Phantaman

Phantaman
Original Title	黄金 バット (Ōgon Batto)
Original Language	Japanese
Dubbing Studio	Frontier Enterprises
Voice Director	William Ross
Recorded	1967
Dub Country	Japan
Original Country	Japan
Episodes	52
Year	1967-1968

Phantaman, or Phantoma: Warrior of Justice, known as Golden Bat (黄金バット Ōgon Batto) in country of origin is a 1967 anime based on a kamishibai (paper theater) and manga created by Takeo Nagamatsu.

Synopsis In search of the fabled coutnry of Atlantis, Archaeologist Professor Mire leads an expedition that winds up much farther south than intended. Upon reaching Antarctica, however, their ship is attacked by a mechanical monster created by the evil Dr. Zero (Nazo in the original Japanese), leaving Professor Mire's daughter Mary the sole survivor. She is rescued by Dr. Steel (Professor Yamatone) with his invention, the Supercar, and meets his son Terry (Takeru) and his assistant Gabby (Dareo). The crew soon discovers, however, that they have run out of fresh water -- necessary for operating the ship -- so they land on an island in hopes of finding a lake or a pond. Miraculously, the island turns out to be Atlantis. There they are pursued by Zero's forces and scurry into a tomb, which turns out to be the tomb of Phantoma, Atlantean god of justice. They revive him with the bit of water they discover deep in the tomb, and as thanks he saves them from the mechanical beast. From there on, Phantoma, when called, joins them in their fight against Dr. Zero.

Dubbing History

Phantoma, Phantaman, Fantoma, Ougon Bat EnglishDub

The only known clip available of the English dub.

The same year the show premiered, the series was dubbed by the Tokyo-based dubbing company Frontier Enterprises and was originally scheduled to be aired for both American and Australian audiences,^{[citation needed]} but for unknown reasons, the series was never released on American territories and instead exclusively made it to Australia. It was picked up for broadcast by the latter's Nine Network. The dub first aired there in April 1968 in the mornings at 7:30 and continued to air until 1972.

It is said that the reason the show didn't last too long was because that there was an outcry from some parents that it was extremely violent and not suitable for kids.

After reruns ceased from Australian Television, the dub has yet to resurface in any form. It is assumed that the Nine Network sent the 16mm reels back to Japan, either that or wiped the tapes. However, the following Latin American Spanish dub appears to have been based on the English version, as the characters' names in that dub all use the Americanized names originating from the English dub, the same thing goes with the Brazillian Portuguese and Italian dubs which in turn were inspired by the Latin American dub, and they all use similar titles of the main character's English title. This most likely means that copies of the English dub were duplicated. It's also implied that the Latin American version dubbed over some episodes from the English version.

No known VHS or DVD releases of the English dub exist.

Since VHS Recording was 4 years away when the show last aired, it is highly improbable that any of the dub has been recorded during its run, the only possible way to save it would have to be on a cassette tape as home recording audio was around back then. A poor quality 20 second audio clip recorded on an audio tape in the 60s or 70s surfaced on YouTube in 2012 by TV Nostalgia (albeit run through a noise removal filter to clear the audible buzzing of the TV), who according to himself, got the recording from a friend of his who got it from someone who recorded at the time. A search was underway for information leading to the English dub and further information regarding it, although the search was unsuccesful but did however manage to get some information about the dub such as it's voice cast and air dates.

Cast

Image	Character	Seiyū	Voice Actor
	Doctor Steel	Ichirō Murakoshi	William Ross
	Phantoma	Osamu Kobayashi	Burr Middleton
	Doctor Zero	Ushio Shima
	Terry	Kazue Takahashi	?¿
	Mary	Minori Matsushima	Patricia Kobayashi
	Gabby	Kazuya Tatekabe	Burr Middleton
	Gorgo	Kenji Utsumi	?¿
	Dr. Death	Masao Takato	?¿
	Narration	Yuzuru Fujimoto	Burr Middleton

Additional voices

• Cliff Harrington (possibly)

Notes

• The opening theme is a chopped up version of the Japanese theme, instead of doing a translation or an instrumental version.
• It is claimed that Dr. Zero's catchphrase in this dub was “ZEEEERO000000!“, which phrase was reused in the Latin Spanish and Portuguese dubs. It's also been stated that Phantoma spoke very little in this dub or spoke like the same amount in the Japanese version, so this may be the reason why he barely speaks in all of the Latin-related dubs.
• The English title is misleading since the titular character is referred to as "Phantoma" in the series.
• Burr Middleton came up with referring to the title character as "Warrior of Justice".
• Despite only making it's way to Austalia, most of the known cast is however American.
  • And most of the actors that worked on the English dub of the show were scouted from the Far East Network, and those who weren’t were largely in the area, had little to no acting experience and they trained the rookies right on the job.

Transmission

Date(s)	Channel	Country
1968-1972	Nine Network	Australia

External Links

• Ōgon Batto (anime) at the Anime News Network
• Ōgon Batto at the Lost Media Wiki
• Phantaman at Glen Johnson's 60's Anime Website
• Ōgon Batto on the Golden Bat Wiki