Eight Man

Detective Hachiro Azuma is murdered by a gang criminals and his body is retrieved by Chief Tanaka (in the manga), or Dr. Tani (in the anime). In Tani's laboratory, he transfers Azuma's mind into an android body. Azuma is reborn as the armour -skinned android 8 Man, and is able to dash at impossible speeds as well as shape-shift into other people.

He typically takes on the form of his former body, and keeps the fact that he is a robot secret from everyone, even his secretary Sachiko and his assistant Ichiro. To rejuvenate his powers, he smokes "power" cigarettes that he carries in a case on his belt. The character's origin varies between the original manga, the TV series, and the live-action movie. In the 1992 movie, 8 Man's name before being murdered was "Detective Yokoda", and he is given the name "Detective Azuma" to cover up his death and revival.

In the manga, Detective Azuma is trapped in a warehouse and gunned down, while the TV series has him killed when he is run over by a car. The manga has several origins for the name "8 Man". The body was given the designation "008" by the American military, or there being seven police precincts in Tokyo, with 8 Man treated as a detective an unofficial eighth precinct. The Japanese manga was presented as serial novella stories along with a set of one-shot stories.

Many of these stories were edited down and adapted for the TV series. The novella stories were originally printed every week in Shukuu Shōnen Magazine in 16-page increments that consisted of 15 story pages and one title page. Ten additional one-shot stories were presented in seasonal and holiday specials of Shuukuu Shōnen Magazine . These stories were generally between 30 and 40 pages in length.

In the North American version of the 1960s anime series, the resurrected detective is known as "Tobor", the word "robot" spelled backwards. Dr. Tani is referred to as "Professor Genius" and the sobriquet of Eightman is slightly changed to "8th Man," the name explained as he is the 8th attempt to be a super-robot. The story content was directed toward a wider audience of both young and adult viewers.

As such, much of the violence was toned down for Western audiences.