is a Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

produced by

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

. It is the third installment to

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

's ''Magne-Robo'' franchise. It aired from

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

from September 5, 1976 to June 26, 1977, with a total of 39 episodes. Outside Japan, several episodes were edited by Collins Walker and cobbled together into a movie-length feature produced by International Media Group and released by Century Video Corporation (''

The Adventures of Pinocchio ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' ( ; , i.e. "The Adventures of Pinocchio. Story of a Puppet"), commonly shortened to ''Pinocchio'', is an 1883 Children's literature, children's fantasy novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi. It is about the mischi ...

''), and in this format it is also known as ''Magnos the Robot'' or ''Renegade Force''.

Story

Doctor Kazuki, who perceived of an invasion of Earth by the Izaru people builds a robot based on the science of magnetism and sphere joint theory. Undergoing a dangerous augmentation process, Doctor Kazuki's daughter Mai becomes the pilot of "Mighty" or "Magnetman Minus". Takeru Hojo becomes the pilot of "Puraiza" or "Magnetman Plus". The pilots would hold each other and then physically transform their joint bodies in a metallic plate locking itself on the Gakeen (Short for "Gathering Keen") robot's frame thus enabling the

super robot Mecha, also known as giant robot or simply robot, is a genre of anime and manga that feature mecha in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; " super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where r ...

to move and fight.

Concept

Gakeen became one of the many super robot series to appear after the seminal works such as ''

Mazinger is a long-running series of manga and anime featuring giant robots or mecha created by Go Nagai in 1972. It introduced the concept of mecha as robots which are ridden by humans and controlled like vehicles to Japanese science fiction (previous ...

'' and ''

Getter Robo is a Japanese Mecha anime and manga, mecha media franchise created by Ken Ishikawa (manga artist), Ken Ishikawa and Go Nagai. An anime television series produced by Toei Animation was broadcast on Fuji TV from April 4, 1974, to May 8, 197 ...

'' opened the floodgates to the genre. The robot was notable for its creative weaponry systems such as cutting fists, Gakeen fists, steel claws, bladed foot. Other specialties include magnetic onslaught, magnetic draw, arm cutter, laser beams, atomic hurricane. The show further extended the transformation into very long complex sequences that would become trendy for similar shows to follow.

Characters

* Takeru Hojo

Toshio Furukawa is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator affiliated with Aoni Production. He is married to fellow voice actress Shino Kakinuma. Career He became famous for his roles in his career as Kagege (''Sgt. Frog''), Kai Shiden (''Mobile Suit G ...

* Mai Kazuki

Kazuko Sugiyama , known by her stage name , is a Japanese actress and Voice acting in Japan, voice actress who was born in Nagoya and works for Aoni Production. In February 2010, she received a "Merit Award" from the 4th Seiyu Awards. Filmography Anime *Hanak ...

Staff

* Creator
Shinobu Urakawa * Director

Tomoharu Katsumata is a Japanese film director best known for his work on various anime works. A leading director at the Toei Animation studio during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Katsumata worked as a director on several of Toei's anime television adaptations of m ...

* Music
Michiaki Watanabe * Character design
Kazuo Komatsubara * Mechanical design
Tadanao Tsuji * Singer
Ichirou Mizuki

Mitsuko Horie is a Japanese actress, Voice acting in Japan, voice actress and singer from Yamato, Kanagawa. She is known as the . Horie has voiced several characters throughout her career, such as Shadow Galactica#Sailor Galaxia, Sailor Galaxia in ''Sailor ...

DVD

In Japan, it has been released as a DVD box set. Outside Japan, it was released on an edited 90-minute film DVD by Liberty International Entertainment. In Italy the series has been released on the home video market by Yamato Video who presented the whole series since only the first part was broadcast during the 1980s by local TV networks; the second half has a different voice cast.

Merchandise

released the rare Robotman Gakeen in 1976. The toy was released as part of the Robotman Series, which was originally intended to be the bridge between

Microman was a science fiction toyline created, manufactured and marketed by Takara, Takara Co., Ltd. from 1974 to 1984 as well as from 1998 to 2007. The ''Microman'' line was a series of action figures with accompanying vehicles, robots, playsets and ...

and Henshin Cyborg series to form a larger toy tie-in project called Victory Series. When Henshin Cyborg line was terminated in 1974 however, there was no longer a reason for keeping the Victory Series and Robotman then became part of Microman line.GaKeen Toys
Robotman Series
''GaKeen Toys''. Retrieved on 2006-11-21. CM's Corporation then released a Brave Gokin version of Gakeen in September 2008.

References

External links

''Magne Robo Gakeen''s website in Toei Animation
(in Japanese)
Pictures and summaries of ''Magne Robo Gakeen''s chapters
(in Italian)

* * {{Toei Animation 1976 anime television series debuts 1977 Japanese television series endings Adventure anime and manga Super robot anime and manga Toei Animation television TV Asahi original programming