| Ōgon Bat | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Unknown |
|
First Appearance |
Black Bat (1930) |
|
Created by |
Takeo Nagamatsu |
Origin[]
Ōgon Bat (literally "Golden Bat") made his debut in a kamishibai, a traveling show in which a sequence of pictures is narrated by a storyteller. The character was popular enough to survive the decline of kamishibai following World War II and was eventually translated into manga, movies and anime form.
Character description[]
Ōgon Bat drawing his golden rapier.
Ōgon Bat is an ancient warrior who slept thousands of years into the future in suspended animation. Sometime in an unknown year (possibly the 1930's), a mysterious phantom thief wearing a black cloak and white skull musk under the name of Kuro Bat, showed up and was commiting robberies until Golden Bat showed up and defeated him. However, it turned out that the Kuro Bat wasn't dead and that he transformed himself into Nazo and began to terrorize the whole planet and wanted to dominate it, but when the man himself Ōgon Bat showed up, he tormented Nazo and continued to halt him from his evil doings.
Ōgon Bat has a golden, skull-shaped head, wears a green and white costume with a high-collared red cape and carries a rapier. He lives in a fortress in the Honshu region of the Japanese Alps and his superpowers include superhuman strength, invulnerability and the ability to fly.
Notes[]
- Only the original depiction of the character is public domain in Japan. Any television appearances or films are still protected by their respective copyright owners.
- He was not originally the titular character of the series, Nazo as Kuro Bat, started off as the intial villainous protagonist commiting evil deeds until Golden Bat himself showed up and stopped him. As Golden Bat was proven to be more popular with viewers, the former replaced Kuro Bat as the titular character with the latter becoming the main antagonist in the next story Ōgon Bat which takes place right after Kuro Bat.
- Ōgon Bat is considered to be the first Japanese superhero and the first one worldwide.
- Not only is Ōgon Bat possibly Japan's first superhero, Ōgon also predates both Superman (1938) and Batman (1939).
- Debuted in kamishibai (paper theater).
- Since most of Nagamatsu's original paintings of this original depiction of the franchise have been lost early on, little further information survives about the details of Golden Bat in this original depiciton, however, in Michio Tsuzuki's article about him titled "Superman of the Streets" which was later included in the Golden Bat volume collection, he stated that in the last episode of Golden Bat he saw was where Golden Bat is injured in the end, takes off his mask and dies of seppuku since he didn't want to die to the monsters, and a flower bloomed where the blood flowed. His backstory is also said to have him been an old man who was the god of a country that was destroyed by monsters, causing him to become the Golden Bat to seek revenge.
- In the English dub of the anime, he is referred to as "Phantaman". A similar title such as "Fantaman" (unrelated to the soda drink) from the Brazillian Portuguese and Italian dubs would be used for other foreign dubs of the said show. However, this is quite old and rare in the modern age. In Brazil, he was however usually called Fantômas, just like the French character.