Ganbare!! Robocon

This train on the Senseki Line, commissioned in honor of Shotaro Ishinomori, features Robocon prominently.

Ganbare!! Robocon (がんばれ!!ロボコン, Ganbare!! Robokon, Do Your Best!! Robocon) is a Japanese tokusatsu comedy family robot television series created by Shotaro Ishinomori and produced by Toei. It ran for 118 episodes from October 4, 1974 to March 25, 1977 on NET TV.^[1] The series is rebooted in the 1999 series Moero!! Robocon (燃えろ!!ロボコン, Moero!! Robokon, Burn!! Robocon) that ran from January 31, 1999 (a week after the finale of Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack) to January 23, 2000 (a week before the premiere of Kamen Rider Kuuga).^[2]

The story followed Robocon, a student of Gantz' Robot Academy who lives amongst humans and aids them as part of his studies. Though Robocon is a screw up, he make efforts to establish a good image for robots in the eyes of humans they cross paths with.

Robots

• Robocon: A robot who lives amongst humans and aids them as part of his studies at Robot Academy. However, Robocon is a screw-up and is afraid of cockroaches. He can transform into the Robocon Car.

• Gantsu Sensei: The robot teacher of Robot Academy who built all his student robots, who he accesses via the Scoring Connecter to check their "study" of the week.

• Robobin: A delivery robot who is normal of leisure until he transforms into bike-mode, becoming fast yet impulsive. He always makes sure his deliveries get there on time and takes his job very seriously. Unfortunately, Robocon seems to always be there to mess things up for him somehow getting him a low score in the end.

• Robo-P: A policewoman robot who likes to whistle. She has a huge crush on Robocon and is usually distracted from her duties because of it.

• Robogeta: Though a weather forecasting robot, his forecast rarely proves right. What he does is throw his slipper into the air and judges the weather from the position it lands in. He always scores low because of this. He later makes friends with Roboboss as the bullies to Robocon.

• Robokero: A frog-karaoke robot. He always tries to improve the mood with singing and believes that songs are a good way of cheering people up. He scores decently, but what he does usually isn't sufficient enough to earn a perfect score.

• Robomogu: An egg-shaped chef robot who works in a restaurant and serves people delicious food. He's friendly and sociable, but takes his cooking very seriously.

• Robodigi: Robodigi is a robot with a large monitor like head with two number digits as eyes (his neutral eyes is the number eight and the line in the middle moves to show sadness/anger) He always speaks politely and is a know it all. He works in a laboratory helping solve complex problems.

• Roboboss: He works at a construction site and is physically the most powerful robot in his class. Rash and impulsive, he is always looking for ways to get a perfect score. And once that gets too hard he tries to find ways to ruin everyone else's.

• Robin-chan: A robotic ballerina on whom Robocon has a crush. Robin-chan played a major role in the film "Robocon Dai Boken" in which she was kidnapped by space pirates when their leader, the elderly warlock Akuma, wants her as his bride. The original actress who played Robin-chan returned for a cameo in the Heisei version of the show, Moero!! Robocon.

Cast

• Shintaro Oyama: Shigehisa Ōno
• Hatsue Oyama: Midori Katō
• Hajime Oyama: Yoshikazu Yamada
• Midori Oyama: Mayumi Sakuma
• Makoto Oyama: Nobuyoshi Fukuda
• Robin-chan: Kaho Shimada
• Yamamoto-sensei: Yukari Yamamoto
• Officer Machida: Tōru Yuri
• Taro Ogawa: Masahiro Sumiyoshi
• Yoshiko Ogawa: Miyuki Ueda
• Mayumi Ogawa: Yukiko Ebina
• Susumu Ogawa: Makoto Honda

Voice Cast

• Robocon: Keiko Yamamoto
• Gantz-sensei: Keiichi Noda
• Robogari: Sachiko Chijimatsu
• Robopar/Robo Mecha: Kōji Yada
• Robowal/Robopu/Robobin: Ichirō Nagai
• Robodoro/Roboton: Kenichi Ogata
• Roboton: Keaton Yamada
• Robosho/Robokiwi/Robochoi: Sanji Hase
• Roboton/Robogaki/Robogera: Osamu Katō
• Robopecha/Robopyon: Kazuko Sawada
• Robowal/Robocar: Yonehiko Kitagawa
• Robodeki: Akira Kamiya
• Robomero: Junko Hori
• Roboinu: Kaneta Kimotsuki/Shun Yashiro
• Roboriki: Hiroshi Masuoka
• Robopeka: Isamu Tanonaka
• Robo-chan: Kazuko Sugiyama

Theme Songs

All songs were sung by Ichirou Mizuki and composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi.

• OP 1: Ganbare Robocon, written by Shotaro Ishinomori
• OP 2: Oira Robocon Robotto dai! (おいらロボコンロボットだい!) by Shotaro Ishinomori
• ED 1: Robocon, Best in the Robot World (ロボコン・ロボット世界一, Robokon Robotto Sekaiichi) written by Saburō Yatsude
• ED 2: Robocon Gattsurakon (ロボコンガッツラコン) by Saburō Yatsude
• Summer ED: Robocon Ondo (ロボコン音頭) by Saburō Yatsude
• Winter ED: Run! Robocon Athletic Meet (走れ!!ロボコン運動会, Hashire! Robokon Undōkai) by Shotaro Ishinomori

References