Cyborg 009

Author: Ishinomori Shoutarou
(Ishimori Shoutarou/Onodera Shoutarou)
Publisher: Shougakukan
Release date: First published in 1963

—by Eri Izawa

Anyone familiar with manga and anime of the sixties and seventies will recognize the title CYBORG 009. Originally begun in 1963 as a manga, it went on to air as a Toei animation in the 1970s. The manga continued to be published in various magazines, including Shonen Sunday. Though largely discontinued and no longer popular in the 80s and 90s, the very final episode was slated to have been published in the year 2000. However, author Ishinomori Shoutarou passed away this January 28th, and thus we will never see the ending of this long-running, famous, and influential story.
What is the story? Thematically, CYBORG 009 started off a story about a team of nine people - cyborgs - fighting for justice and peace against a powerful evil organization. (In fact, CYBORG 009 probably played quite a role in promoting the team-combat anime theme, which is so famous today.) But eventually, as the years went by, the story became more and more a manga version of the old TV show "In Search Of" --- the cyborgs, sometimes alone, or sometimes in smaller groups, became investigators of the mysterious and the occult, and frequently wound up interacting with such things as legendary lost civilizations, ancient robots, and even gods, aliens, and time travelers.
Ishinomori's art style is distinct (though it does resemble his more famous contemporary Tezuka Osamu's style, to a large degree). With rounder, less strict lines than most modern boys' manga, and with a tendency toward less detail and more interpretative movement, the style speaks clearly of its roots in the early days of the manga industry.

The beginning of the story tells us a surprising amount about Japan of the early 1960s. The world at the time (and indeed, in the introduction to CYBORG 009) seemed hardly recovered from WWII, and now, with Sputnik and the space race, appeared to be rushing madly toward a future of spaceships and high-tech warfare. In CYBORG 009, however, more lies beneath the surface. A secret ultra-high-tech organization (which is later revealed as "Black Ghost") promotes war across the globe. As our story begins, the organization has taken up an interest in producing cyborgs for warfare. To pursue this goal, this group starts kidnapping select, unwanted people: a super-intelligent psychic baby from the USSR, both a gang leader and a Native American from the US, a would-be East Berlin escapee, a failed British actor, a female French student, a starving Chinese worker, an escaped slave(!) in Africa, and eventually, a juvenile delinquent in Japan. Each is converted into a cyborg, becoming partially machine, while retaining a human core. Our hero is, of course, the last of them: a half-Japanese young man named Shimamura Joe, with chestnut-colored hair.
Already we can see the thoughts and stereotypes of the time, as unpleasant or silly as they may seem to modern Western (and Eastern) viewers. The American gang leader (who winds up living up to his name "Jet") is introduced in a classic West Side Story-like scene. The British actor is named Great Britain (I'm not kidding). The African, who had escaped becoming some kind of modern-day slave, is drawn in an old cartoon style most African Americans would probably find distasteful (although, as a character, he is completely cool and competent). The Chinese man is perhaps the worst off; he is not only the least heroic-looking, but also comes off as somewhat backwards and naive. The French woman is, of course, not only our hero's girlfriend, but is also the least martial of them; her forte is in seeing and hearing what others can't. And Joe, the Japanese, doesn't even have a Japanese first name, and doesn't even have black hair (though he is given black hair in the 70s TV show). These hints seem to indicate that, during this era, the Japanese still had a mixed sense of awe and subtle resentment against the West, along with sympathy for people such as Native Americans or Africans, who had traditionally been oppressed by the West (indeed, the latter theme also comes up in some of Tezuka Osamu's works).
Despite depicting these sometimes negative stereotypes, though, CYBORG 009's core philosophy strives to be "One for All, and All for One". The cyborgs express it best. One of them says to 009: "To be of mixed race is not a shameful thing; in fact, you can be proud of it... There will undoubtedly come a time when nationalism and racism disappear." Another agrees: "That's right. We are all one family!" They continue to act as a family throughout the series.

To return to the beginning, the cyborgs, numbered from 001 (the baby) to 009 (our hero), soon rebel against the evil organization that had made them into super-powered killing machines. Along with one old scientist, the cyborgs battle to escape the reach of the organization. While they eventually succeed in escaping, Black Ghost reminds them that it still has vast resources and power by sending new cyborgs and robots - yes, they are early manga giant robots - after them. And while the cyborgs already show signs of becoming a paranormal investigation team at this early stage, their primary enemy still remains Black Ghost.
Like most manga pitting heroes against an evil organization, CYBORG 009 was actually supposed to end. In 1967, Ishinomori Shoutarou gave the heroes an ending so famous that spoofs on it still occur today, three decades later. Our hero Joe/009 is all alone, battling the core of Black Ghost inside a giant robot heading out into space. Meanwhile, back on Earth, a tearful 003 and the others realize that Joe has been sent off on a self-sacrificing mission from which he probably can't return. 002 (Jet), the only cyborg with flying capability, leaps up into the sky to try to save him. Onboard the robot, Joe is told that, as long as humanity retains evil in its heart, Black Ghost will never really die. Still, Joe perseveres in his fight, destroys his opponent, and is blown out into space just as 002 arrives. 002 catches him and apologizes; though he'd come to rescue Joe, he doesn't have enough fuel to take them both back to Earth without burning up on re-entry. Joe tries to make 002 leave him behind and go back safely to the others, but 002 refuses. Instead, as they enter the atmosphere, he asks, "Where would you like to fall?" Here the scene switches to Japan, where a sister and her younger brother are looking up at the night sky and see a falling star. The little boy wishes on the falling star for a toy rifle, but the elder sister instead prays for an end to war and the beginning of world peace.
That was supposed to be the bittersweet end of CYBORG 009, both the manga and the character. But soon piles of distraught mail arrived on the author's doorstep. Admitting later that he "lost to the fans' tears," Ishinomori saved 009 and 002 (via 001's telekinetic powers), and so the series continued on. Yet the almost-ending will probably remain the most powerfully moving and memorable moment of the entire 009 saga, and stands as one of the best scenes from any manga, past or present.
CYBORG 009 - and indeed, many of Ishinomori Shoutarou's works - are historic landmarks in the world of anime and manga. Much can be learned by reading these classics, both about the industry and Japanese society. Anyone with an interest in either should not miss CYBORG 009.

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Final note: Ishinomori's real name is Onodera Shoutarou (or Shotaro). For much of his career, he wrote as "Ishimori Shoutarou," under which name you may find old issues of CYBORG 009. He changed his pen name to "Ishinomori" in the 1980s.