Robot Detective

Robot Detective was a series lasting through April 1973-September 27, 1973. It was a Tokusatsu by Shotaro Ishinomori about an android named K who fought against the schemes of the terrorist organization BAD, who created robots to commit various crimes.

Tropes used in Robot Detective include:

• Androids and Detectives: Pretty much
• Arm Cannon: It's not used until later in the run, though.
• Badass Automaton: Who else?
• Brought to You by The Letter "S": K's belt has a giant "K" on the buckle.
• Cain and Abel: K's creator's brother is the Big Bad.
• Chest Blaster: K has a cannon hidden in his right breast.
• Chest Insignia: Belt variation - K wears a prominent "K" on his buckle.
• Cool Car: Joker, K's souped-up patrol car. (Built around a Nissan Fairlady Z - Datsun 240Z in the US.)
• Cool Hat: K's flat cap.
• Comic Relief: Jihei Jigoku, the "information salesman".
• Fantastic Racism: The Chief Inspector despises K because he is a robot and nearly resigns from his position at one point. He gets better later on though.
• Flying Car: Joker, literally.
• Job Title
• Kaleidoscope Eyes: K normally has yellow eyes. They turn blue when he's sad, red when he's pissed (or during battle), and silver in Blow-Up mode.
• Live Action Show First: Ishinomori penned up a tie-in manga; it's quite different and a little darker, but he was satisfied with it (it helped that the TV show didn't have and Executive Meddling or Real Life Writes the Plot situations come up that would force story changes).
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Blow-up mode
• Monster of the Week: The criminal robots hired out by BAD fill this role.
• More Dakka: Blow-Up form.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Or as much as this trope can apply to robots... If the situation warrants it, K will swap out parts for more suitable ones. (In episode 8, for example, he swaps in some anti-electricity equipment to deal with Kaminari-man's Thunder Beam.)
• Obviously Evil: Their name is BAD. That means they're probably, well, bad.
• One-Letter Name: K, our eponymous Robot Detective. (One song refers to him as "Kei", though.)
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Ganrikiman (from Episode 14) doesn't seem to get recognized as a robot when in disguise despite the fact that his head looks like a giant pair of binoculars and only covers his face with a scarf.
• People in Rubber Suits: Used to create K and the robots he fights.
  • Averted when K's wearing normal clothes - the suit actor^[1] is pretty obviously wearing only the mask.
• Professional Killer: One way BAD operates is to sell out one of their robots for assinations.
• Rummage Sale Reject: K intentionally dresses like this (yellow cap, red blazer, white pants) to avoid scaring people, as robots aren't commonplace in the setting. Averted when he wears a snappy trenchcoat over all that (and this is an image that tends to stick).
• Super Senses: K is equipped with various electronic sensory devices that aid him in searching for clues or tracking perps. These include very sharp hearing, radar, telescopic vision, and a spectrograph in his eyes.
• Shout-Out: The series itself is a homage to Isaac Asimov's works, specifically the I, Robot series of stories.
• Something Person: BAD's robots tend to have names ending in "-man".
• Spiritual Successor: Tokusou Robo Janperson has more than a few things in common with K.
• This Is a Drill: K gets a Drill Arm in Blow-Up Mode
• Theme Naming: The plot of episode 8 revolves around a trio of siblings named Ichiro, Jiro, and Saburo - "first son," "second son," and "third son," respectively.
• Transformation Sequence: To get out of his disguise, he'd throw his coat and hat up in the air (they always folded together), and his Blow Up mode.
• Turns Red: Literally, for Blow-Up mode.
• Wall Crawl: Nanatsuman, the criminal robot in episode 5, could walk on ceilings with suction cups on his feet.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: K has no problem killing the Mooks, even though they are part-human(cyborgs). He has a policy of not killing humans...
  • Of course this leads to What Measure Is a Non-Human?. Since the Mooks aren't fully human (and of course are often trying to destroy the heroes) K can get away with killing them.

1. ↑ a different one from the rubber suit actor