Star #6: =Big X=
Through the ages: Manga, Big X manga, Big X anime, 1980 cameo
See him in action: 1980 EPISODE 28, BIG X ANIME SAMPLE, BIG X EPISODE 1 (will probably die soon)
Tezuka character list bio: Number 05
[b]
- Real name: Akira Asagumo. Uses the “Big X” to transform into a giant. Appeared in “Shonen Book” from 1963 to 1966, as one of the first giant heroes. “Big X” is actually the name of a chemical that gives him super powers. He yells “Boost 3” when he injects himself with Big X using a pencil-shaped needle. Boost 1, he uses the needle; 2, he turns to steel; boosts 3, 4, and 5 make him grow. In the anime, his source of power was changed to be a shortwave magnetic pencil. The enemy robot “V-3” that appears in the manga is named after V2 rockets. In the comic, he is called a “cyborg,” though his powers are not cybernetic. This was probably due to Tezuka’s background as a professor of medicine.[/b]
To be honest, Big X has given me a lot of trouble. I’ve found no translation of his namesake manga, very little uploaded footage, and limited resources pertaining to it; that said, he’s shown up in a couple Astro Boy works, and I’ll be using THIS PAGE’S series preview and episode descriptions to get as much into him as I can, so it’s not all doom and gloom. Any anime pictures I use are from either this tiny clip or said series preview, scroll down a bit and you’ll see it, I recommend watching just because it’s fairly short and you get to hear the original opening, complete with spirited yelling and “BIGU ECKSUUUUU”. Skip to 2:30 to avoid the Japanese exposition banter.
Unlike many of Tezuka’s other heroes and stories, Big X conforms more to conventional superhero tales, being a good, strong, cleft-chinned male hero. His stories are more black-and-white, good-vs-evil then some of Tezuka’s other works, with his nickname literally being “BIG X, THE MESSENGER OF JUSTICE.” He’s big, he’s strong, he’s infallible, and he punches Nazis, so he basically has everything a hero in the 60’s needed.
Within his story, Big X normally takes the form of mild-mannered Akira Asagumo, a young boy with great potential. 20 years ago, his grandfather, Dr. Asagumo, was a Japanese scientist hired by Hitler himself to assist Germany’s own Dr. Engel in the creation of a new superweapon, codenamed “Big X”. The two conspire together to delay the production of the weapon, and upon Germany’s defeat, Dr. Asagumo entrusts the weapon’s blueprint to his son, Sigeru.
Unfortunately for him, in the current age a group of Nazi sympathizers come to lay claim to the blueprints, absconding with the secret and planning to revitalize the Nazi party with its completion. Sigeru’s own son, Akira, pursues them and manages to reclaim the final product, a drug capable of expanding the human body without limit – thus does he claim the name of the drug as his own, becoming the super hero Big X and fighting the Nazis (and Dr. Engel’s own grandson, Hans) in an effort to prevent whatever diabolical scheme they come up with next.
As the bio states, the initial form the Big X chemical took was that of an injectable drug, but for rather obvious reasons this got changed when it took to the airwaves. Instead, it appears as a sort of ovoid amulet Akira touches to his body when he wishes to transform, allowing him to expand exponentially in size and also apparently materializing his superhero costume out of thin air.
Given that the source of his power is external, and not actually inherent to the boy himself, a lot of the conflict within his work comes from the misplacing/stealing of the drug – once he’s transformed, though, he’s a real force to be reckoned with, possessing punches capable of leveling buildings and strength capable of dealing with whatever form the Nazi monster of the day happens to take, like the V3 robots he mentions.
From what I hear, Tezuka didn’t recycle the character all that much due to the fact that he “came to represent an overly righteous hero trumpeting justice”; still, though, the series gained a decent amount of popularity (due in large part to the fairly violent depictions of war, concentration camps and other atrocities) which meant Big X would pop up on occasion for cameo appearances. In Astro Boy’s case, he appears in the background of a few episodes, and takes a leading role alongside some other cameos in the bonus short chapter “Slippery Catfish in Imminent Danger,” an odd piece that serves more as a means to combine various characters from the series Tezuka had running at the time. You can read it HERE starting on page 93; it even features a short fight scene between Astro and Big X wherein the latter throws out some massive punches, much like in the game. Quite cool.