Ambassador Magma

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ambassador Magma
マグマ大使
(Ambassador Taishi)
Genre Mecha
Manga: Ambassador Magma
Author Osamu Tezuka
Publisher Shōnen Gahosha
Serialized in Shōnen Gaho
Original run May 1965 – August 1967
Volumes 3[1]
TV drama: マグマ大使
Network Fuji TV
Studio P Productions
Original run July 4, 1966 – September 25, 1967
Episodes 52
OVA: Ambassador Magma
Director Hidehito Ueda
Studio Bandai Visual
Episodes 13
Released 1993[2]

Ambassador Magma (マグマ大使 Maguma Taishi?) is the title and protagonist of a manga and tokusatsu TV series created by famous mangaka 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.

Contents

[edit] 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 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.

[edit] 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 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.

[edit] More about the US version (The Space Giants)

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 the 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 gold robot aptly named Goldar and his companion, a silver-clad humanoid female named Silvar. It's 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 alone is capable of firing missiles from his chest cavity. A regularly featured plot device was Miko's ability to summon the robots by blowing a special high-frequency whistle - one blast to summon Gam, two blasts to summon Silvar, and three blasts 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. 52 episodes were made, each running 25 minutes. The US Copyright is Owned by Bernard Schulman and Lakeside TV Company which is based in New York. It was known in Spanish as Monstruos del Espacio and in some English-speaking countries as Space Avengers.

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.

[edit] US version name changes

  • Magma - Goldar
  • Mol - Silvar
  • Gam - (same)
  • Goa - Rodak
  • Lugo Men - (same)
  • Atsushi Murakami - Ito "Tom" Mura
  • Tomoko Murakami - Tomoko Mura
  • Mamoru Murakami - Miko Mura
  • Earth - Methusan

[edit] 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.

[edit] Voice cast

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ambassador Magma (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed on 2007-06-13.
  2. ^ Ambassador Magma (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed on 2007-06-13.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links