The Robocop/Janperson Cycle of Influence?

Robocop was a 1987 film that later spawned a sequel in June 22, 1990 and in November 5, 1995.  Let's take a look at the possible circle of influence.  The Robocop movie was a popular hit and later, it spawned several series, cartoons and even Japanese inspired heroes.


Toei in January 29, 1989 created a Robocop-like hero in Jiban.  Unlike Robocop, Jiban could revert to his human identity anytime even if he was a dead officer resurrected as a cyborg.  Also, Jiban fought monsters of the week which Robocop didn't do.  Jiban for me was not really much of a Robocop inspired hero.


Janperson was Toei's more or less Robocop type show except that the hero was purely mechanical.  A lot of its elements such as violence, villains and characters were somewhat based on the first two Robocop movies.  I could start to think of the following parallelisms.  The show aired on February 1, 1993 and ended in January 24, 1994.  In between, Robocop 3 was also shown in cinemas.


Ryutaro Tatewaki would be considered a Clarence Boddicker type of villain.  Both were insane gang leaders who had a fondness of sweets. Tatewaki had candy, Boddicker had gum.  Both of them were near-sighted villains who were psychologically unstable.  Both of them met violent deaths... Boddicker died by Robocop's data spike (at the neck) and Tatewaki died impaled by Janperson's Jan Blader (at the heart) as both men were wanted dead or alive.  Unlike Boddicker, Tatewaki became a cyborg known as Billgoldy.  However Tatewaki also shared Dick Jones' attributes of being a big time businessman whose real aims aren't known to everyone so making the villain a combination of two villains.


Reiko Ayanokouji would be a more evil version of Juliette Faxx.  Juliette Faxx was a corrupt scientist.  Heck, even the hairstyles feel kinda alike.  In the draft of Robocop 2, Juliette Faxx was supposedly the main villain.  I guess Toei took their imaginations and turned Juliette Faxx into a mastermind of evil science thus creating Reiko Ayanokouji.  While Juliette Faux is most likely imprisoned and never mentioned again, Reiko Ayanokouji bit the dust.


George Makebe may have been based on Cain in Robocop 2 having a godlike complex.  Consider that Makebe wanted to be the only one ruling the world and considering himself the god of androids, that could be it.  On the other hand he may have also inspired the villains Paul McDaggett and Dr. Mallardo for the Robocop TV series, which happened AFTER Janperson.  Unlike Cain, he never becomes a complete robot.  His death was probably inspired from Paul McDaggett's death considering Robocop 3 was screened while Janperson was aired.

The Robocop TV series aired in March 18, 1994 and ended in November 26, 1994 which was probably a response to Janperson but it only had 22 episodes in contrast to Janperson as a year long series.  It was a toned down version of Robocop which had nothing to do with the movies.  It also had its own version of George Makebe called Cray Z. Mallardo, but not as dangerous.  While Makebe was more or less a robotics version of Cain, Mallardo was a toned down version of Makebe.