Ambassador Magma

Ambassador Magma

Cover of the second volume from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works edition
マグマ大使
(Maguma Taishi)
Genre Mecha
Manga
Written by Osamu Tezuka
Published by Shōnen Gahosha
Magazine Shōnen Gaho
Original run May 1965 – August 1967
Volumes 3
Television drama
Studio P Productions
Network Fuji TV
Original run July 4, 1966 – September 25, 1967
Episodes 52
Original video animation
Directed by Hidehito Ueda
Studio Bandai Visual, PLEX, Tezuka Productions
Released 1993
Episodes 13

Ambassador Magma (マグマ大使 Maguma Taishi) 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.

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, Agon, 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 indeed lives deep beneath the Earth), are sent to defend our world against Goa. They befriend Atsushi and Mamoru; the latter has touched Magma emotionally, 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.

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 transforming mecha, 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 electrical bolts 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 robot heroes who responded to crises by transforming into rockets 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-foot (15 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 by Bernard H. Schulman's Lakeside Television Co., and syndicated to a limited number of US television stations in early September 1970, under the title The Space Giants. The show was not distributed widely to US television stations until the late 1970s, 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 Avenger.

The North American television and home video distribution rights are still owned by Bernard Schulman under this Lakeside Television banner. It is rumored that the series will be issued in Blu-ray and Digital HD format for the 50th Anniversary in 2016, exclusively produced and distributed through AnimeImages,Inc. and Lakeside Television company in a joint partnership for production and distribution.


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.


US version name changes

1993 OVA series

A 13-episode OVA 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.

Voice cast

Adaptations

In 1979 American comic book 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.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ragone, August and Johnson, Bob. "The Space Giants Series Guide: A Look Back at the Many Incarnations of Ambassador Magma," SciFi Japan (Aug. 27, 2007). Accessed Apr. 17, 2009.

External links

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