Sure, the artistic style of Gigantor may be dated, but this 1964 production is integral for the fledging anime movement that would ultimately take over all creative venues in Japan, as well as influencing generations of animations all over the world. For individuals that want to be amazed by nearly 11 hours of Gigantor, topped with a number of awesome extras, E1’s “Gigantor: The Collection†is something that is a must buy. For those that are not in the know, Gigantor was set in the futuristic year of 2000 (over a lifetime away for the youths that the show was originally oriented toward), and surrounded the events that Little Jimmy Sparks and eir robot, the titular Gigantor, were placed into. The robot itself does not have any more of a link with Little Jimmy than through a robot, so many hijinks abound regarding whom exactly has the remote control at any one time.
The DVD extras that are present in this volume are numerous, and are actually something that viewers interested in the back story of Gigantor will actually want to see. Of course, the best of these featurettes would have to be the interview that was conducted with Fred Ladd, a director that is incredibly familiar with the show. Couple that with a digitization of the first six issues of the Gigantor comic book, and individuals can be assured of another three or four hours of time spent trying to get through this volume. The transfer of the episodes is sharp as all get out; E1 has ensured that they tracked down the original 16MM film on which the show was captured and transferred it at the highest possible quality to the DVD format.
Even if you just wanted to get into the show on the ground level, the price of this set (around $40) is really a slam dunk. Here’s to hoping that the sales of this first volume are enough for E1 to go forward and continue to release subsequent DVDs (and possibly Blu-Rays) of anything related to the Gigantor license.
Rating: 9.0/10
Gigantor: The Collection Volume 1 (DVD Set) / 2009 E1 / 650 Minutes / http://www.entertainmentonegroup.com