Ambassador Magma
Encyclopedia
is the title and protagonist of a manga
and tokusatsu
TV series created by Osamu Tezuka
. The TV series, produced by P Productions
, aired on Fuji TV
from July 4, 1966 to September 25, 1967, with a total of 52 episodes. It is the first color
tokusatsu TV series in Japan, beating Ultraman
to the airwaves by 6 days. The show later aired in the U.S., dubbed in English, as The Space Giants.
, the title monster of a Godzilla
-like TV series) before their very eyes. But they will not agree to surrender to Goa, so hope comes in the form of Magma, an armored, golden giant with long hair and antennae. He and his human-sized wife Mol, both created by the wizard Earth (who sure enough lives deep beneath the Earth), are sent to defend our world against Goa. They befriend Atsushi and Mamoru, the latter has Magma emotionally touched, as he wanted to have a child with his wife Mol, so Earth creates a duplicate of Mamoru, named Gam (who wears a helmet with antennas). Earth gives Mamoru a whistle, with which he can call Gam (when blown once), Mol (when blown twice) and Magma (when blown thrice) in times of crisis. So when Goa unleashes his various daikaiju
, chances are, Magma, Mol, and Gam will fly to the rescue.
Magma, just like his human-sized wife Mol and son Gam, transforms into a giant rocketship. In fact, he is considered one of the earliest Transformers
, even before the anime
super robot
, Brave Raideen
, which set the standard for the genre.
He also shoots rockets out of a panel located in his chest, and shoots laser beams from his antennae.
heroes who responded to crises by transforming into rocket
s to combat a wide variety of dinosaur
-like space monsters, and faceless, ninja
-like villains called Lugo men (人間モドキ ningen-modoki literally mock-human) who melted into oozing blob-like slime when killed.
The main conflict of the story involved an evil space villain named Rodak who continually tried to conquer Earth by sending a new dinosaur-like monster from deep space to wreak havoc on the greater Tokyo
area. The stories were generally resolved in four episodes, much like Doctor Who
, and a new monster would be found by Rodak to begin another four part struggle. Rodak's efforts were opposed by an ancient white-bearded wizard named Methusan (sometimes called Methuselah), aided by a trio of humanoid robots that were capable of changing from humanoid
form into rocket
form.
The human interest in the story was a family of three: a boy named Miko, his mother Tomoko, and his journalist father Ito Mura. The family became involved in the story due to the villain Rodak's desire to publish news of his presence to world media. The Mura family found themselves continually caught in the crossfire of monster attacks and harried by the Lugo men. A major sub-plot in the series developed when Miko's mother was kidnapped by the Lugo men and held in uncertain conditions for a number of episodes.
In the first episodes, the robot team were a duo consisting of a 50 feet (15.2 m) gold robot aptly named Goldar and his companion, a silver-clad humanoid female named Silvar. It is implied they were created by the wizard Methusan. Early in the series, the wizard Methusan completed the team to mirror the Mura family by creating a humanoid rocket-boy named Gam in the image of Miko Mura, complete with his trademark red-and-white sweater vest. All members of the robot team were capable of transforming into rockets identified respectively by gold, silver, and red-and-white color schemes. Each had bulb-tipped antennae
protruding from their heads, capable of discharging directed blasts of gamma rays. Goldar and Silvar are capable of firing missiles from their chest cavity, Silvar is shown only doing this once. A regularly featured plot device was Miko's ability to summon the robots by blowing a special high-frequency whistle - once to summon Gam, twice to summon Silvar, and three times to summon Goldar.
The show first aired in Japan in 1966, and its international title was Space Avenger (one episode was dubbed for international markets). Originally intending to title it Monsters from Outer Space, the entire series was dubbed into English in 1972 under the title The Space Giants, but was not distributed widely to US television stations until 1978, when it became a staple of fledgling Superstation TBS afternoon programming. 52 episodes were made, each running 25 minutes. It was known in Spanish as Monstruos del Espacio and in some English-speaking countries as Space Avengers.
The Copyright and Television and Video Distribution Rights are owned by Bernard Schulman and Lakeside TV, CO.
Ambassador Magma makes a cameo appearance in the 2004 Astro Boy: Omega Factor
game for the Nintendo
Game Boy Advance
, along with a number of other characters created by Osamu Tezuka.
anime
remake was produced in 1993. This series served as a retelling of the original series. The OVA was produced by Bandai Visual
, Tezuka Productions and PLEX, and was directed by Hidehito Ueda.
publisher FBN (Fantasy Book Novels) Publications produced a comic book adaptation (written and drawn by Angel Gabriele
and artist Richard Lynn) of the first four episodes of Ambassador Magma. In 1994, Gabriele did another Space Giants comic book one-shot published by Boneyard Press.
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and tokusatsu
Tokusatsu
is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....
TV series created by Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
. The TV series, produced by P Productions
P Productions
is a Japanese production company, which has produced anime and tokusatsu programs, with minor work in motion pictures. It was founded by the late TV producer Tomio Sagisu. The company exists today as a stockholder...
, aired on Fuji TV
Fuji Television
is a Japanese television station based in Daiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, also known as or CX, based on the station's callsign "JOCX-DTV". It is the flagship station of the Fuji News Network and the ....
from July 4, 1966 to September 25, 1967, with a total of 52 episodes. It is the first color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
tokusatsu TV series in Japan, beating Ultraman
Ultraman
is Japanese television series that first aired in 1966. Ultraman, the first and best-known of the "Ultra-Crusaders," made his debut in the tokusatsu SF/kaiju/superhero TV series, , a follow-up to the television series Ultra Q...
to the airwaves by 6 days. The show later aired in the U.S., dubbed in English, as The Space Giants.
Basic plot
The alien invader Goa plots to conquer the Earth. He first warns the Murakami family (father Atsushi, mother Tomoko, and son Mamoru) of their invasion, and demonstrates his powers by transporting them to a prehistoric jungle and destroying a Giant Dinosaur (in reality, AgonAgon (tokusatsu)
is a 1964 black-and-white Japanese tokusatsu kaiju series. Produced by Nippon Television, the four episode series aired on Fuji TV from January 2, 1968 to January 8, 1968. Internationally, the series is known as Agon: Atomic Dragon...
, the title monster of a Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
-like TV series) before their very eyes. But they will not agree to surrender to Goa, so hope comes in the form of Magma, an armored, golden giant with long hair and antennae. He and his human-sized wife Mol, both created by the wizard Earth (who sure enough lives deep beneath the Earth), are sent to defend our world against Goa. They befriend Atsushi and Mamoru, the latter has Magma emotionally touched, as he wanted to have a child with his wife Mol, so Earth creates a duplicate of Mamoru, named Gam (who wears a helmet with antennas). Earth gives Mamoru a whistle, with which he can call Gam (when blown once), Mol (when blown twice) and Magma (when blown thrice) in times of crisis. So when Goa unleashes his various daikaiju
Kaiju
is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....
, chances are, Magma, Mol, and Gam will fly to the rescue.
Ambassador Magma
Ambassador Magma, despite his robot-like appearance, is not a robot, but actually, a living giant forged from gold. In fact, true to his original manga appearance, in the series pilot opening, the actor playing Magma (Tetsuya Uozumi) wore gold make-up on his face. There were difficulties, though, like the actor's face turning beet-red, drowning out the gold makeup. The easy solution: Uozumi wore a golden human-like mask.Magma, just like his human-sized wife Mol and son Gam, transforms into a giant rocketship. In fact, he is considered one of the earliest Transformers
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
, even before the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
super robot
Super Robot
is a term used in manga and anime to describe a giant robot or mecha, with an arsenal of fantastic super-powered weapons, extreme resistance to damage unless the plot calls for it, sometimes transformable or combined from two or more robots and/or vehicles usually piloted by young, daring heroes,...
, Brave Raideen
Brave Raideen
is a super robot anime series. Produced by Tohokushinsha, Asahi News Agency and Sunrise, it aired on NET from 4 April 1975 to 26 March 1976, with a total of 50 episodes...
, which set the standard for the genre.
He also shoots rockets out of a panel located in his chest, and shoots laser beams from his antennae.
US version (The Space Giants)
The Space Giants is the English title of this series. The show is most notable for its humanoid robotRobot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
heroes who responded to crises by transforming into rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
s to combat a wide variety of dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
-like space monsters, and faceless, ninja
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
-like villains called Lugo men (人間モドキ ningen-modoki literally mock-human) who melted into oozing blob-like slime when killed.
The main conflict of the story involved an evil space villain named Rodak who continually tried to conquer Earth by sending a new dinosaur-like monster from deep space to wreak havoc on the greater Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
area. The stories were generally resolved in four episodes, much like Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, and a new monster would be found by Rodak to begin another four part struggle. Rodak's efforts were opposed by an ancient white-bearded wizard named Methusan (sometimes called Methuselah), aided by a trio of humanoid robots that were capable of changing from humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
form into rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
form.
The human interest in the story was a family of three: a boy named Miko, his mother Tomoko, and his journalist father Ito Mura. The family became involved in the story due to the villain Rodak's desire to publish news of his presence to world media. The Mura family found themselves continually caught in the crossfire of monster attacks and harried by the Lugo men. A major sub-plot in the series developed when Miko's mother was kidnapped by the Lugo men and held in uncertain conditions for a number of episodes.
In the first episodes, the robot team were a duo consisting of a 50 feet (15.2 m) gold robot aptly named Goldar and his companion, a silver-clad humanoid female named Silvar. It is implied they were created by the wizard Methusan. Early in the series, the wizard Methusan completed the team to mirror the Mura family by creating a humanoid rocket-boy named Gam in the image of Miko Mura, complete with his trademark red-and-white sweater vest. All members of the robot team were capable of transforming into rockets identified respectively by gold, silver, and red-and-white color schemes. Each had bulb-tipped antennae
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
protruding from their heads, capable of discharging directed blasts of gamma rays. Goldar and Silvar are capable of firing missiles from their chest cavity, Silvar is shown only doing this once. A regularly featured plot device was Miko's ability to summon the robots by blowing a special high-frequency whistle - once to summon Gam, twice to summon Silvar, and three times to summon Goldar.
The show first aired in Japan in 1966, and its international title was Space Avenger (one episode was dubbed for international markets). Originally intending to title it Monsters from Outer Space, the entire series was dubbed into English in 1972 under the title The Space Giants, but was not distributed widely to US television stations until 1978, when it became a staple of fledgling Superstation TBS afternoon programming. 52 episodes were made, each running 25 minutes. It was known in Spanish as Monstruos del Espacio and in some English-speaking countries as Space Avengers.
The Copyright and Television and Video Distribution Rights are owned by Bernard Schulman and Lakeside TV, CO.
Ambassador Magma makes a cameo appearance in the 2004 Astro Boy: Omega Factor
Astro Boy: Omega Factor
is a beat 'em up video game developed by Treasure Co. Ltd and Hitmaker, and published by Sega. The game was released for the Game Boy Advance console on December 18, 2003 in Japan; August 18, 2004 in North America; and February 18, 2005 in Europe. The game is based on Osamu Tezuka's manga and anime...
game for the Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
, along with a number of other characters created by Osamu Tezuka.
US version name changes
- Magma - Goldar
- Mol - Silvar
- Gam - (same)
- Goa - Rodak
- Atsushi Murakami - Ito "Tom" Mura
- Tomoko Murakami - Tomoko Mura
- Mamoru Murakami - Miko Mura
- Earth - Methusan
- Atsuya Sekita - Kita
- Modoki Men - Lugo Men
1993 OVA series
A 13-episode OVAOriginal video animation
, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...
anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
remake was produced in 1993. This series served as a retelling of the original series. The OVA was produced by Bandai Visual
Bandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
, Tezuka Productions and PLEX, and was directed by Hidehito Ueda.
Voice cast
- Mamoru Murakami - Masami KikuchiMasami Kikuchiis a veteran voice actor who was born in Nagano. He works for Kenyu Office.-Anime:* Air Gear * Aoki Densetsu Shoot * The Brave Express Might Gaine * Captain Tsubasa J...
- US: Jonathan FahnJonathan FahnJonathan Fahn is a voice actor who is the brother of Melissa Fahn and Tom Fahn and the husband of Jennie Fahn.-Anime Roles:* Ambassador Magma - Mamoru Murakami* Battle Athletes Victory - Kannoji, Operator...
- US: Jonathan Fahn
- Atsushi Murakami - Juurouta Kosugi
- US: Sonny ByrkettSonny Byrkett-External links:...
- US: Sonny Byrkett
- Tomoko Murakami - Rika FukamiRika FukamiRica Fukami , born August 8, 1963 in Saitama) is a Japanese voice actress and licensed hypnotherapist.She is the Japanese voice of Linka in Captain Planet and the Planeteers...
- US: Emma Jackson
- Fumiaki Asuka - Hidetoshi Nakamura
- US: Steven BlumSteven BlumSteven Jay Blum is an American voice actor known primarily for his work in anime dubs and video games, using his distinctive deep voice. Among his credits include the voice of Spike Spiegel of the anime series Cowboy Bebop and Mugen of the anime series Samurai Champloo...
- US: Steven Blum
- Miki Asuka - Miki ItoMiki Itois a Japanese voice actress.-Notable voice roles:*Air Gear 2006*Angel Links 1999*Ashita no Nadja *Aishiteruze Baby *Battle Angel Alita *Battle Athletes Victory...
- US: Debra Jean Rogers
- Magma - Akio Ōtsuka
- US: Steven BlumSteven BlumSteven Jay Blum is an American voice actor known primarily for his work in anime dubs and video games, using his distinctive deep voice. Among his credits include the voice of Spike Spiegel of the anime series Cowboy Bebop and Mugen of the anime series Samurai Champloo...
- US: Steven Blum
Adaptations
In 1979 American comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
publisher FBN (Fantasy Book Novels) Publications produced a comic book adaptation (written and drawn by Angel Gabriele
Angel Gabriele
Angel Gabriele, sometimes credited as Pat Gabriele or Pasquale D. Gabriel , is an American comic book artist and publisher, best known for the comic book adaptation of the Space Giants; and a professional wrestling manager and promoter, renowned for his role as the Dark Angel.- Comics :Gabriele...
and artist Richard Lynn) of the first four episodes of Ambassador Magma. In 1994, Gabriele did another Space Giants comic book one-shot published by Boneyard Press.
See also
- List of Osamu Tezuka anime
- List of Osamu Tezuka manga
- Osamu TezukaOsamu Tezukawas a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
- Osamu Tezuka's Star SystemOsamu Tezuka's Star SystemOver the course of his career, Osamu Tezuka reused the same characters in different roles in different stories. The way that Tezuka used the characters in his "star system" can be seen as somewhat analoguous to a film director frequently casting members of a regular "stable" of actors in different...