Cyborg 009 Full Review Project | Manga (1964) Volume 18 (15 for the Shotaro World (Media Factory) Edition)
Today, we start the Undersea Pyramid arc – intended to be the penultimate arc before finishing off with a new version of Battle with the Gods. That didn’t happen due to conflicts with the new anime running alongside it. They didn’t want the manga to end while the anime was airing, so Ishinomori had to put off writing the Battle with the Gods arc in lieu of new stories that could tie into the anime.
He just kept getting screwed over, didn’t he? It’s a very bittersweet situation that his franchise was popular enough to get a second anime and several movies, and people kept demanding more, but he desperately wanted to end the manga and either his attempts failed or he wasn’t even allowed to attempt.
(CyborgGirl) The first chapter is called Pandora Pyramid. Narration explains that ancient creatures have awoken from a long, long sleep. These creatures took residence in undersea pyramids. One pyramid was discovered in the Bermuda Triangle in 1977. A few years later, a second one was found, implying that the 00 Cyborgs will find it.
As Joe and Francoise swim outside of Gilmore’s lab, Joe finds something mysterious in the water. It’s about the size of a bed, is shaped like a pea pod, and the material is neither firm nor soft. Francoise describes it as “metal velvet.”
Ivan senses a person inside of the strange item. It opens to reveal a man barely conscious inside. The man slowly emerges from the pod, and he’s only able to say his name – “Yohei Satonaka.”
By the way, I absolutely adore how Ishinomori draws calves and feet. They are adorable.
Later, Gilmore identifies the object as a strange submarine, but without being able to speak with Mr. Satonaka, he can’t figure out much more about it. Even though some time has passed, the man hasn’t gotten any better. He seems to have amnesia and can still only say his name. Chang arrives and says he’s managed to schedule a news segment tomorrow about the man to see if they can find his family.
A couple days pass, and his wife contacts them. They discover that Mr. Satonaka is a professional diver, and his family will be over to pick him up immediately.
In order to get more information, Chang tries hypnotism on Mr. Satonaka. It seems to work a little, but all he says is that he’s coming home.
His wife arrives, along with a photographer and reporter. Husband and wife reunite, even if Mr. Satonaka is still out of it. Suddenly, the reporter and photographer pull guns on the duo and demand that Mr. Satonaka be handed over to them.
009 jumps into action, accelerating and quickly knocking them out. Mrs. Satonaka reveals that she didn’t want to lead the men to her husband, but they had her young daughter, Emi, being held hostage in a car outside. 009 rushes out to save her. He snatches their daughter, and I’m pretty sure he did it while accelerated, which is a no-no when carrying humans, hands her off to 006, and chases after the men as they try to escape.
Shocked at seeing 009 keeping up with them effortlessly, the men crash their car and plunge off a cliff into the waters below. None of them survive.
Back at the lab, Mrs. Satonaka explains that her husband got a job offer a month ago and took it because the pay was good. However, she doesn’t know what he was doing or for what company. Joe surmises that, since he was a diver, it’s possible he was being used to salvage sunken ships. Until they can figure out what’s going on and stop the men from this weird company, Mr. Satonaka and his family will stay at Gilmore’s lab.
009 and 006 interrogate the fake reporter guy, but he says he knows nothing. He was just following orders from HQ. 006 demands he tell them about their company, but he stays quiet, even under threat of 006’s fire. He tries hypnotizing him as well, and it actually works again. The man says the company is named M. They had lost contact with a ship sent by M to take artifacts from ruins underwater. Satonaka was on that ship, so they were sent to retrieve him.
009 asks where the ruins are, but the man says he doesn’t know. 006 says no one can lie while under hypnosis, so he must be telling the truth.
009 decides to let them go, even knowing that they’ll likely come back with reinforcements. The reinforcements may actually be beneficial since they might get more information from them.
Back with Gilmore as he continues to examine the pod, 009 and Gilmore discuss the new information. 009 had heard a strange signal of some sort that lead him to the pod in the water. Gilmore notes that it looks as if the pod (I think) was broken up and reassembled. The signal he heard might have been the remote control for the pod attempting to function.
Outside, Francoise is playing with Emi on the beach. She hears five vehicles approaching, so she leads Emi back inside. The group bunkers down to prepare for the attack. The men within the vehicles have surrounded the lab and are clearly waiting for sundown to strike. Right as they’re about to move in, a strange giant black monster emerges from the ocean and attacks the men. The men try to shoot the monster, but it’s to no avail. All of the men wind up getting killed by the monster.
003 and 006 blast it as a distraction to give 009 an opening to attack it more closely. While this is going on, Mr. Satonaka starts panicking at the sight of the beast. He suddenly remembers what happened to him. He and the crew of the M ship had arrived at a giant undersea pyramid. When it opened up, that creature emerged.
The battle takes a turn for the worst when 003, 006, and 009 are downed by the beast. They’re all still alive, but they would have died if they were humans. The attack of that creature somehow saps the energy of anyone who approaches it.
Realizing the severity of the issue, 009 calls for the rest of the 00 Cyborgs to reunite to solve this mystery.
The chapter ends with the narration explaining that human greed has awoken these beings from their slumber.
The next chapter is called Sugar Pyramid. Narration explains how grave robbers have targeted ancient pyramids for thousands of years no matter where they may be. Even in modern day, the undersea pyramids of an ancient civilization were too tempting for grave robbers, and they flocked to it like ants to sugar.
The dynamite the company known as M – international tomb raiders – used to open the pyramids awoke ancient beasts lying dormant inside.
Satonaka recalls losing consciousness as one of the beasts emerged and he saw their glowing eyes. According to him, he wasn’t told the location of the pyramid. He had been locked in a cabin until they reached the ruins. Everyone onboard the vessel was foreign – he was the only Japanese person in the crew. He knew it was suspicious, but the pay was too good to pass up.
When the beasts emerged, they attacked the ship, and everyone onboard was lost….presumably. They wonder why Mr. Satonaka was the lone survivor, but Gilmore posits that he might not be. He believes the pod may be one of many pods. Not escape pods – spy pods. The people in his ship were placed in each of these pods and specifically sent back to their countries of origin. The ships themselves have cameras and radar, but what if the humans themselves are being used as cameras and radar with their eyes and ears? Through telepathy, they can gain information through the survivors as they reach their destinations.
However, Mr. Satonaka’s pod was caught in a reef and couldn’t get to shore. This abnormality prompted the creature from before to investigate. Now that the monster has confronted the 00 Cyborgs, they believe it will return with backup. To make matters worse, those who know of the undersea pyramid and those from M may also return to investigate.
Now, with all of the 00 Cyborgs collected, the group awaits the arrival of the threats.
First, 003 detects a Soviet submarine. Next, an unmarked black helicopter flies overhead. 003 believes they’re American since they’re speaking English. They’re also taking pictures of them. Everyone’s interested in Mr. Satonaka for two reasons. 1) Gilmore made the slight mistake of contacting news outlets to find his family, which prompted them to investigate. 2) Mr. Satonaka is seemingly the only one from that ship who returned to shore, so he’s the only one who knows anything about the undersea pyramid.
They throw around a handful of other theories, but the point is that they have to wait until the creatures show up to really do anything. Their main problem is figuring out what to do with the family if they do secure a submarine and get to the undersea pyramid. They can’t bring them with them since it’s far too dangerous, but they can’t leave them there to be at the mercy of government or third-party agents who may bust in.
They decide to hide them, but that’s also an issue since they’re surrounded.
The decision is made for them when Mr. Satonaka doubles over in pain from the telepathic link he still has with the undersea creatures. Massive machines rise out of the water and start blowing up the laboratory. 009 saves Emi while 005 saves Mr. Satonaka and his wife.
They have to find some way to get the family to safety, and Dr. Gilmore has just the solution – he and Ivan somehow had the time to make a gigantic air ship and have prepped it for launch. Okie dokie.
And that’s the end of the unofficial translation by CyborgGirl and her team. I salute you all for taking me as far as you did. And now I am off on my own for another 12 and a half volumes. Challenge hesitantly and nervously accepted.
(Twix) The next chapter is called Bermuda Pyramid. The machines have fully destroyed Joe’s house and the research institute. They need to find a way to counterattack. Gilmore reveals that the ship has a laser, a ray gun…which…is different than a laser, I guess, and an “orthodox bomb.” They decide to use the bomb first. Gilmore hopes it works since this ship is made from the scraps of the submarines and airships that he’s ridden in before.
They bomb one of the robots, and it’s destroyed.
Gilmore hands over the reins for the weapons to 004 since that’s not his specialty. 004 destroys another robot. The others start to flee, but they pursue, and 004 destroys them. With the rest of the robots out of the way, they head off to investigate the Bermuda Pyramid.
We then get some background information about the Bermuda Pyramid. It was discovered in 1977 in the early spring by fisherman who found it with fish finders. It is 470 feet tall with each side 520 feet across. It’s stated to be larger than the pyramid of King Khufu, the Great Pyramid of Giza, which isn’t true because that’s 481 feet tall with 755 feet sides, but it’s very possible either Ishinomori had bad information or I mistranslated something.
To make matters more confusing, it then says that the top of the pyramid is 30 feet more below sea level on the ocean floor in depths anywhere between 900 to 1400 feet.
In the area, there have been reports even before the discovery of strange artifacts that they believed to be remnants of Atlantis, leading to suspicions that the Bermuda Triangle caused that land and those people to vanish. With the discovery of the pyramid, the secrets of the Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis could be unlocked at once. Another pyramid was found in the area in the same manner, but nothing has been done to investigate it.
And now the 00 Cyborgs, in the ship that was named “Ivan’s Fool” for some reason, have arrived to uncover the mysteries locked within the pyramid.
008 decides to go investigate himself since he’s the best underwater. 004 offers him a submersible, but 008 doesn’t want his movement to be restricted in case something goes wrong.
Meanwhile, 003 asks Mr. Satonaka what he remembers. Mr. Satonaka says the color of the sea looks similar (that’s super helpful) but he can’t discern if it’s the right pyramid given that there are two.
008 heads off on his own while 004 and 006 take a submersible.
009 and 003 point out that the area is so beautiful that it’s hard to believe anything evil is lurking below.
006 and 004 talk about the name “Ivan’s Fool” for the ship. 006 explains that it’s a joke from Dr. Gilmore. 001 made the ship, and he’s filled with wisdom so it’s funny I guess that the ship’s called his fool……Comedy gold, Gilmore.
001 and 003, I think, sense that 008 might be in trouble right as he reaches the pyramid.
The top of the pyramid, strangely, is pure black while the rest is normal masonry. 008 sees something down below, and they suddenly lose him as lights appear in the darkness of the ocean floor. 008 flees as fast as he possibly can, and luckily his incredible underwater speed allows him to just barely escape.
As he climbs up the rope ladder on the side of the ship, the creatures are revealed to be odd stingray-like creatures. However, 008 says they’re not real. They’re made up by them (?). Either way, the creatures begin attacking, and the cyborgs counterattack.
They decide to retreat into the ship to combat them. More creatures emerge looking like giant horseshoe crabs and eels. Gilmore moves the ship real quick, and 004 and 009 attack with the weapons on the ship.
Gilmore’s radar lights up, and he immediately tells them they have to move because something massive is surfacing. However, it’s too late. Somehow, the pyramid itself has breached the surface and begins floating in the sky. Their ship is trapped in a cloak of electricity being shot from the black part of the pyramid.
The next chapter is called Green Hell Pyramid.
The ship winds up getting badly damaged by the lightning and capsizes in the ocean. The pyramid rises into the sky and conceals itself within a black cloud.
On the ocean floor, the ship remains intact, but in rough shape. Everyone’s safe, with Mr. Satonaka and his family holing up in a safe room. Gilmore’s knocked out, but that seems to be the only injury. Despite not knowing where the pyramid went, 009 is determined to get the ship suitable to move to pursue them. 003 protests because they have an injured man and a scared family on board.
009 says they have no choice. Until they figure out what the pyramid really is and bring about some kind of conclusion, they have no place to put either Gilmore nor Mr. Satonaka and his family. They’re safer with them in this place either way. However, they can make the room they’re holed up in safer.
After the cyborgs make the necessary repairs to the ship, they head off.
They travel for a while before realizing they’re being followed. 007 transforms into a robot fish to investigate it. They realize that it’s a massive submarine, but they don’t know who sent it or if it’s related to the pyramid.
When they get a better look at it, 004 asserts that it’s not with the pyramid. 002 asks how he knows that. 004 says it’s the same idea as the monster machine that attacked when they departed.
004 says that parodies or imitations like that can only be made by humans, implying that the beings in the pyramid aren’t human. I don’t quite get that logic, but okay.
004 doesn’t know if that’s true, but he’s certain the submarine is different from the pyramid tech.
007 states that this means they’re being followed by two parties now. It’s definitely a large group of people given the scope of their technology – possibly even a country – but they don’t know quite yet.
They decide to tackle the one behind them first. 007 suggests they ignore them for the moment and see what they do.
They decide to breach the surface and fly into the air to see if the ship following them is capable of flight. When they do so, the ship remains submerged, confirming that the sub can’t fly.
Free of the tail, the 00 Cyborgs flee into the sky.
This next part is a bit iffy on my part, and I apologize. They wonder where their next destination is, and they decide to go after the pyramid. However, they don’t know where it went. They surmise that it must be with its ‘friends’ – other pyramids. There’s a tourist site in South America with a lot of pyramids, so they head there. On their route, they discover two perfectly aligned rows of six pyramids.
Somehow, 11 more pyramids have gathered with the original Undersea Pyramid, and it’s possible that more could be on the way.
The area is a “green hell” because it’s so jam-packed with trees that landing their ship would be incredibly difficult, and traversing the land would be hazardous.
In the sky up ahead they spot one of the ships that was following them earlier. I suppose it was purposefully concealing the fact that it could fly.
The ship suddenly unleashes a barrage of attacks on the pyramids. The pyramids emerge from the smoke mostly unscathed and they lift off into the sky. All of the pyramids unleash their own barrage of attacks at the ship, and it crumbles to pieces.
The pyramids connect at the bottoms and shoot lights from the tops, creating a line of six lights in the sky heading to the moon.
The next chapter is aptly named Moon Pyramid.
The starting narration text is white on black, making it even harder to see some finer details, so this will be a bit rougher. I think it’s saying that strange shadows and shapes have been seen on the moon for years, and pyramids may have been on the moon since ancient times. And now the pyramids from Earth have met up with those pyramids on the moon.
The ship has crashed in the jungle. 004 and 007 explore outside and find smoke from someone’s fire. Two people, one badly injured, have made camp next to a crashed ship. I think this is the ship that was blown up by the pyramids earlier.
The mostly uninjured guy pulls a gun on the two, but 004 blasts up the spot by their feet to threaten them to put their weapon down.
They tell the two that they’ll help them if they cooperate since they seem to be in dire straits. They want to know who made their ship.
I….think the two of them relayed the name of the 00 Cyborgs’ ship in the last chapter (?)…So they’re wondering how they knew that name. They also ask why they attacked the pyramid and if they know what the pyramid actually is.
The men play dumb, but 004 and 007 don’t believe them. The men assert that they really don’t know what’s going on, they were simply following orders. 004 asks who the orders were from, and the uninjured man says they were from the top of their organization. They intended on destroying the pyramids, so they trained them and put them on that ship.
We then see imagery of the pyramids destroying the black ship they came from. The crashed ship behind them is basically an escape pod, I think. However, it failed and crashed.
007 asks if the organization is M, and they confirm their suspicions. In response to why they’re doing this, the men still don’t have much of an answer. 004 asks if M is a gang and they’re motivated by money, but the uninjured man says he doesn’t know. Strange things have been happening lately, and all of the branches from their organization across the world pooled their funds together to create a massive battleship.
Recently, his boss was given orders by someone even higher up in the organization, or at least someone much more powerful. He absolutely couldn’t refuse the order.
The scene shifts, and we see a monkey get bit and eaten by a snake, and then the snake gets shot by something with glowing eyes in the bushes.
003 hears the shots but says it doesn’t sound like 004’s gun. She and 009 go to investigate.
When they arrive at the location of the sound, they find pieces of the mystery ship. 003 says she senses something human-like nearby. It’s either a local or a survivor of the ship. 009 can’t fathom that anyone survived the destruction of the ship, but someone has clearly been eating in this spot.
The person is following them, so 009 tells 003 to keep an eye on him while they continue walking.
In inner monologue, 003 notes that the person following them is moving through a dense jungle without a single sound of rustling leaves. She’s amazed at their ability to do this.
The being reveals a gun in their wrist and aims to fire at 003, but 009, having been tipped off at their presence, somehow, is able to stop them before they can shoot at her. They exchange shots, and 009 blows the attacker’s arm off. The attacker sends a few more shots 009’s way, but ultimately falls over.
009 picks up the being’s arm. The being is clearly a cyborg, and he seems to be another survivor of the ship’s destruction.
009 loudly interrogates the man, asking who he is and who modified him, but 003 points out that the man can’t answer – his vocal chords have been removed.
003 warns him of a threat nearby just in time for him to grab her and dodge a volley of shots from the bushes. They weren’t the target – the cyborg was. He’s immediately killed in the spray of bullets.
009 laments that this man’s seeming friends attacked him, and 003 points out that there were over ten people involved. 009 can’t figure out what’s happening or what the objective is of the cyborgs from the crashed ship. 003 says she’s worried about Ivan, so they head back, meeting up with 004 and 007 on their way. They’re shocked to find that they each have similar stories.
009 wants to leave this jungle as soon as possible, believing it to be too dangerous. 004 wants to stay and figure things out. He can’t bring himself to leave this alone.
009 argues that they have an innocent family and an injured Dr. Gilmore on board. 003 agrees with 009, and 004 relents. They take off and disappear into the sky. After they leave sight, the same black ship from before emerges from the greenery. It’s loaded with cyborgs that look exactly as the one who died in front of 003 and 009.
We get some down time for the 00 Cyborgs as they rest and restock on a nearby island, and Ishinomori most certainly retconned the silver scales thing because we see Pyunma without a shirt on and his skin is back to normal. Very wise decision, Ishinomori.
Francoise and Joe even enjoy a brief romantic moment as they look at the moon.
Speaking of the moon, all of the pyramids on the moon shoot beams of light into the sky as we shift into part six – Black Pyramid.
The chapter starts out with narration explaining that people have claimed to see strange objects, lights, and structures on the moon for many years. Not just the average layperson, but authors, scientists, and even astronauts have claimed to see strange objects, lights, gas, etc. on the surface. Two Soviet scientists even surmised that they found what could have possibly been a part of a spaceship underground on the moon.
As we complete all of this narration, we see 004 meeting with 009 in the middle of the night. 009 chastises 004 for leaving his post. 004 explains that everything’s been very peaceful to the point of being boring, so there’s nothing to worry about. More to the point, he has something to discuss with 009.
He wants to know how long 009 intends on hiding out. The wounds on Gilmore have nearly healed entirely. It’s been two weeks, and 004 is getting incredibly restless just sitting around and being “cowardly.”
009 asks where they would even go. They have no destination. 004 argues that they do – the Black Pyramid. They need to go to Bermuda again and dive into the sea. 009 says they don’t know where it is, but 004 responds that they should at least look for more pyramids or the Black Pyramid.
Understanding 009’s reluctance, he suggests merely taking half the team while the other half keeps Gilmore and the Satonaka family safe in the hideout. Either way, they need to do something.
009 says they should give it at least one more week, or even just five days. He has a hunch that the organization that has been chasing them will show up soon. He believes they’ve been under surveillance for some time. Besides, if they do show their faces, they’ve chosen the perfect place to fight, and they can stay fully together and protect Gilmore and the Satonakas at the same time.
After 009 leaves, 004 says to himself that he understands 009’s reasoning as waiting for the enemy to strike can be advantageous. However, waiting for the situation to resolve itself also leaves them at a disadvantage and may take forever.
He throws a shell into the sea, and something begins to shine under the surface. A dome emerges from the water briefly before exploding. 004 dodges the blast but then realizes Joe’s hunch was correct. They must have started moving against them now.
Allow me to remind you of the beautiful insanity that continues to be Cyborg 009 as I say this next sentence.
Then 004 finds a mermaid washed up on shore.
Because why not? We haven’t covered mermaids yet.
004 whips out his Super Gun. Seeing the gun, the mermaid, who speaks mostly in katakana, believes him to be a great warrior and begs for his help. Responding to the explosion, the others arrive on scene and they follow 004 as he carries the mermaid back to their camp.
When she’s all situated, she introduces herself as Meimu. She once again asks them to lend their strength to her. The ship belonging to her and her friends has been destroyed by an alien battleship.
She and her friends are also aliens or ‘people from the stars’ as she puts it. Specifically…a…’rumeru’/’Rumel’ alien? I think the enemy that struck them down are called Garura aliens.
They’ve supposedly been imprisoned by the aliens for some time, but she’s hesitant about giving more details because she’s scared.
009 looks to 003 and asks if the aliens are chasing them, and 003 says she senses nothing. The group all gives each other a pensive look as Meimu reaches hesitantly for 004. Embarrassed at touching her with his metal hand, 004 covers it with a glove before grasping her hand.
006 and 007 tease 004 about holding Meimu’s hand for a second before Meimu relays her story. 20,000 years ago, Earth time, her planet, Rumeruha, was invaded by Garura aliens. It’s hard to tell, but I think she says that some escaped, somehow made it to Earth and took refuge there. However, the Garura had found them, and they wouldn’t stop until her race was entirely eradicated.
They fought back, but they had limited resources. They used what they could to help improve the primitive ancestors of the humans. Because of these efforts to improve upon the humans, they were able to defeat the Garuras, but only because the forces sent to track them were relatively small.
For years, they lived in peace on Earth on the seabed in seclusion both out of fear of the Garura returning for them and because they didn’t want to disturb the humans’ natural evolution.
The remaining Garura, I think, had existed for the past 20,000 years in a frozen state, and they were meant to sleep forever, but the device keeping them frozen was destroyed. The Cyborgs realize that the explosion on the pyramid caused by M was most likely what woke them up.
004 asks what use they are to her people if they’re so advanced that they’ve mastered space travel. Meimu replies that her people have enjoyed peace for so long than they’ve forgotten how to fight. But she watched their fighting spirit and has faith that they have what it takes to defeat them. Only the 00 Cyborgs can help. If they don’t, humanity will be at risk.
007 is eager to help, and 004 asks if they have a ship they can use. Meimu declines and says their country is surrounded by enemy robots. It’s impossible to get close. They have to destroy the pyramid that is controlling the robots to get through, but they can’t. All they can do right now is covertly infiltrate them to get inside.
Later, on the bow of the ship, 004 expresses his suspicions about Meimu’s story. Meimu appears from the shadows and rushes into 004’s arms (she has feet now…I guess) to proclaim that she’s too scared to sit still.
As the morning sun appears over the horizon, the ship shifts into a submersible, and they head into the depths, right over one of the pyramids.
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This is definitely a strong return to form for Ishinomori and Cyborg 009. The Undersea Pyramid arc is very mysterious and intriguing with a lot of shocking and creative twists and turns so far. Only Ishinomori would seemingly randomly throw mermaids into a story about aliens who use flying space pyramids. And it works! Maybe I’m just accustomed to Ishinomori’s writing, but I feel like Meimu’s appearance and her story does fit organically into the narrative.
I’m very interested in where this arc goes. I hope it manages to get even crazier.
I apologize if these entries take longer to come out from this point. I may even wind up skipping this in my normal posting rotation every now and then. It does take me a very, very long time to work out these translations by myself, and each volume is nearly 300 pages long. I will get through it, hopefully, but it will take much longer than it has been. Maybe I can supplement by starting some of the anime series or other media.
Next time, the Undersea Pyramid arc continues.
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