|
Would you believe that the 1960's television doctor show Ben Casey was
a major influence on the man who created the Giant Robo OVA? According
to Yasuhiro Imagawa, that's the case - which makes you wonder if Vince
Edwards, the actor who portrayed Dr. Casey, was as important to Giant Robo
as Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the manga artist who created the original Giant
Robo. |
|
In the 1960's, American TV audiences loved the melodrama of Ben Casey.
Imagawa said he's always tried to put that factor into his work. "I always
liked the solid writing in American TV shows. There were a lot of Japanese
TV series that had only cute girls and no story - I hated that," Imagawa
said. |
|
In the case of Giant Robo - especially episode 7, shown at Animazement
- Imagawa said he wanted to make a film about people, not fighting machines.
"No matter how big the robot, it's the human characters that drive the
story," said Imagawa. "If it's a story that you can cry to, as a Ben Casey
fan, I thought I had my chance." |
|
However, getting Giant Robo out of his head and onto celluloid was a protracted,
torturous process. Imagawa was working on the delayed Battle Cruiser Yamato
remake when he got a chance to start the Giant Robo anime. For years, the
project would take a step forward, then fall back when sponsors dropped
away. Even when Imagawa finally got the anime into productions, he faced
years of delays - and feels he has still not gotten the definitive Giant
Robo story on film. |
|
Imagawa agrees with those who call Robo a retro-future show. "People who
see it say it's like something they saw a long time ago and can't remember
it, so it must be brand new," he said. |
