Steel Jeeg

Kotetsu Jeeg
Kotetsu Jeeg DVD vol.5
鋼鉄ジーグ (Kōtetsu Jīgu)
Genre	Mecha
Anime television series
Directed by	Masayuki Akechi
Written by	Hiroyasu Yamaura, Keisuke Fujikawa, Toyohiro Ando
Studio	Toei Doga
Network	NET (now TV Asahi)
Original run	October 5, 1975 – August 29, 1976
Episodes	46
Manga
Written by	Go Nagai
Illustrated by	Tatsuya Yasuda
Published by	Kodansha
Magazine	TV Magazine Otomodachi*
Original run	August 1975 – June 1976
Volumes	2
Notes
Only a few stories were published in Otodomachi, but they are included in the tankōbon.

Steel Jeeg (鋼鉄ジーグ, Kōtetsu Jīgu), more commonly known as Kotetsu Jeeg or Koutetsu Jeeg, is a super robot anime and manga series created by manga artists Go Nagai and Tatsuya Yasuda. The anime TV series was produced by Toei Doga (now Toei Animation). It was first broadcast on Japanese TV in 1975. The series lasted for 46 episodes. Steel Jeeg also ran as a manga in several children's publications.

A sequel series called Kotetsushin Jeeg (which appears to take place 50 years after the original show) aired on the satellite network WOWOW, beginning April 5, 2007.

Story

Hiroshi Shiba is a car racer who is mortally wounded in a laboratory accident, but restored to life by his father, Professor Shiba, a talented scientist and archaeologist, who is incidentally investigating the relics of the ancient Jamatai Kingdom. During his research, Shiba discovers a tiny bronze bell with tremendous powers. Many years later, prof. Shiba is murdered by the henchmen of Queen Himika, the ruler of Jamatai, who intends on seizing the ancient bell and its power.

Hiroshi learns about his legacy soon after his father's death. He was turned by his father into a cyborg, and made capable of transforming into the head of a giant robot, Steel Jeeg. Prof. Shiba also hid the bronze bell in his son's chest. He did all this with the purpose of preventing the Jamatai invasion of modern Japan.

In some battles, Jeeg is also aided by a robot horse known as Panzeroid. The minions of Queen Himika have huge haniwa phantoms buried thousands of years under Japan's soil, and only Jeeg can destroy them and save the world. Therefore, Hiroshi is forced to lead a double life as well as a career as a racer, and, after his father's death, he also has to take care of his family.

Concept

Steel Jeeg is formed by combining the parts released by the Big Shooter jet, piloted by Prof. Shiba's lovely assistant, Miwa Uzuki. Hiroshi Shiba becomes the head of Steel Jeeg by bumping his fists together.

Staff

Series director: Masayuki Akechi

Episode Director: Kazuya Miyazaki, Masamune Ochiai, Masayuki Akechi, Yoshio Nitta, Yugo Serikawa

Music: Michiaki Watanabe

Original creator: Go Nagai, Tatsuya Yasuda

Character Design: Kazuo Nakamura

Theme music

Opening theme: "Song of Kotetsu Jeeg" (鋼鉄ジーグのうた, Kotetsu Jīgu no Uta), by Ichirou Mizuki with Columbia Yurikago-kai and Koorogi '73

Ending theme: "Theme of Hiroshi" (ひろしのテーマ, Hiroshi no Tēma), by Ichirou Mizuki with Koorogi '73

Video games

Jeeg makes an appearance in 2nd Super Robot Wars Alpha and Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 for the PlayStation 2, and in Super Robot Wars K and Super Robot Wars L for the Nintendo DS

Merchandise

Takara made Jeeg and Panzeroid toys as part of their Magnemo line, making use of a system of magnetic sockets and steel ball joints for unprecedented articulation and interchangeability.

In the United States, the Jeeg and Panzeroid toys were remolded in different colors and new heads were sculpted for Mego's Micronauts "Magno" figures; Baron Karza and Force Commander.

In Italy, the toy company Gig Co, who had the European rights to the Micronauts at the time, made three more figures using the Jeeg toy as a basis; King Atlas, Green Baron, and Emperor. These toys (with the exception of Emperor, who was released in very limited numbers by a company called Lion Rock Toys) were never released in America because Mego went bankrupt before the toys could be unveiled to the US market, while Gig kept the Micronauts license going for a few years afterward in Europe.

Internationalization

The Steel Jeeg anime was broadcast in a number of European countries, where it was quite successful, especially in Italy, where it still has a huge fanbase.

In the 80s the series was shown in Latin America, where it was part of a giant robot show fashioned in the style of Force Five, called "El Festival de los Robots" which translates to "Festival of Robots". Steel Jeeg was called "El Vengador" (The Avenger) along with four other anime shows including Gaiking, Starzinger and Magne Robo Gakeen. The names were translated in Spanish to "El Gladiador", "El Galáctico", and "Supermagnetrón" respectively. Only 25 episodes of the original 46 were dubbed in spanish and aired. This version of the series never reached their conclusion. The spanish theme song of "El Vengador" (Steel Jeeg) was composed and sung by chilean singer Memo Aguirre (Capitán Memo). In 2008 the chilean company SeriesTV edit a set of 24 DVD with Festival de los Robots episodes. This set includes 24 episodes of "El Vengador" with the original spanish dubbing.

Like many popular 70s super robot shows, Steel Jeeg has never been released in the US.

Sequel

On April 5, 2007 at 11:30 p.m. JST a sequel of Steel Jeeg called Koutetsushin Jeeg began airing on the satellite network WOWOW.

External links

• Steel Jeeg's website at Toei Animation (Japanese)
• JEEG, THE STEEL ROBOT at Toei's corporate website
• Kotetsu Jeeg (Japanese) at allcinema
• Kotetsu Jeeg at Animemorial
• Kotetsu Jeeg (manga) (Japanese) at the World of Go Nagai webpage
• Kotetsu Zieg (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• A potential realistic interpretation of Dr.Shiba's Steel Jeeg