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Cyborg 009 #1
Cyborg 009, Volume 1
Book
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
7 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Shōtarō Ishinomori
382 books58 followersShōtarō Ishinomori (石ノ森章太郎) was a Japanese manga artist and cartoonist. Known as the "King of Manga", he is regarded as one of the most influential manga artists of all time.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 24, 2025
the anime was my favourite ever while I was growing up, unfortunately the manga is not as enjoyable.
March 27, 2018
Decent read. Love the illustrations, but at times it was difficult to stay excited about the story. That’s odd, considering I love a good anti-war, politically charged sci-fi, and I heard that this manga series was just that. This book just felt longer than it actually was. Great art, great concept, but perhaps not executed correctly with all the elements, including but not limited to the characters, the dialogue, and the back story. Maybe I’m used to graphic novels and manga just isn’t my thing. Or maybe this wasn’t the best book to start my manga journey. I’ll try a few more manga books to see.
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July 29, 2025
Cyborg 009 (Vol 1):
I have been on a manga kick lately. No, I don’t normally read these types of things but I guess by this point I can say I’m a fan of them and I’ve been on a run. Here’s the thing: there are a number of these series that I want to read for specific purposes. Dragon Ball, because it’s one of the world’s greatest stories is an easy one, but this book, Cyborg 009 is much more obscure.
I remember has a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s that I was a huge Cartoon Network fan. Cartoon Network introduced the western world to anime through the programming block Toonami, which I never watched religiously but liked. One show on Toonami was Cyborg 009. For some reason, after all of these years, it’s stuck with me. Perhaps because this is story with a strong message. I didn’t understand what the message was when I was younger, I simply liked it and I also remember it being particularly poignant.
Cyborg 009 was written in the 60s and 70s. The art style is old school and much different from Dragon Ball. It’s almost goofy, which is intriguing because the story is deep. The message, which speaks out against the Cold War and the military-industrial complex, is anti-war. In this story, nine unique people are kidnapped from around the world by an evil organization and are turned into cyborgs with unique abilities. The nine cyborgs, including 009, rebel and try to take down the organization. I never finished the show, so I don’t know where this will go.
As for the book, I was a bit confused with the structure. It seemed to flash forward and jump back often, and I’m sure it’ll make sense later, but for the moment it’s confusing. I also hope the other books go more into the backgrounds of characters because I remember that aspect of the show being very interesting.
I have been on a manga kick lately. No, I don’t normally read these types of things but I guess by this point I can say I’m a fan of them and I’ve been on a run. Here’s the thing: there are a number of these series that I want to read for specific purposes. Dragon Ball, because it’s one of the world’s greatest stories is an easy one, but this book, Cyborg 009 is much more obscure.
I remember has a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s that I was a huge Cartoon Network fan. Cartoon Network introduced the western world to anime through the programming block Toonami, which I never watched religiously but liked. One show on Toonami was Cyborg 009. For some reason, after all of these years, it’s stuck with me. Perhaps because this is story with a strong message. I didn’t understand what the message was when I was younger, I simply liked it and I also remember it being particularly poignant.
Cyborg 009 was written in the 60s and 70s. The art style is old school and much different from Dragon Ball. It’s almost goofy, which is intriguing because the story is deep. The message, which speaks out against the Cold War and the military-industrial complex, is anti-war. In this story, nine unique people are kidnapped from around the world by an evil organization and are turned into cyborgs with unique abilities. The nine cyborgs, including 009, rebel and try to take down the organization. I never finished the show, so I don’t know where this will go.
As for the book, I was a bit confused with the structure. It seemed to flash forward and jump back often, and I’m sure it’ll make sense later, but for the moment it’s confusing. I also hope the other books go more into the backgrounds of characters because I remember that aspect of the show being very interesting.
September 19, 2023
This is from a very similar period but is notably much pacier than the Astro Boy I've been reading recently. It's definitely far too soon therefore to comment too much on matters of theme and plotting; thus far we've had the creation of the Cyborg army as a pseudo political act that's really for financial game since they can be sold as military hardware. It's interesting to note that these kinds of criticisms of the "war machine" were out there in commercial literature of the 60s (of course they were! We had the hippy movement in the west). The art is also much bigger and bolder than Tezuka's and I'm loving Ishinomori's style as it pertains to action but not so much in quieter moments - but then I'm sensing this is going to be full of action, ultimately.
March 14, 2016
I bought the first five volumes of this series from my local nerd store, owned by one of my friends. The main reason I bought it was for the nostalgia aspect.
I remembered watching and loving it as a kid growing up (I believe the anime was out in either the late 90s or early 2000s). I couldn't remember much about it after I got older, but I remember it being one I watched every week, a series I loved. I always had scattered memories of what it was about - but never more than that.
After reading the first volume, I can say with certainty that this is an amazing series. It's powerful. I highly doubt that I understood completely the meaning and messages behind this growing up. But now that I'm older I'm ecstatic that I've found it once again.
The plot is simple with a dramatic (at the time) statement about the flaws of society. 9 individuals, the quiet or low end of society, where kidnapped and used as test subjects to be the worlds next step in the arms race. New weapons. One of the 9 was a mere infant. Now that they have been turned into cyborgs they are rebelling against those who turned them into what they are - they refuse to become mindless weapons of mass destruction.
The story, as I said, isn't complex, but the writing speaks volumes to those who profit on war, and try to keep the populous in a state of permanent terror. And for a Japanese man writing this in the 1960s, that was a daring story to tell.
The characters play heavily on stereotypes of the various races that where kidnapped for the experiment. But they each have their own personality that shines through despite the stereotypes. Which is something that you don't see very often.
As for the art, I'm not sure if it's the nostalgia or the type of story it is. But the art is simplistic and rather exaggerated, not something I normally follow, but I love the art.
I can't wait to start on the next volume - I may have this series done soon (there where only 10 volumes in the series, and I own the first 5. Yay me.)
I remembered watching and loving it as a kid growing up (I believe the anime was out in either the late 90s or early 2000s). I couldn't remember much about it after I got older, but I remember it being one I watched every week, a series I loved. I always had scattered memories of what it was about - but never more than that.
After reading the first volume, I can say with certainty that this is an amazing series. It's powerful. I highly doubt that I understood completely the meaning and messages behind this growing up. But now that I'm older I'm ecstatic that I've found it once again.
The plot is simple with a dramatic (at the time) statement about the flaws of society. 9 individuals, the quiet or low end of society, where kidnapped and used as test subjects to be the worlds next step in the arms race. New weapons. One of the 9 was a mere infant. Now that they have been turned into cyborgs they are rebelling against those who turned them into what they are - they refuse to become mindless weapons of mass destruction.
The story, as I said, isn't complex, but the writing speaks volumes to those who profit on war, and try to keep the populous in a state of permanent terror. And for a Japanese man writing this in the 1960s, that was a daring story to tell.
The characters play heavily on stereotypes of the various races that where kidnapped for the experiment. But they each have their own personality that shines through despite the stereotypes. Which is something that you don't see very often.
As for the art, I'm not sure if it's the nostalgia or the type of story it is. But the art is simplistic and rather exaggerated, not something I normally follow, but I love the art.
I can't wait to start on the next volume - I may have this series done soon (there where only 10 volumes in the series, and I own the first 5. Yay me.)
April 5, 2016
This book is remarkably political for something I remember watching as a TV series when I was a young teenager. The statements are fairly powerful for the Cold War era - about the war machine that destroys regular people for the sake of power and profit. That's sort of the extent of my respect, though. I can deal with a cartoony art style in my comics, but I don't understand how a book that professes to represent people of different races does so in pretty terrible caricatures of characters. While the concept is very cool, the execution was poor and the plot felt contrived just to display the powers of the new cyborgs in a string of loosely connected fight scenes.
October 28, 2009
I like this book and if u like the action you should read this book 2.its about some scientific people that they get some kid and they make a experiment with them some of them can fly, run as fast as the light, and the other ones are strong and they can change in anything. they can have ultraviolet. then they scape from the lab and all the people are looking with them, and after they fine them they star getting in a fight. at the end of the book they scape by taking a sub.
November 9, 2014
Adoravo alla follia questo anime e sono felicissima di leggerne il manga. Certo ,il disegno è antiquato e la storia arruginita rispetto alle opere odierne, ma rimane comunque un pilastro. Le note a fine libro sono molto interessanti. Non vedo l'ora di conoscere tutto di questo universo che tanto mi ha colpito nella mia infanzia.
February 7, 2015
Another fun manga from way back when. The art is very much of the Tezuka school and the story is a cyborg, multi-racial variant of the Magnificent Seven. My only complaint is that it's surprisingly wordy with a very lengthy set-up before the action gets going. Not my favorite Ishinomori manga but still an enjoyable one.
April 21, 2008
I had no idea when I pulled this off the library shelf how politically charged it was. I'd seen some of the anime when they were showing it on Adult Swim. It was written in the 1960s and carries a very strong anti-war message. I look forward to reading more.
January 26, 2015
In realtà un due e mezzo. Non certo per la storia, che comunque mostra i suoi anni, ma per l'adattamento e l'edizione italiani, non proprio il massimo. Spero i prossimi numeri siano più curati.
October 18, 2017
Wow this is good comics
Read
April 21, 2016ok i love cyborg 009 since i was little
November 7, 2016
Uno dei miei mito da bambino. Finalmente posso leggerlo in tutta tranquillità. Mettiamoci poi che ha quasi 50 anni, fa sí che sia un piccolo capolavoro.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews