8th man (1965)

As pervasive as anime is today in popular culture, it had to start somewhere, and for most of

the American public this meant the introduction of a Japanese TV series (dubbed in English) named 8th Man.

I recall watching this in the 60's and it was actually pretty good. From the IMDb:

Animated series about an android super-hero. He was the scientist's eighth attempt at creating a super being, hence the title. In addition to the usual powers such as flying, ray blasts, etc., he was also able to assume other identities by "morphing". Also on the IMDb:

A police detective is shot and mortally wounded, and a wise old scientist (with white hair and cape) places his consciousness into a robot body. (Yep, the genesis of "Robocop" and its descendants.) Besides super strength and speed, he can impersonate anyone; the first episode has him morphing briefly into Kruschev and John Kennedy! Mostly he hunts down criminals with technological gadgets, with the occasional giant monster for variety. His secret identity as "Detective Tobor" (robot spelled backward) is almost incidental; no serious conflict with his secret identity occurs.

Not only is it black-and-white, it's graphically simple; lots of white space with minimal detailing. One surprise is that the dubbing (done years before digital matching of animation to English dialog) works and sounds better than most early dubbed anime - especially the original "Speed Racer."

YouTube seems to offer many if not all episodes, and I have embedded a couple below, including the premier episode. If you like anime, have a look and see what anime was like over 50 years ago.

First Episode


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One of, if not the best stand alone animes of all time. I've got the DVD and re-watched it last week for about the billionth time! Anyone interested in breaking into R-rated anime should start with Ninja Scroll.
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