Giatrus (ギャートルズ) 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. This TV series marked the debut of Joe Hisaishi, composer of My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. The official English title is Gon, The Stone-Age Boy.[1]
Media
Manga
It was first published from 1965 to 1975 in Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha's Weekly Manga Sunday,[2][3] and spawned two spin-off manga: the first, entitled First Human Gon (はじめ人間ゴン) and illustrated by Hideo Shinoda,[4] was published in Gakken's Gakushū Magazine in 1966;[5] the second, entitled First Human Giatrus (はじめ人間ギャートルズ), was published by Shogakukan's Gakunen Magazine in 1974.[5]
Shunji Sonoyama won the 1976 Bungeishunjū Manga Award for his work on the manga series.[6]
Anime series
The third manga was adapted by Tokyo Movie into a homonymous anime television series consisting in 77 episodes, which was broadcast on ABC between October 5, 1974, and March 27, 1976.[7][8][9] 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.[10]
Cast
Source:[9]
Source:[10]
- First Human Giatrus
- Gon: Hiroko Maruyama
- Father: Kaneta Kimotsuki
- Mother: Keiko Hanagata
- Dotechin: Kazuya Tatekabe
- Piko-chan: Rihoko Yoshida
- First Human Gon
- Gon: Ikue Ōtani
- Father: Kenichi Ogata
- Mather: Miyuki Ichijo
- Dotechin: Chafurin
- Piko-chan: Tomoko Kawakami
- Mammoth / Saber-tooth tiger: Kazuhiro Ōguro
- Shinigami: Kōji Ishii
Cast
Source:[9]
Source:[10]
- First Human Giatrus
- Gon: Hiroko Maruyama
- Father: Kaneta Kimotsuki
- Mother: Keiko Hanagata
- Dotechin: Kazuya Tatekabe
- Piko-chan: Rihoko Yoshida
- First Human Gon
- Gon: Ikue Ōtani
- Father: Kenichi Ogata
- Mather: Miyuki Ichijo
- Dotechin: Chafurin
- Piko-chan: Tomoko Kawakami
- Mammoth / Saber-tooth tiger: Kazuhiro Ōguro
- Shinigami: Kōji Ishii
Film
First Human Giatrus was adapted by Tokyo Movie into an anime film, which was released by Toho on March 15, 1975.[11][12]
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). It was produced by Koji Matsuoka and starred Ryoko Takizawa, Katsuhisa Namase and Toshiya Sakai.[13]
Plot
During the stone age, Gon is a boy living with his parents and his friend, a gorilla named Dotechan. He goes out hunting for mammoths on the plains and always loves his girlfriend Piko. His father gets occasional seizures where he supposedly dies and three men come from heaven to pick him up, but Gon saves him everytime.
External links
References
- GON, THE STONE-AGE BOY (Hajime ningen Gon) : EXPO 2005 AICHI, JAPAN^
- http://natsukashi.skr.jp/top/toranomaki/genre/magazine/magazine.html Natsukashi, retrieved June 10, 2013^
- Eguchi, Kazuhiro. Poser Scene Master: 3Dでよみがえる、あの名場面 BNN, 2006^
- —^
- http://www.j-n.co.jp/company/trivia.html Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, retrieved June 10, 2013^
- 文藝春秋漫画賞 Comic Lab, retrieved April 2, 2015^
- Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy. The Anime Encyclopedia Stone Bridge Press, 2006, 2006^
- Daniel Valentin Simion. Il Dizionario dei Cartoni Animati Anton, 2009, 2009^
- http://www.moviesquare.jp/channel/catalog?c=gatrs TMS Entertainment, retrieved June 10, 2013^
- http://pierrot.jp/archives/tv_list_1995/tv_032.html Studio Pierrot, retrieved June 10, 2013^
- http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_c.php?num_c=144996 AllCinema Movie & DVD Database, retrieved June 10, 2013^
- http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1975/cy000640.htm Japanese Movie Database, retrieved June 10, 2013^
- http://www.nhk.or.jp/drama/archives-catalogue/pglist/pglist_1990-94.html NHK, retrieved June 10, 2013^