Kikaider

"I was right. You're nothing more than some mad machine."

—Mitsuko Komyoji, in Android Kikaider: The Animation in every single episode.

Android Kikaider (人造人間キカイダー, Jinzō Ningen Kikaider) was originally a 1972 Japanese live-action series that aired alongside a tie-in manga version, both created by Shotaro Ishinomori. An animated version was produced in 2001 in a rather retro art style quite similar to that of the manga. The overall plot of the animation was also much closer to that of the manga than the plot of the live-action series was. The live-action show was typical Tokusatsu fare, with a monster-of-the-week, transformation sequences, and lots of people in rubber costumes.

The basic story follows Jiro, a robot who was built by Doctor Komyoji in order to stop DARK and Professor Gill from achieving world domination. What will enable Jiro to do so is GEMINI, a special conscience circuit designed to help Jiro distinguish between good and bad and thus ignore the evil orders of Professor Gill. However, GEMINI was left incomplete due to Professor Gill catching wind of Doctor Komyoji's intentions and taking him prisoner. Jiro meets the doctor's daughter, and the two of them, along with a private detective, his assistant, and Mitsuko's little brother, set out to find the Doc and attempt to fix Jiro's broken conscience circuit. Professor Gill sends out his robot minions to try and thwart them, but Jiro is able to change into his high-powered alter-ego Kikaider and stop them.

The tokusatsu series was followed by Kikaider 01, which focuses on a new Kikaider model of the same name who goes under the civilian identity of Ichiro. An OVA version of Kikaider 01 was also produced which serves as a sequel to the first anime series, but despite the title, focuses more on Jiro than Ichiro. A spinoff movie titled Mechanical Violator Hakaider was made, which recasts Kikaider's rival as an Anti-Hero.

The TV anime series and the OVA aired on Adult Swim in 2003.

Tropes used in Kikaider include:

• The Abridged Series: Two, one by Chicken monkey studios, and one version by Black bug brutha.
• A Real Man Is a Killer
• Anyone Can Die
• Artifact Title: The OVA series being entitled "Kikaider 01" as it was based on the series starring Ichiro. Even though he isn't the star in this adaptation, Jiro is.
• After the End: The Hakaider spin-off movie.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "Is that a good order, or a bad order?"
• Back for the Finale: The little girl who lost her cat in the beginning of the series shows up again in one of the last scenes of the OVA finale. Along with Hattori and Etsuko, though you'd have to keep an eye out for them in the background to spot them.
• Batman Gambit: Professor Gil arranged the death of Dr. Komyoji's older son, and later second marriage to convince him to make his robots.
• Becoming the Mask: Mitsuko's mother, who was just a mole doing her job. She claimed to Mitsuko that she never wasn't the mask, but reveals that she really does love her children.
• Become a Real Boy
• Big Bad: Professor Gill, leader of DARK.
• Bittersweet Ending: Both anime series, although Kikaider01 ends on a far less optimistic note than its predecessor.
  • The closing narration in the OVA sums it up well: "And yet I wonder... in becoming human, did Pinocchio truly find happiness?"
• Book Ends: The first episode opens with the story of Pinocchio, and the last scene of the OVA episodes reads the ending to it.
  • One episode begins and ends with a shot of a flower vase as a woman says "I will wait for you."
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Hattori is cheap, and slightly stupid, but he and Etsuko managed to find Jiro well enough when hired to locate him.
• Brain In a Jar: Hakaider carries the brain of Dr. Komyoji in his head; it usually doesn't have any role in Hakaider's personality or actions. Professor Gill later undergoes an Emergency Transformation into a Hakaider-style body.
• Breaking Speech: Mitsuko gets one during the anime, with the Monster of the Week asking her if she's thought out her feelings for Jiro and how she'd react if Jiro fell in love with her. Jiro gets the "you'll never be human" one throughout the anime. In the OVA he turns this on Gill, explaining that with the newly implanted submission circuit, Jiro now has the evil heart that Gill wanted him to have. Jiro utilizes this new ability to kill him, saying that Gill gave him the means to finally become human.
• Brown Note: Gill's flute, which controls all of DARK's robots and can drive Jiro Brainwashed and Crazy. As the page quote indicates, this didn't make a good impression on Mitsuko in the anime.
  • Saburo's whistling can do the same thing.
• Composite Character: Professor Gill's twin children, Akira and Rumi, were reduced to just one character in the OVA.
• Continuity Nod: In one episode Mitsuko's little brother befriends some people who turn out to be the Monster of the Week, after Jiro destroys them the boy is horrified and cries for them. An episode or two later it shows him hiding and secretly still mourning them.
• Corrupt the Cutie: As the OVA shows, to become truly human, you have to learn the good and the bad parts of humanity. If he only learned about love and peace and forgiveness he wouldn't be a real man, he'd be a saint. To become truly human he has to give in to darkness too.
• Credits Montage: Adult Swim cut out the opening credits when they aired the show, but instead of showing the normal closing credits, they instead played a series of video clips from throughout the series to the tune of the opening credits theme, probably because they really wanted to use that song.
• Cultural Cross-Reference: The fact that the conscience circuit has a name resembling that of a certain cricket is not a coincidence.
• Darker and Edgier:The anime is this compared to the tokusatsu version from the 1970's.
• Deep-Cover Agent: In the anime, Mitsuko—Dr. Komyoji's daughter—learns that her mother was actually an agent of Professor Gill sent to keep the Doctor "in line".
• Defeat Means Friendship: Bijinder joins their team, oddly, she decides to join them after her side pummels them.
• Did They or Didn't They?: The infamous "arm repair" scene from "The Machine That Dreams" is close to the type 4 variety.
• The Dulcinea Effect: When asked in the OVA why Jiro is bent on protecting Rieko, who's backstory is pretty suspiciously vague, Jiro just says it's the right thing to do.
• Driven to Suicide: Soon after the characters meet Mitsuko's mother, she commits suicide, right in front of them.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The bat android, he fancies himself a gentleman and shows a degree of compassion. Justified because he has a prototype Gemini circuit.
• Evil Counterpart: Hakaider/Saburo
• Evil Plan: Gill, leader of DARK, wants to take over the world with robots.
• Fairy Tale Motifs: The story of Pinocchio is referenced throughout the series numerous times. The plot parallels are fairly obvious.
• Fake Memories: Rieko, in the 4-part OVA.
• FemBot: Bijinder's actual robot form is more this trope, rather than her Robot Girl casual appearance. Complete with two giant yellow cones jutting out of her chest so we know she's female.
• Foot Focus: three times in the anime Mitsuko spends nearly the entire episode barefoot.
• Fridge Logic: When Rieko dies, what is stopping them from simply repairing her, instead of just burying her parts?
• Henshin Hero: The anime and OVA seem to be a sort of deconstruction of the genre.
• The Hero Dies: The trope is pointed out in one episode by a man who saves an entire city, only to be fatally wounded shortly after. "I thought the good guys always lived..."
• High Heel Face Turn: Bijinder
• Humanity Is Infectious: In the beginning of the OVA series, Bijinder is just another robot goon working for the Big Bad. But after encountering Jiro and the others, she starts to grow empathy and feelings for other people. When she asks Kikaider 00 about this, he simply rejects the notion that they can possibly have feelings, and tells her it is nothing more than simple malfunctions, not love.
  • The gold bat robot seems to slowly be affected by his interactions with Mitsuko.
• I Am a Monster: Jiro spends a few episodes hating himself because people think he's a monster, and Gill makes him do terrible things. For a while he even refused to willingly transform in front of Mitsuko because he didn't want her to think he was ugly.
• If It's You It's Okay: Played straight, but not the way you think. Mitsuko hates all robots. All except Jiro.
• I Will Wait for You: Mitsuko after Jiro runs away at the end of the anime. Jiro does eventually try to return to her in the OVAs, only for her and her family to have left the country by then.
  • The woman in one episode who is waiting for the man she cared for to return to her. Not realizing he died that night to save the entire city.
• Journey to Find Oneself
• Just a Machine: Mitsuko lays it all out by bluntly stating the page's quote up there. And then again, and again. And then they play flashbacks of that quote a lot of times in the show. If you don't learn to laugh about it, it'd drive you insane.
  • Most of the robots built by DARK tell Jiro that they do not have sympathy or goodness or even evil in their hearts, because they are just machines fulfilling what they were programmed to do.
  • Kikaider 00 fully believes that he is nothing more than metal and wires, and that any notion that robots can feel emotions is completely ridiculous.
• Instant Expert: Jiro knows how to operate The Sidemachine (his motorcycle) immediately after finding it, and can play his guitar at a virtuoso level after watching a guy play scales a single time.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: After the company that supported the English dub dropped the series, it's getting harder to get a hold of some of the DVDs.
• Kill'Em All: In the OVA, Every single android, good or evil, is annihilated by Jiro's hands, as the city lies in complete destruction with only a handful of survivors.
• Kirk Thornton: as Hanpei Hattori.
• Large Ham: The golden bat robot guy, who seems to be as melodramatic as it gets.
  • All the villains in the 1970's version.
• Laser Guided Tykebomb: Hakaider
• Law of Inverse Recoil: in the spin-off movie "Mechanical Violator Hakaider".
• Made of Explodium: When a robot is defeated they always explode.
• Magic Pants: Jiro transforms into a his robot form by his hair, skin and clothes literally being ripped off of him. Somehow when he's done fighting he's back to normal.
• Mecha-Mooks: All of the monsters Jiro fights are only robots. Though he still has trouble finding it morally acceptable to fight them, as he considers them to be his family.
• Ms. Fanservice: Ofcourse every girl wears a mini skirt in the show, but Bijinder seems to be the only character explicitly meant to be sexy.
• The Mole: Ichiro/01 accuses Bijinder of being a spy when she decides to go with them. But it turns out the real mole was Rieko, who helped Gill track them down. Though she herself didn't know it.
• Monster of the Week
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Bijinder and Rieko's emotions are connected, and Bijinder can feel what she's feeling if intense enough. This is because Rieko's actually asimilar-model android, making the two akin to twins and playing off of the myth of twins having ESP... only with robots. Best not to think too hard about it.
• Mysterious Parent: Apparently Mitsuko and Masaru had no idea what their father was up to in his free time in their backyard castle. It turns out he is involved in a complex conspiracy. And lets not even start with their mother.
• Noble Demon: The Golden Bat robot, who has a prototype version of the GEMINI circuit.
• No Name Given: A lot of the monsters of the week weren't given real names, or atleast weren't clear about them. Such as giant mantis, robot black ant guy, golden bat vampire dude, and that one leopard robot, and the flying turtle that shoots rocks.
  • They do have names which pretty much boil down to what color they are and the animal they're based on.
  • I'm not sure if it's ever mentioned more than once at most in the anime, but Hattori's assistant is apparently named Etsuko.
• Not Worth Killing
• Offing the Offspring: Mitsuko's mom holds a gun up against her head and threatens to kill Mitsuko. But ultimately can't go through with it.
• One-Scene Wonder: Considering the OVA only has four episodes, and Rei/00 is introduced in the third episode, we don't really get a lot of time to actually know much about him at all. Another example would be the golden bat vampire robot, who is amazing.
• Only Six Faces: Bijinder seems to be Mitsuko in a different outfit, and Rieko looks and dresses exactly like Mitsuko only with long hair.
  • Which eplains quite well Jiro's desire to protect her
• Osamu Tezuka: It's very clear that the art style is reminiscent of Tezuka's classic anime style.
  • That's because Ishinomori was greatly inspired by Tezuka's stories.
• Panty Shot: A very blatant one during Bijinder's transformation
• People in Rubber Suits:The 1970's series.
• Phlebotinum Rebel
• Pinocchio Syndrome
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Akira and the doomsday device.
• Pun-Based Title: The name "Kikaider" is pronounced in Japanese like the phrase "kikai da" or "it's a machine".
• Put on a Bus: In the OVA series the Komyoji's home is completely empty, because they apparently went overseas for their father's recovery. This very quick offhand mention is all we ever see of them.
  • This is actually foreshadowed at the end of the first series when Hattori and Etsuko visit Mitsuko she mentions that her father's doctor suggests going overseas for his rehab.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Every evil robot has red eyes, and whenever Jiro is under control his eyes turn red.
  • Gil seems to have red eyes normally.
• Replacement Goldfish: Jiro (literally "next son") was modoled after the likeness of his creator's dead son Ichiro ("first son"). Hakaider's human name, Saburo ("third son") continues the theme.
• Restraining Bolt: Jiro and his brothers are unique in not having these.
• Robo-Family: All androids refer to eachother as siblings.
• Robot Girl: Bijinder, and as it turns out, Rieko is one too.
• Robotic Reveal: Used a few times for dramatic affect, usually getting the same reaction of terror from everyone.
• Robosexual: Mitsuko had quite a hard time dealing with the fact that she was in love with her robot brother.
  • Literally technical incest.
• Say My Name: Mitsuko, after the DARK headquarters ignites with Jiro still in there.
• Sixth Ranger: Kikaiders 00 and 01.
• Spell My Name with an "S": The officially licensed subtitled DVDs of the tokusatsu version by Hawaiian-based JN Productions calls the show Kikaida
• Spiritual Successor: Choujinki Metalder is pretty much the 80's version of Kikaider.
• Stealth Pun: Gemini Circuit = Jimminy Cricket
• The Stoic: Kikaider 00, who spends his time in the OVA leaning angstily, and discussing how love and feelings are dumb.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In the OVA series Rieko and Akira have an uncanny resemblance to Mitsuko and Masaru. Dr. Gill in one instance slightly lampshades this by mentioning their resemblance may have been what attracted Jiro to them.
  • Then in the OVA there is the evil organization SHADOW. In no way related to DARK.
• Sweater Girl: Mitsuko spends all of two scenes in the series not wearing a tight form fitting sweater.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: DARK, a very vague eeeevil shadowy organization that wants to do... bad things, it's not always very clear, but world domination is involved, but seems mostly focused on just beating the tar out of Jiro.
  • As stated above, the OVA series has SHADOW. A vaguely different organization ran by the same people. But they seem to be confused about themselves too because now and then they refer to themselves as DARK.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Saburo/Hakaider
• Tears From a Stone: In one episode, Jiro sheds a tear, and everyone around him is astounded at how impossible that is, Gill in particular is terrified at the implications of what Jiro's conscience circuit could be evolving into. Does it actually make that much sense? Well, no, but it's just so dramatic we let it slide.
• Thriteen Episode Anime: Quite literally.
  • Although the DVD adds one episode that is nothing but clipshows and filler.
• Token Minority: The black android toting a lovely afro in the fourth episode of the anime is one of the few black people seen in animes these days.
• Toku
• Torpedo Tits: Bijinder, who can fire lasers out of her boobs.
• Transformation Sequence
• Transformation Trinket: Jiro must push the two switches in his shoulders to transform.
• Troubled but Cute: Akira has been described as tragically huggable.
• Monster of the Week: For quite a large part of the anime it had this format.
  • Played straight in the 1970's series.
• What Have I Done: Jiro in the second episode, after being controlled by Gil's flute
  • And in the first episode when he accidentally breaks a bunch of eggs in a birds nest.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Dr. Komiyoji takes over his body, we never see Saburo/Hakkaider again for the rest of the series, and was never given a suitable defeat. In the OVA Gill returns in a Hakkaider-style body, but that's not quite the same.
  • Also in the 1970's series there are victims of the week.