OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *8-Man After

Before The Six Million Dollar Man, Robocop, and Teen Titans' Cyborg, the very first man-machine crimefighter was 8-Man, a manga by Jiro Kuwata, who later went on to do the 60s Batman manga, which was turned into one of the first anime titles to be shown on American television in the 1960s, known out here as Tobor the 8th Man. Unlike numerous anime released in America in the 60s-70s, this unfortunately wasn't one that was kept in reruns like Speed Racer, even though it did get its own retro-styled live-action movie in 1992 that did get a limited English release. Following the movie's success in Japan, it was decided to do a 4-episode OVA followup to the first anime series titled 8-Man After. It's initial release was done by Streamline Pictures with 1-episode per VHS tape, and eventually in the obligatory Perfect Collection video, then later on DVD by Image Entertainment, and more recently on Blu-Ray by Discotek Media. The various releases though haven't exactly boosted the superhero's infamy in the States.

Taking place sometime after the original 60s series, the 8-Man(secretly private eye Azuma)disappears, and his city is overcome with a crimewave of cybernetic thugs. Azuma's old secretary who only discovered his secret identity shortly before his last battle is now working for a company, which is in reality behind the whole robo-baddies empire, run by the evil "Mr. Halloween". The chief bad guy is taken out though very early in the series by his second-in-command, an ex-cop that killed former officer Hazama's sister. Hazama himself is in an accident and given the cybernetic frame of the previous 8-Man to become the new hero on the block. With super-speed and robotic strength, 8-Man has to hunt down the mechanical menaces, while still trying to cling to his humanity.

8-Man After takes the approach of doing a classic hero and refitted for the 90s, similar to Batman Beyond and Phantom 2040, except this was one of the first titles to do so. The anime is much grittier than the campy 60s series, highlighting this 8-Man's willingness to use more extreme methods to take down killer cyborgs. The major drawback is they never give any real answer as to the fate of the original 8-Man, and how his robot body was recovered to be filled in by another candidate. The addition of a "fresh kid" to act as the Scrappy-Doo of the series doesn't help out either. However, the OVA does make for an above-average cyberpunk 90s anime, at least of the ones that came out before Ghost In The Shell.