Perman


Perman is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist duo Fujiko Fujio about a clumsy boy, Mitsuo Suwa, who is chosen to apprentice to a powerful superhero to save the world along with other superheroes. The first manga series was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1967 to 1968, and the second was serialized in CoroCoro Comic from 1983 to 1986. The first anime series was first produced in black and white in 1967. The second anime series was made in color in 1983 and films were released in 1983, 1984, 1985, 2003 and 2004.

Plot

The story follows a boy named Mitsuo Suwa who meets an alien named Superman, later renamed Birdman. The alien is part of a group that maintains peace in the galaxy and recruits Mitsuo to become a Perman. Mitsuo is given three items, a helmet which multiplies the wearer's physical strength and serves as a mask, a cape that allows the wearer to fly and run with great speed, and a badge which enables the wearer to breathe underwater and to communicate with Permans that he later meets. The alien instructs Mitsuo that if a Perman's identity becomes known to others, his brain will be destroyed—which is reduced to being turned into an animal in later chapters. To help keep Mitsuo's secret identity, the alien gives Mitsuo a doppelganger robot called a copy-robot who takes Mitsuo's place when he is Perman.

Characters

Main characters

; Mitsuo Suwa / Perman 1
; Booby / Perman 2
; Sumire Hoshino / Perman 3 / Pako
; Hōzen Ōyama / Perman 4 / Paryan
; Kōichi Yamada / Perman 5 / Pabo
; Superman Birdman
; Copy-robots

Supporting characters

; Michiko "Mitchan" Sawada
; Sabu
; Kabao
; Haruzō Mie
; Mantarō Suwa
; Mrs. Suwa
; Ganko Suwa
; Professor Oyama
; Sharoko
; Yamagishi Yuki

Antagonists

; Senmensō
; Japanese League of Evildoers

Media

Manga

The manga was written by Fujiko F. Fujio and published in 1967. It was published by the Japanese company, Shogakukan, and serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. It has 7 tankōbon and 178 pages.

Anime

Two anime television series based on the manga were produced. The first television series, consisting of 54 two-part episodes, was produced by Tokyo Movie with music composed by Hiroshi Tsutsui. It was broadcast on TBS from April 2, 1967 to April 14, 1968. Certain episodes are lost and some episodes have lost their audio. This version was dubbed into Mexican Spanish, and it is unknown if the dub has any of the lost episodes.
The second anime television series was produced by Shin-Ei Animation under the direction Hiroshi Sasagawa and Sadayoshi Tominaga with Akihiko Takashima composing the music. The series was first broadcast every Monday through Saturday on TV Asahi from April 4, 1983 to March 30, 1985. Starting on April 2, 1985, the series switched to a weekly broadcast and concluded on July 2, 1987 for a total of 526 episodes. In Southeast Asia it aired on Disney Channel and is currently airing on Hungama TV in India.

List of Perman (1983 TV series) episodes

1983

Unknown

1985

Specials

Reception

The show is moderately reviewed by critics and audiences alike with praise
towards the humour.