Friday Video: Japan’s First Super Hero | The History of Golden Bat
Before One Punch Man, before My Hero Academia, before manga & anime as we know it, there was a laughing skeleton that stood for justice, and he may be the most historic superhero of all time. In this video Kenny Lauderdale (me), breaks down the entire anime history of Golden Bat, from the Series to the movies, to his multiple pieces of lost media. I might have gone a bit overboard with this one, but Golden bat influences anime so much it’s kind of crazy. Known as Fantomas, Fantaman, fantasmagorico, ogon bat, & a bunch of other names; this superhero series might have the record for Anime Firsts. First manga? Kinda. First SUBTITLED manga? Yeah probably. Even Steven Universe’s Lapis Lzuli takes inspiration from this series. He pioneered manga with kamishibai, & anime might not even exist without him, not in the same form anyway. Japan’s first super hero is here, & he’s a laughing skeleton wearing a cape.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
View all posts by Michael Sauers
