8th Man, you know, Tobor!

here's a cool and sort of rare cartoon- though oddly, there's a ton of episodes available in various PD compilations floating about on dollar DVDs and such.  however, it was aired in the wake of the huge success of Astro Boy and Gigantor.

however, this was one I never saw growing up at all.  I first saw it offered for sale at Star*Con 1989, and then several volumes were on sale at my first Comicon in 1990.

dealers back then wanted $20 for a tape with five episodes on it, in various video and audio quality.  I eventually traded for about 30 episodes of the 52 episode run.  that's a lot of 8th Man to watch.  not sure I ever did see every episode I had, though I transferred them to DVD-r at some point.

this Japanese cartoon is a bit more American than some of the others.  these are some frame grabs from the episode "Target: 8th Man".  here the Black Butterfly Gang outfits a man with a costume that gives him powers similar to 8th Man so the Butterflies can destroy him.

here we can see the buff villain vowing to destroy 8th Man on his honor.  I'm pretty sure this doesn't happen, but I'd hate to spoil the episode for anyone!  though I am also sure most people will know that our hero will survive this dastardly plot and be able to fight evil in the next episode.

which of course is exactly what happens.  there were some recurring villains, such as the Butterfly Gang, Intercrime and Dr. Spectra.

it's a pretty violent show, with death by gunshots in nearly every episode, not to mention rockets, lasers and even a robot tiger on occasion!  he also fought aliens and giant birds and monstrous eelers. 

here we see a rather awesome display of strength, which might remind a fan or two of some other superhero.

naturally, a cool cartoon like this is not available in good quality on commercial DVD, but you can get great copies here.  they also have many fine and cool things to view.