Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot
Based off the comic book Giant Robo by Mitsuteru Yokoyama (who also created Gigantor), Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot ran on Japanese TV from 1967-1968. The original manga, which ran the same years along side the show, was published in the Weekly Shonen Sunday. Being that they ran at the same time the plots differed a bit. The comic told the story of Johnny Sokko and his robot, Giant Robo, saving the world from the evil secret society known as Big Fire, who uses evil giant robots in an attempt to take over the planet. The TV version’s villain was an evil-doer from outer-space, who uses an array of giant monsters and robots to take over the world. In concept they’re the same, however due to differences in villains, the stories took two slightly different routes, although the TV show was still approved by Yokoyama.
In 1969 American International Television (who also brought over a few Gamera movies and Gappa the Triphibian Monster) dubbed the series and renamed it Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, which ran for years under syndication, hitting a big peak in the early 1970s.
Johnny Sokko has been a favorite for giant-monster, sci-fi, and comic book fans for years now, and here’s the cool news why I’m bringing up a 60’s show all this time later: HULU has the entire 26-episode TV series up to watch for free (and as you may know, on my all-time list of favorite things, free comic book-based movies and TV shows are up there)! This is a blessing, being that the series is rare to see on TV now-a-days and the only official home release here stateside was 10-episodes on videotape back in the mid-90s. So to get a chance to see a full run for all this great retro-giant-robot-action is just uber-swank.
Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot tells the story of Johnny Sokko, a boy who accidentally gains control of a giant robot named, well, Giant Robot (or Giant Robo in the Japanese version) and is enlisted by the Unicorn Agency (protectors of the world) to fight against the evil Draculon, who has landed on Earth and is trying to enslave us with an array of his own giant monsters and robots. Fighting alongside Unicorn top agent Jerry Mono, Johnny and Giant Robot face an array of strange villains and fantastic creatures.
Production values may look a little low by today’s standards, but it is lives up to 60s quality. The stories are always fun with a handful of episodes retaining excellent writing even in their translated English scripts. The American voice acting team you’ll recognize from dubbed versions of Speed Racer and Ultra Man.
Fun for everyone: period.
Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net
You know about the weirdest stuff man, lol.
going to HULU now!!
Thanks!
I really needed a good laugh and this provided it! A friend of mine bought what he THOUGHT was an Ultraman set since thats what the box art showed but when he got home it was this Johnny Sokko show! I just called him and he still has it to this day…wow!
Good God, I remember watching this show on tv back in the late 70’s! I’m goona go watch it right now!
Drew, you are into some wacky stuff dude. The only thing I ever liked that is comparable to this was Godzilla.
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Gonna to watch it again after 40 yrs