First Human Giatrus

Giatrus (Japanese: ギャートルズ, Hepburn: Gyātoruzu) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Shunji Sonoyama. It spawned two other manga, two anime television series, a television drama, and an anime film. The first TV series mark the debut of Joe Hisaishi, composer of My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

Media

Manga

It was first published from 1965 to 1975 in Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha's Weekly Manga Sunday, and spawned two spin-off manga: the first, entitled First Human Gon (はじめ人é–"ゴン, Hajime Ningen Gon) and illustrated by Hideo Shinoda, was published in Gakken's GakushÅ« Magazine in 1966; the second, entitled First Human Giatrus (はじめ人é–"ギャートルズ, Hajime Ningen Gyatoruz), was published by Shogakukan's Gakunen Magazine in 1974.

Anime series

The third manga was adapted by TMS Entertainment into a homonymous anime television series consisting in 77 episodes, which was broadcast on TBS between October 5, 1974 and March 27, 1976. Another anime was produced; this time Studio Pierrot adapted the second manga into a series directed by Yutaka Kagawa that originally ran from April 3, 1996 to January 22, 1997 in NHK-BS2.

Cast

First Human Giatrus

• Gon: Hiroko Maruyama
• Father: Kaneta Kimotsuki
• Mother: Keiko Hanagata
• Dotechin: Kazuya Tatekabe
• Piko-chan: Rihoko Yoshida

Source:

First Human Gon

• Gon: Ikue ÅŒtani
• Father: Kenichi Ogata
• Mather: Miyuki Ichijō
• Dotechin: Chafurin
• Piko-chan: Tomoko Kawakami
• Mammoth / Saber-tooth tiger: Kazuhiro ÅŒguro
• Shinigami: Kōji Ishii

Source:

Film

First Human Giatrus was adapted by TMS Entertainment into an anime film, which was released by Toho in March 15, 1975.

TV drama

The manga was adapted into a live-action Japanese television drama entitled Back to the Giatrus Days (バック・トゥ・ザ・ギャートルズ・デイズ, Bakku tou za Gyātoruzu Deizu). It was produced by Koji Matsuoka and starred Ryoko Takizawa, Katsuhisa Namase and Toshiya Sakai.

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• First Human Giatrus at the Internet Movie Database
• Hajime Ningen Gyatoruz (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Hajime Ningen Gon (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia