chief of Police Otsuka. The activation of the newest robot from the Shikishima production line will set in motion a chain of events that will lead to an unconventional partnership.

Manga Entertainment releases this first volume of Tetsujin 28: Monster Resurrected with 5 episodes.

Ep 1. Shotaro Resurrected
Shikishima prepares to activate his company`s latest model of robot, but the activation signal has far reaching consequences. A war surplus missile is set in motion on a distant island, and is soon launched towards Tokyo. Meanwhile, the boy detective Shotaro is on the tail of the Murasame brothers, gangsters who have stolen some precious blueprints. He corners them on a building site, which is also the target of the giant missile. By a miracle, no one is hurt when the missile crashes, and Shotaro scrambles out of the wreckage to be met by the Professor and the Police Chief, and also faced with the incongruity of a giant missile with his name on. At the same time, the criminals have found their way into the missile and are pushing buttons and pulling levers at random…

Ep 2. 28 versus 27
Tetsujin 28 is loose and wreaking havoc through Tokyo, resulting in scenes unseen since the end of the war. Kinji Murasame`s friend Tatsu is only the first casualty, and the gang boss is out for revenge. Shotaro on the other hand demands to know the truth about his father, and the robotic demon bearing his name that has been unleashed on an unsuspecting city. Shikishima is intent on stopping this weapon, and is ready to use his company`s newest robot, 27 to do so.

Ep 3. A Monstrous Robot Appears
Tetsujin 28 has been put to work repairing the damage he caused, and Shotaro is getting used to working the giant robot`s remote control. Their work is interrupted when an accident reveals an abandoned underground installation. Inside, Shotaro find a veritable chamber of horrors, jars filled with green liquid and strange objects. His investigation leads him to a psychiatric hospital and a caged genius. Dr Franken isn`t forthcoming with information, but Shikishima is alarmed at what Shotaro has found. His concerns aren`t unfounded, as soon a mysterious robot is trying to retrieve one of the jars.

Ep 4. A Second Tetsujin Project
Shotaro spots Dr Franken at a classical concert, but soon loses him underground. It turns out that Franken was working on another secret weapon project during the war, just like Shotaro`s father, but his research led in macabre directions. Meanwhile, Kenji Murasame escaped from prison when the robot attacked, and now he`s on the run with a new 10 ft tall green partner.

Ep 5. Tetsujin versus Black Ox
Dr Franken has eluded capture yet again, and his creation is still on the loose. There are factions in the government that want Franken to resume his experiments, but all Franken wants is to be reunited with his creation, and to undo the crime he committed. Shotaro and Shikishima stand in his way however, with Tetsujin at their side.

Video

Tetsujin 28 gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, but it`s a lacklustre one. Whenever there is some complex animation on screen, compression artefacts rear their head, and digital banding and macro blocking is prominent throughout. It`s especially bad in darker or mistier scenes, and particularly mars the third episode on the disc. Aliasing is also evident, but oddly only during the previews and recap sequences.

The animation is something of a mixed bag, exhibiting a decidedly retro feel. The colour palette is limited, sticking to muted earth colours, which evoke the forties and fifties well. The character designs are very much of the post war period, short and podgy characters, absurd hairstyles, and somewhat limited in detail. However the world they inhabit is elaborately designed, and the animation is melded with modern 3D CG techniques, giving it a fluid feel and scope that would have been impossible 10 years ago, let alone 50.

Audio

You run the full gamut of soundtrack options, DD 2.0, DD 5.1 and DTS in both English and Japanese, with English subtitles. I sampled the English dub, and like most modern dubs it is pretty good. I listened to the show in the original Japanese however, and found the track to be pretty good, with plenty of ambience and some effects for the surrounds to work with, but otherwise quite front focussed. The music for the show follows the retro feel, with theme tunes exhorting Tetsujin and Shotaro to further successful adventures. There is an ill placed layer change in episode 3 though.

Features

Tetsujin gets one of those horrible Wheel Of Fortune animated menus, where you have to wait for your option to come round before pressing Enter on your remote to select it.

You get the Tetsujin trailer by itself. It`s actually the opening sequence, minus the credits, with a caption in the corner and presented in letterbox format.

For the non-credit opening see above, minus the caption, but anamorphic.

As usual with Manga Ent discs, there are plenty of trailers for other products, the usual Art Of Anime, Ghost In The Shell, Millennium Actress and all the rest. There must be over 20 minutes worth here.

Conclusion

Tetsujin 28 didn`t quite work for me. Remakes are an uncertain proposition at the best of times, and although I haven`t seen any other version of Tetsujin, I don`t think that the updating was wise. They updated the wrong things for one thing. It seems that they have taken the original ideas and characters and given them a 21st Century polish, applying some CG goodness to the animation, giving it some colour and widescreen magic. However, the story at the heart of it, the style and the execution all feel old and dated. It`s as if someone took one of the old thirties serials like Buck Rogers and remade it with modern CG effects, but kept the old costumes, the old scripts and the old style of acting. Tetsujin 28 is the anime equivalent of Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow, and if you are into the retro scene, then I`m sure it`ll be just the butter for your bread.

In some ways, the seemingly untouched story is a good thing, as it serves as a reminder of the post war years. The story of Tetsujin very much parallels the creation of the nuclear bomb. In the story, Japan on the back foot orders the research into doomsday weapons, and Professor Kaneda is very much an Oppenheimer type figure, finding his role in the creation of such weapons ambivalent. It`s the apparent death of his son that spurs him to create Tetsujin, but in the end he recants his work. In a rather quaint touch, reminiscent of many wartime propaganda films, there is a scene projecting an army of Tetsujins landing in San Francisco to wreak havoc. The return of Tetsujin in the post war years, as well as the uncovering of the Tetsujin 2 project (allegorical to bioweapons research), serves as a reminder of Japan`s imperialist past, and as the characters deal with the trials that these new events bring, it`s as if they are dealing with their country`s own culpability in the war.

But a simplistic boy and his robot tale obscure all of this symbolism. After all, what boy didn`t want a 50 metre tall robot of his own, striding through the city streets like a metal Colossus. The incongruity of a 10-year-old boy detective in the Tokyo police department doesn`t bear scrutiny. He gets to take on all manner of hoodlums, delivering blows that fell men four times his size. He also can be seen driving through the streets of the city in his very own sports car. Giant robots also afford plenty of opportunity for the property damage of the sort seen in most Godzilla movies, and Tetsujin`s introduction to Tokyo leaves a swathe of destruction miles long.

The overreaching story looks very interesting, with references to secret societies, military projects and a dark wartime history being uncovered. A grand story seems to be unfolding, with characters and groups being set up that will no doubt play a continuing part as the series progresses. It`s just that the individual episodes come across as rather simplistic and limited. The characters lack dimension, and motivations are always crystal clear. The story is hardly original either, with episodes 3 to 5 very much a retelling of the Frankenstein tale, down to the monster design and cunningly named Dr Franken that created him.

Tetsujin 28 looks very pretty, although it could have looked better on this disc, but the story and characters are quaint and old-fashioned. You would think that would be a primary goal for a retro-styled remake, but it actually results in a show that adds nothing new. There is entertainment to be had from Tetsujin 28, and it does what it sets out to very well. If you are in the mood for a taste of yesteryear then this could be right up your alley. It`s just that it is not as sophisticated as what I have come to expect from anime.