Celebrating Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot
“The ultimate boy’s wish-fulfilling fantasy…”
Giant Robo was a 1967 Japanese comic book series created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama that was adapted into the TV show Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot. The 26-episode series kicked off October 11, 1967 on Japanese TV. The show was then translated into English and shipped to TV stations overseas. (All the names we’re using here are from the American version of the show.)
In the series, Earth is invaded by alien terrorists the Gargoyle Gang, led by Emperor Guillotine. The group has created an army of monsters to conquer Earth.
When a boy named Johnny Sokko and a member of the Unicorn agency named Jerry are shipwrecked, they find themselves at a Gargoyle base. Fleeing from the bad guys, they stumble across a giant robot being built for Gargoyle by a captive scientist. Johnny speaks into the robot’s control device (a wristwatch), which activates the robot’s loyalty.
Johnny and Jerry use the robot to escape, after which Johnny is inducted into the Unicorn agency. Now he and the giant robot can help protect the Earth from the Gargoyle Gang. Over the course of the series, Giant Robot faced Dracolon (monster in the ocean), Nucleon, the Magic Globe (a giant, flying robot mine), the Gargoyle Vine with its lava bombs, the Gigantic Claw (a giant robot hand that flies), the Two-Headed Monster, the Flying Jawbone, and way more. In the series finale, the leader of the gang, Emperor Guillotine, stepped out of hiding and threatened Giant Robot personally.
As a boy, when I first watched this show, it was shown next to another giant monster show, Ultraman. While I liked the second series quite a bit, I loved the Johnny Sokko series with its weird monsters, gathering of threatening bad guys, and the fact that a 10-year-old boy got into gunfights.
Watch the video below for Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot opening credits…
When Shout Factory was about to release the series on DVD, August Ramone said on his blog in 2012, “Back in the days when ULTRAMAN and THE SPACE GIANTS were all the rage on syndicated television, JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT struck a special cord with kids. Why? Because it tells of the adventures of a youngster and his giant robot in their fight to save the world—the ultimate boy’s wish-fulfilling fantasy.
“JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT has not lost any of it’s outre, mondo-offbeat style nor it’s earnest, tongue-in-cheek charm—accompanied by a swingin’ jazz spy soundtrack—which set the stage for the pantheon of Toei Superheroes to come.”
Ragone knew what he was talking about. In fact, he was working on the official liner notes for that DVD box set.
