Manga / Cyborg 009

Originally a manga by Shotaro Ishinomori that was serialized in several different magazines from 1964 to 1981, Cyborg 009 has been adapted into four movies, as well as three anime series in 1968, 1979, and 2001.

A few years ago, the Black Ghost organization kidnapped nine ordinary humans and performed experiments on them, turning them into superpowered cyborgs. After the nine of them escaped, they were given codenames (001-009) and now, with the help of Dr. Isaac Gilmore, fight the Black Ghost organization and stop their diabolical plot to spark the next world war.

The nine cyborgs are:

• 001, a small Russian baby named Ivan Whisky. He was probably the most powerful of them all, but as a baby, his powers often exhausted him and can only use them fully once after two weeks of sleeping. Power: A whole array of Psychic Powers (telepathy, teleport and telekinesis)
• 002, real name Jet Link, a gang member from New York City (a la West Side Story). He is The Lancer and Fragile Speedster to the core. Power: able to fly via rocket feet.
• 003, a French ballerina named Francoise Arnoul. Pretty much The Heart, though latter adaptations make her a bit more of an Action Girl (sometimes Faux, sometimes a genuine one) and Team Mom. There was a bit of a romantic subplot between her and 009. Power: surveillance, thanks to enhanced hearing and sight. Technopathy added in the 2001 adaptation, along with escalating her super-senses to Daredevil-level echolocation.
• 004, a German man named Albert Heinrich. Quite a Deadpan Snarker and excellent tactician, with some degree of angst because of his enhancements and the tragic loss of his fiancee Hilda. Power: his whole body was chock full of weapons (he was human machine gun/rocket launcher/grenade launcher, etc).
• 005, A Native American called Geronimo, Jr. The Gentle Giant of the group, somewhat of a Genius Bruiser as well. Power: superhuman strength and superhuman endurance, some degree of empathy with nature in the 2001 series.
• 006, a Chinese chef named Chang Changku. Along with 007, formed most of the comic relief. Cheerful, a bit child-like, nagging but fatherly towards his teammates. Power: could shoot fire out of his mouth.
• 007, a Brit code-named Great Britain (no, really) who was, in his prime, one of the world's greatest actors. Power: could transform into anything.
• 008, an African refugee/guerrilla warrior (2001), Pyunma. His backstory as a freedom fighter was given some light in a two-part episode. In the original manga, he escaped from slavers before Black Ghost abducted him. Power: could swim at great speeds and breathe underwater without assistance.
• 009, the leader of the team, real name Joe Shimamura. The Hero of the team, very sensitive and compassionate, with a strong sense of justice. Power: officially, super-speed accessed via one of his molars, but according to the manga, he was the last cyborg created, so he had a much more powerful body than the others (he could breathe underwater like 008, though for a shorter time, and was almost as strong as 005).

There is a Recap page that spans three generations of television and currently under construction.

All but 5 episodes of the 2001 series were aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami block during the mid-2000's, however those episodes were finally available in the US for the first time thanks to Discotek Media rescuing the series and releasing it on SD Blu-ray. The 2001 anime is also now streaming on RetroCrush, Crunchyroll and AppleTV and PlutoTV.

Joe and friends appear in the Massive Multiplayer Crossover game, Sunday VS Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen.

In 2008 mangaka Yasushi Hoshino wrote and illustrated a 62 pages oneshot retelling of the team's origin story for a special issue celebrating the 50th anniversary of Shonen Sunday. It's a slightly more Darker and Edgier retelling and contains a few elements that would be picked up by following adaptations, most notably giving 002 a more realistic redesign. It's never been collected in volume or reprinted.

A movie titled 009 Re:Cyborg was released in 2012, directed by Kenji Kamiyama of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East fame and its music composed by Kenji Kawai. A manga adaptation of this film also came about, and was published in Monthly Big Gangan magazine. But wait—there's more! In addition to this, a western graphic novel reimagination was released in September 2013, written by F.J. DeSanto and Bradley Camp and illustrated by Marcus To. Don't quit reading now! Look at the bottom of the GN page. There is also apparently a live-action movie being planned.

Through 2012 to 2014, a finale titled "Conclusion: God's War" was published through Shogakukan, adapted from Ishinomori's notes and drafts of a final arc that he'd never gotten to write for the series. It was written by his son, Jo Onodera, and illustrated by Masato Hayase and Sugar Sato, who were assistants of Ishinomori. This officially ended the Cyborg 009 manga, after the series was left hanging for decades and after Ishinomori passed away before he could complete the story.

A crossover OVA trilogy between the series and Devilman, called Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman, was released on October 2015. It received a worldwide release streaming on Netflix in April 2016, complete with an all new English dub.

A new All-CGI Cartoon film trilogy directed by Koudai Kakimoto (with Re:Cyborg's Kenji Kamiyama as chief director) titled Cyborg 009: Call of Justice was announced and released over the course of 3 weeks (November 25, December 2 and December 9, 2016). It's based around an original story with the cyborg team going up against a mysterious organisation that possess powers named 'Blessed'. The films were released worldwide via Netflix on February 10, 2017, edited into 12 episodes.

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Contain examples of:

• Aborted Arc:
  • In the manga, the "Angel" arc (originally serialized in Adventure King), which Ishinomori later attempted to resume and retell in the "Battle of the Gods" arc (serialized in COM)... which also ended abruptly, leading to a hiatus which lasted a few years.
  • Judging from some themes explored in the arcs and Ishinomori's own intent for each to be the final Cyborg 009 story, both attempts can be seen as prototype versions of "Conclusion: God's War". The anime version of the arc also takes cues from these early attempts, with an angel showing the cyborgs the darkness in their hearts, as well as Ivan upgrading the others (which Francoise claimed he was able to do in the infamous cliffhanger to "Angels"), and the eventual "God's War" manga puts its own spin on them.
  • The 2013 graphic novel was seemingly setting up a Shared Universe between Shotaro Ishinomori's various creations: the story was labeled "Ishinomori Universe: Book 1" and there are indications that Skull Man and the Kamen Riders also exist in the setting^note Foundation X, an enemy of the Riders from Double onwards, is revealed to be financing Black Ghost. However, the series was put on indefinite hiatus because Archaia Entertainment and Ishimori Pro couldn't agree on the future direction of the series due to "cultural issues".
• The Ace: Parodied in the 2001 series, with 002 befriending a young child, Jim, from his old neighborhood in the Bronx, and presenting himself as a Gary Stu-like hero in his recollections of the 00-Cyborgs' adventures. Unsurprisingly, Jim idolizes him quite a bit for it.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • 004's ill-fated escape attempt from East Berlin with his fiancee Hilda in the manga. The 2001 anime had two additional scenes: 1) the checkpoint guard tried to tell Albert he forgot his license; Albert panicked thinking his cover was blown and he floored it, causing the guards to shoot at them and inflict severe injuries, and 2) after that happens, a dying Hilda asks 004 if they are free, to which 004 answers "Yes", which leads to Hilda dying in his arms. Poor guy.
  • 0011's motive for going after the 00-Cyborgs in the manga, which was expanded upon in the 2001 anime - he was an ordinary man who was kidnapped by Black Ghost and forcibly turned into a spider-like cyborg. Black Ghost promised him that he would be given a human body in exchange for killing the 00-Cyborgs.
  • There were only two attempts to explain how 007 fell from stardom and became a washed-up alcoholic in the manga. The 2001 series had him abandon his girlfriend when he let the fame go to his head, and once his stardom fell, he was so ashamed of himself that he turned to drink. The '79 anime had him compete with a friend for the leading role in a major production, which the friend won. Shortly after that, while on a hiking trip, the friend suffered equipment failure, causing him to fall to his death. Because of the timing of the incidents, people wrongfully believed 007 killed him, and the lack of evidence caused him to lose both his reputation and everything else.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The new designs for the 2012 series aim for a more modern and somewhat realistic character design, which is specially favorable to 005 (his also minimizes some audience criticisms a bit), 007, 008 and 009. In a subversion, while 002's design is quite bishonen-like, fans tend to dislike it instead since it drastically reduced his iconic Gag Nose.
• Adaptation Distillation: The 2001 series, which mainly adapted stories from the first ten volumes ^note When referring to the most recent re-release by Media Factory's "MF Comics" line, which was utilized for the Tokyopop translations.(and ended its TV run there, with the "God's War" OVA arc following), but also included a few later stories that were re-arranged to take place earlier in the cyborgs' history, such as "The City of Wind". The general setting is also updated to take place in the modern day, although the historical settings of the first four cyborgs' backstories are retained by having them be cryogenically frozen for decades afterward and them being marked as the "first generation" of the 00 project. The anime also gives the Mythos arc more of an actual conclusion, as the manga equivalent of the arc wrapped up very abruptly due to the series being dropped from Weekly Shonen King.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: For some reason, most characters are prone to change hair and uniform color with every new adaptation of the series ('specially Joe's hair ^note Which is black in the '60s Toei animated works, dirty blond in the '79 series, brown in "Legend of the Super Galaxy" and the 2001 series, and ginger in 009 RE: Cyborg).
  • The Pu'Awak sisters are blonde in Ishinomori's colored artwork, but red-haired in the 2001 anime. The Mythos cyborg Helena was also originally a blonde in the manga, but had her hair color and the very style altered along with her name (see "Adaptation Name Change").
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The cyborgs' time at Dr. Kozumi's house is elaborated on a little more in the early episodes of the '01 series. 0012 was also given a backstory and identity, while in the manga she was only witnessed as a Brain in a Jar and never had any indication of what she was before.
  • In the manga, 0011 went after the 00-Cyborgs in exchange for a human body if he kills them. The 2001 anime gives a specific reason why: he was a married man, who one day was wrenched from his wife and daughter by Black Ghost and turned into a cyborg assassin. He went after the 00-Cyborgs because he was promised he would be made human again and allowed to go back to his family if he succeeded.
  • Several adaptations have given Gamo Whisky an expanded role as well, whereas in the manga he disappeared after turning over Ivan for experimentation. Both the 2001 anime and Archaia graphic novel give added context for his actions and make him a lot more sympathetic.
• Adaptation Name Change: Helena of the Mythos cyborgs became "Artemis" in the 2001 series, and also received a design overhaul to distinguish her from the similar Helen (of the Pu'Awak sisters), to the point where she's practically a different character.
• Adaptation Personality Change: See Characterization Marches On for more details. Some characters tended to have their personalities vary through different adaptations of the manga, with 002 and 004 being most affected in the long run.
• Adapted Out: Dr. Uranus (the professor that may resemble a poodle at first glance) did not make the cut in the anime adaptation of the Mythos arc, perhaps due to time constraints as well as his design amounting to blackface and looking somewhat fantastical.
• A Day in the Limelight: The manga's run in Weekly Shounen Sunday featured alternating arcs each focused on a different 00 cyborg. The 2001 anime also made sure to give each cyborg at least one focus episode.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: "Compu-Utopia". Subverted when it turns out the real problem is that the core of the AI is the remnant of a human mind. The mind of a thin-skinned lovesick adolescent human with staggeringly poor impulse control.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: In the 2001 series, 006 destroyed his first restaurant when an attempt to demonstrate fire breathing while drunk at a party ended up causing a larger fire than he intended.
• Ancient Astronauts: The 00 Cyborgs seem to have a habit of stumbling across the Lost Technology of ancient alien races that landed on Earth long ago. There's the ones who created the golden pyramind Princess Ixquic guards, the ones who left behind the technology used by the Mad Scientist in the "Edda" arc and quite possibly the Winged Humanoid aliens in the "Angels" arc, who claim to have created humanity long ago.
• Apparently Human Merfolk: The Lemurian sea people seen in the "Bottom of the Sea" arc resemble regular humans for the most part.
• Arm Cannon: 004's legs hide missiles and his hands hide either knives or bullets. In some continuities he even has a mini nuclear bomb inside of his body. Lampshaded in the 2001 series when he hands 009 a ray gun and rejects it when 009 gives it back after the first big fight, saying he can relay on his bullet hands.
• Badass Native: 005, who is Native American. Among the 00-Cyborgs, his special ability is Super-Strength, and he can fight as well as the other 00-Cyborgs and still come out okay.
• Big Bad:
  • The Black Ghost organization, led by Skull, in most chapters of the manga and its 2001 anime adaptation. The 00 Cyborgs would not have even received their powers if not for them.
  • The manga chapters following the Yomi arc lacked an overarching Big Bad beyond the occasional Arc Villain, although leftover Black Ghost remnants would sometimes pop up as villains. In the late 1970s and early 80s, the Neo Black Ghost organization were the backers behind the schemes of several villains and effectively served as the new Big Bads during the manga's run in Weekly Shonen Sunday, as well as the 1979 anime adaptation. The conflicts in the "Golden Triangle", "Arctic Ghost" and "Pharaoh Virus" arcs are shown to be their doing and they're implied to be behind the plots of several other chapters, including the “Bizarre Machine” one shot, although many chapters featured independent antagonists or no villains at all.
  • Cyborg 009: Call of Justice has Emperor, leader of a rogue faction of the Blessed looking to reshape humanity to their liking.
• Bittersweet Ending: Due to the series' emphasis on War Is Hell and overall tragic nature of the characters, the best endings tend to be this.
  • For the 2001 series, unless you count the "God's War" OVA arc as canon, as well as volume 10 of the manga: Black Ghost is finally defeated once and for all, presumably averting the nuclear war they were about to set off, but Jet and Joe burn up in the atmosphere upon their descent to Earth, and are mistaken for a shooting star by two children, with the older sister wishing for "world peace". On top of that, the surviving Cyborgs have lost their home and the Dolphin, they failed to save anyone in the Underground Empire before Black Ghost nuked it and 004 had to watch a woman he loved die in his arms for the second time in his life. However, in the case of the manga, this was averted by a fan outcry which led to Ishinomori resuming the story and throwing in a retcon.
  • "Conclusion: God's War" also has this, at least in the manga (as the anime version cut off on a cliffhanger): All the cyborgs have died, but get to exist on an alternate, peace-filled copy of Earth known as "the world of light", where they're reborn as humans and get to enjoy happier lives. The vague nature of the ending has been debated over its bittersweetness as well, as there are implications that they're not so much "alive" as much as that they're now existing as purified spirits.
  • The "Call of Justice" anime has the cyborgs defeating the Blessed, but 004 and 009 were lost to Heroic Sacrifice (Heinrich staying behind on a space station being launched into the sun to prevent Emperor from launching its omnicidal payload, and 009 accelerating past the point of no return to trap Emperor there as well), and the entire incident they prevented being covered up with the authorities, leaving the survivors with no thanks for their actions beyond their being falsely labelled as terrorists being quietly revoked.
• Blessed with Suck: The Psychic Assassins can't overexert on their powers, otherwise their bodies age rapidly. The 00-Numbers also seem to see their powers this way, though they come to grips with them, to varying degrees.
• Blood Knight: Cain, leader of the Psychic Assassins team. Self-admitted, too.
• Bolivian Army Ending: The God's War OVA. The Cyborgs arrive on Himiko's island, ready to do battle, with Professor Gilmore certain that they'll win.
• Bowdlerise: While regarded as the adaptation that sticks closest to the early manga, the 2001 anime underwent this in some instances:
  • Jet's Accidental Murder in his backstory was eliminated in the 2001 anime, with him only about to get into a gang fight before the cops come and he winds up on the run for his delinquency. However, the Accidental Murder incident was kept in the Archaia comics and the Call of Justice mini-series.
  • "Man or Machine?" has a key plot moment toned down and changed up a little to allot for the younger audience; In the manga, the fake 004 stomps on a nest of owlets and then murders the mother, in an attempt to hide from Albert and not have any noise to alert him to his location. Albert finds the duplicate anyway, and manages to finish him off. In the anime, the owl nest is disturbed and winds up falling, but Albert manages to catch it and the robot becomes confused due to being unable to predict that movement. Albert is then able to finish his duplicate off.
  • Ivan's backstory in the manga depicts his father as beating his mother to death over her protests about what he's about to do to the baby. This did not make the transition either, with Erika surviving and simply being locked out of Gamo's science lab as he started the experiments despite her pleas (although she may have died in the proceeding decades).
  • At the end of episode 47, the deaths of the Pu'Awak sisters were relegated to an off-screen moment, with their screams being heard as Von Bogoot shot them. It's followed by a shot of Viina weakly calling out for Albert, who winds up screaming her name. In the manga? Readers get to see a spread of Von Bogoot shooting all five sisters at once, all experiencing a very Family-Unfriendly Death. The start of episode 48 does adapt the actual scene of their deaths, although it still appears a bit toned down. The scene is further bowdlerized in the dub, which cuts Von Bogoot shooting the sisters, as well as making snippets to the rest of their death sequence.
  • Before the dub of "Legend of the Super Galaxy" was available in its original full cut, fans had to make do with a shortened 92 minute version that trimmed the violence, as well as scenes and dialogue relating to the team members' backstories.
  • This trope also hit when Jo Onodera adapted "Conclusion: God's War" from light novel format to manga for Club Sunday: In the light novel, 004 is stated to have lost his ENTIRE lower half in the climactic battle, just before the moment where he asks 007 to leave him to self-destruct. In the manga, his legs are stomped on and he's rendered crippled. The novel also had 002 not only get bisected, but also lose both arms. In the manga, Jet is still torn in half, but retains his arms (although one is crushed).
  • In the original manga and anime, Jet/002 is an atheist. A key point in the manga version of the "Underground Empire" arc (as well as in the equivalent moment in the anime) has him internally pleading that although he's never believed in a God, that now he's praying to them that he can save 009. An earlier moment in the 2001 anime (in episode 4) also has Jet angrily state "I don't even believe in God!", when he rants that he cannot trust anyone. As far as the English adaptations went? Tokyopop toned down Jet's lack of faith to have him state that he needed "luck", while the dub changed Jet's line in episode 4 to be "I couldn't even trust my parents!" and changed his internal monologue in episode 48 into a general speech of facing his destiny and ridding the world of evil.
  • In final episode of Call of Justice the Emperor states he will become God. The English dub alters this to him more generically stating he will become a god.
• Bottomless Magazines: 004 only runs out of bullets and/or rockets when it is dramatically appropriate for him to no longer be able to shoot that episode, and is never shown acquiring or installing reloads.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • Francoise once loses her powers while in the mountains, and under certain conditions as well.
  • Happens to Albert at the end of "Legend of the Super Galaxy", when he's brought back to life- but it's then quickly averted when he requests that Dr. Gilmore turn him back into a cyborg.
• But Not Too Foreign: Averted with a passion. The 00-Numbers are explicitly all non-Japanese, to the point that they come from eras and backgrounds that largely prevent them from even traveling out of their home countries. Joe is the exception, being half-Japanese and having a father of an unspecified ethnicity, but he was born and raised in Japan - and got bullied and ostracized by society for being biracial and a bastard.
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • Ishinomori himself did not consider "Empty War", "The Man with the Expensive Castle", or the retconned origin in the prologue to the Underground Empire to be canon. The first is due to the fact that he re-wrote it as "A New Type of Bomb" (most manga releases include both versions alongside each other), and the latter two examples have to do with his distaste for having to rewrite 007 into being a child to tie into the changes that were made in the first film adaptation. There's also a visual discrepancy within that origin; while the narration mentions Joe having been captured on his escape from Kurihama, the artwork depicts an ambulance carrying him off (much like the one in the film, that carried him off after his racing accident).
  • The "Immigration" arc appears to be this as well, as it ends with the 00 cyborgs' descendants traveling back in time to become the ancestors of humanity, yet the "Angel" arc reveals humanity was actually created by a race of Winged Humanoid aliens resembling angels. Although the "Angels" arc itself has questionable canocity around it (see below) and was Cut Short.
  • The manga version of "God's War" essentially overwrites the unfinished "Angel" and "Battle with the Gods" arcs, which were the first and second prototypes of Ishinomori's concept for the "last Cyborg 009 story".
• Carrying the Antidote: A whole episode focuses on the Cyborgs trying to stop the Villains Of The Week who were trying to use biological bombs to get people sick and then sell them the antidote.
• Character Development: All of the Cyborgs escaped the Ethnic Scrappy label thanks to their pretty good backstories, specially in the 2001 anime. Like... 002, the ex-Delinquent who bemoaned his inability to save street children from becoming rotten like he almost did; 003, the ex-ballerina who wishes she was an genuine Action Girl but her enhancements and powers don't let her; 004, the thoughtful German who's forcefully given a cyborg body chock-full of weapons and is traumatized by the death of his fiancée; 007, the ex-theater celebrity star who abandoned his girlfriend when he reached stardom and later became an alcoholic out of guilt; 008, the ex-guerrilla warrior/ex-slave who then gets involved in his war-torn homeland's struggle; etc.
• Characterization Marches On: As the manga went on and was developed into various anime series, the characters changed drastically. Some of the more obvious examples:
  • While Jet/002 started out as part of a street gang (and spent part of his original manga introduction performing the dance from West Side Story), he was quickly established as an easygoing, agreeable Big Brother Mentor to Joe. In the '79 series, he even had to remind Joe that he didn't have to be The Hero taking on the world alone and that his friends were more than just 'something to protect'. The 2001 series, on the other hand, starts him off as a Hot-Blooded Jerkass desperately searching for targets to lash out at and wary of the other cyborgs, then having him grow from there into a loyal Boisterous Bruiser who is revealed to carry the pain of not having been able to be the Big Brother Mentor to the New York kids from the sixties. There were hints of his original personality in the 2001 flashback episode, though, as he rescues a confused and panicking 003 from the battlefield she's been thrown into and manages to calm her down before they met up with 004 and 001 and develop a strategy to save their lives.
  • Albert, on the flip side, mixed a bit of Blood Knight with a hint of Death Seeker and a lot of Black Humor about his situation. He had no illusions about the fact they were meant to be weapons, was cold and pragmatic... and also willing to activate the nuke inside his body if he felt it would save the others. The 2001 version, meanwhile, was more of a thoughtful Sugar-and-Ice Personality who openly grappled with the question of whether or not his enhancements made him less human, also taking up the Big Brother Mentor role towards 002, 003 and 009.
  • To complicate this somewhat; while Albert definitely had stayed more on the serious and cold side, the '80s run of the manga has the two display traits that would seem to be the seeds for their rivalry and personality reversal in the 2001 version. Albert becomes more introspective about his humanity, while Jet becomes a little more jaded in light of realizing the drawbacks of being a cyborg, as well as showcasing a bit more of a hot and belligerent temper when pissed off (such as the argument over holiday traditions in the story "Cyborg Soldier, For Whom Do You Fight?").
• Chef of Iron: 006, who cooks for the other 00-Cyborgs and runs his own restaurant in his spare time.
• Chekhov's Skill: His football playing in the manga is referenced in the 009 vs. Devilman OVA where he tackles Edward/0014 to prevent him from going after 009.
• Codename Title: The nine Cyborgs are given numerical codenames from 001-009, when transformed into living weapons.
• Composite Character:
  • Helena and Helen tended to be merged into one character in some media, such as the 1967 film "Monster Wars", as well as the 1993 Sega CD video game. This was probably part of why Helena was changed to "Artemis" in the 2001 anime. Tokyopop's translation of the manga even changed one of Joe's lines to hang a lampshade on Helen's resemblance to Helena, with him saying "Hey, I remember you!".
  • Helena was also given the title of "Cyborg 0010" in the aforementioned film, while the character known as 0010 in the manga became "Cyborg 0011" along with his twin brother.
  • There's also a SF Roman light novel from 1978, written by Akiyoshi Sakai and illustrated by Ishinomori, which included yet another Helena - this time as a long-haired girl who asks the Cyborgs for help to find her older brother Petrov, a Russian pilot kidnapped by Black Ghost to spark a conflict between USA and the Soviet Union. When she arrives to the group, mysterious things begin to happen like 003 and 004 being way too harsh to her, 003 becoming a huge Clingy Jealous Girl or 001 being wounded... Helena turns out to have been turned into a Cyborg, with Petrov as a mix between 0010 and Apollo, and 003 was less jealous and more like Brainwashed and Crazy (and she was the one who hurt 001 under said brainwashing). Ultimately Helena dies fighting Petrov to save 009, and 009 de-brainwashes 003. The Japanese fans weren't too happy, apparently accusing Sakai of changing the story too much and relaying a lot on Idiot Balls.
• Corrupt Church: Averted. As with all Shotaro Ishinomori works, extreme reverence towards Christianity is shown. The "church" in the 2012 movie isn't corrupt so much as completely off its goddamn rocker.
• Crapsack World: The Black Ghost group wants to create this via War for Fun and Profit And they succeed, in at least one continuity. In the 2001 series Joe is sent forward in time, lands into this apocalyptic Alternate Future, and when he finds out the truth he's this close to cross the Despair Event Horizon.
• Creepy Twins: Cyborg assassins 0010+/- are twin brothers, yet they're utterly psychotic and homicidal. Unfortunately for the 00-Cyborgs, they're the first enemies they have to fight shortly after escaping Black Ghost.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • During the final battle between 009 and Scarl, Scarl spends most of the battle beating the crap out of 009, but then he stupidly taunts Gilmore about how he'll "make him watch as I burn them in the furnace", causing poor Gilmore (who is Ambiguously Jewish) to break free and turn the anti cyborg weapon on him. Scarl becomes distracted by the pain, allowing 009 to tackle him and knock him into the reactor, where the explosives kill him,
  • The manga version of "Conclusion: God's War" has this when the cyborgs are overwhelmed by the gods and creatures that they have to fight. Even with their upgrades from Gilmore that came about due to them being attacked in the earlier fight, they're still unable to defeat the hordes, and the giant Buddha makes quick work of 007, 005, and 002, as well as killing off Dr. Gilmore with a quick squish of his foot.
• Cut Short: The "Mythos" arc came to a rather abrupt end due the meddling of the new editor-in-chief at Weekly Shonen King, who believed its wide array of characters and multiple subplots made it too difficult for young children to follow, and insisted Ishinomori finish it quickly.
• Darker and Edgier: The 2012 film, as well as the manga and light novel adaptations of "God's War".
• Dark and Troubled Past: All of the 00-Cyborgs have rather shitty pasts.
  • 001 was subjected to horrible brain-enhancing experiments by his own father Dr. Gamo Whisky, who either attempted to unlock the secrets of the human mind through his son (manga), or drove himself to insanity trying to find a cure for 001's terminal illness (2001 anime, Archaia novel). In the manga, he also lost his mother, who was murdered by Gamo before 001's eyes when she tried to stop the experiments.
  • 002 was a teenage delinquent who lived on the streets to survive, and became a fugitive of the law either due to committing Accidental Murder (Manga, '79 anime, Archaia novel) or getting into violent street fights (2001 anime). The 2001 anime also reveals that 002 saw other street children being bullied by criminals but did nothing to help them, and the guilt from his inaction stayed with him for many years. From the same series, the episode "Black Ghost Lives" shows Jet during his days as a prototype 00-Cyborg, and it's implied that out of the the nine people who became 00 Cyborgs, Jet stayed with Black Ghost the longest. No wonder the poor guy's so messed up. In addition, earlier adaptations depicted him as becoming a gang leader while still a teenager, which brings up more implications about his home life.
  • 003 was either kidnapped in broad daylight in front of her older brother Jean-Paul (manga, Archaia novel), or tricked into accepting a position in a fake professional dancing business thought up by Black Ghost (2001 anime). The 2001 anime also revealed that Black Ghost's cybernetic modifications to her eyes and ears caused her to suffer from extreme Sensory Overload, and she was thrown into a battlefield without warning where she panicked even at the slightest sounds.
  • 004 was trying to escape East Germany during the Cold War with his fiancee Hilda so they can have a future together, but 004 botched it up, alerting authorities, and during their attempt to flee both were heavily injured, with Hilda dying. The 2001 anime cranked that part up by having 004 lie to Hilda about successfully escaping so her heart wouldn't be broken over the fact they failed. The Archaia novel, however, switched it up by having 004 being unable to legally Hilda due to her being a foreigner, so he tried to smuggle her into country by plane. It went as well as you'd expect. The 2001 anime also revealed that Black Ghost's extensive cybernetic modifications were extremely painful, to the point where he was immediately put out of commission after using them for the first time. It's a wonder he didn't commit suicide after all that crap.
  • 005 was subjected to anti-Native American Fantastic Racism, and was left unemployed for a long time due to his race, forcing him to live the life as a nomad trying to find a stable job. In the manga, the only job he found turned his people into humorous stereotypes, which 005 found incredibly offensive to his heritage.
  • 006 was a farmer who lost everything (the manga depicted him as a pig farmer whose livestock ran way and was taxed to oblivion, while the '79 anime had him suffer from years of bad crops), making him cross the Despair Event Horizon and try hang himself. Later adaptations depicted him as a restaurant owner who either burned down his own restaurant with a botched fire-breathing trick (2001 anime) or was forced to close it down (Archaia novel). In addition, the Archaia novel depicted 006 as a formerly married man whose wife left him after his business failed.
  • 007 was once a famous actor who fell on hard times and became a homeless drunk. The 2001 anime expands on this by depicting him as a small-time actor who abandoned his girlfriend Sophie and his friends once he let his own fame get to his head, and when he was disgraced, he was too ashamed to make amends and turned to the bottle. The '79 anime reveals how 007 became a homeless drunk - he was friends with a fellow actor Henry, whom he also competed with for a lead role in a major production. Henry was eventually chosen, but they never lost their friendship. One day, 007 and Henry went on a hiking trip when equipment failure caused Henry to fall to his death. Because of the timing of the accident, people believed 007 killed his friend, and his inability to clear his name caused him to lose his job and everything else.
  • 008 was originally an innocent villager taken to be sold into slavery, and the people who saved him from that fate turned out to be Black Ghost agents looking for a subject to add to their 00-Cyborg line (manga). The 2001 anime and Archaia novel depicted 008 as a guerrilla fighter, with the former expanding on his backstory and giving him a comrade-in-arms who was turned into an evil cyborg by Black Ghost and had to be killed by 008 to save himself and his friends.
  • 009 was subjected to Fantastic Racism for being half-Japanese, which resulted in him becoming a delinquent and being sent to juvie hall that he and a fellow inmate tried to escape from. The 2001 anime depicted him as an orphan who was Happily Adopted by a Catholic priest who was indirectly involved in a child trafficking ring created by Black Ghost, and was killed to prevent exposure of their secrets only to come home one day and find both the priest murdered and his church on fire. The police thought 009 was the culprit due to being the only one there at the crime scene, so they arrested 009, only for the truck transporting him to get into an accident, allowing 009 to escape.
• Darker and Edgier: The "Battle with the Gods" featured more bleak and existential themes than what had been in the series previously, with the 00 cyborgs debating things like creationism and struggling with their human impulses.
• Darkest Africa: 008's homeland. The trope is played straight in the manga and the older series, but subverted in the 2001 one and averted entirely in the 2012 movie.
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually Jet/002 in the 2001 anime, although a particularly great example occurs in the first episode between Joe/009 and Ivan/001.
  • 004 is also pretty good as this, especially in the early volumes of the manga.
• Demoted to Extra: 002, 004, 005, and 008 all experienced this in the '68 series- 'specially 002 and 004, while 008 at least managed to get a spotlight episode. Major villains including Van Vogt and Skull were also demoted to being one shot villains of the week.
• Derivative Differentiation: The cyborg team all of a sudden gets to go to outer space in the 1980 film Cyborg 009: Legend of the Super Galaxy. This may be attributed the success of of Star Wars and Space Battleship Yamato which at the time popularized Space Opera (further evidenced by the fact that the Galaxy Express 999 director Rintaro was originally attached to the film). However, the film quickly downplayed the Space Opera elements in favor of a more subdued story that focused more on cosmic existentialism and our place in the universe.
• Doorstop Baby: Joe/009 in the 2001 version. There's a scene describing how the kindly priest found him as a baby, alongside his dying mother, on the stairs to his church.
• Downer Ending:
  • The "Snow Carnival" arc ends with both daughters, who were victims of their father's mad experiments, dying. The 00 Cyborgs can do nothing but lament that they knew of little outside of their father’a captivity.
  • The 2001 anime's end to the Mythos arc isn't a particularly happy one either. Artemis dies trying to stop the battle between 009 and Apollo. Apollo is unable to cope with revelation that he's a cyborg rather than a god and can do nothing but sulk blankly as Magma Island collapses. Pan, Atlas and whatever other Mythos Cyborgs are remaining choose to stay as well and grieve Artemis as the island falls into the sea.
• Dual Wielding: In the 009 vs. Devilman OVA, 002 is able to wield two blasters at once.
• Dub-Induced Plotline Change:
  • There's some retconning/softening of a later retelling of 004's origin to have him state that he was contacted by Dr.Gilmore and gave himself up willingly to him after the accident. 002's origin meanwhile, was "punched up" to have his fellow gang members refer to the Sharks as "Spics" and "P Rs", while in the original, the other boys were supposed to simply be cheering Jet on. 0012 and Hera were also misgendered within the translation, as was Kubikuro (who then had his gender corrected mid-chapter).
  • 002's line of "God, I'm praying to you for the first time..." in the Yomi arc also found itself changed, to him saying "Luck, if I ever needed you, it's right now!". The rest of the dialogue in the ending sequence also underwent revision, with it being a key point in the original that nobody referred to 009 as "Joe" up until his fall to Earth. In Tokyopop's translation, he's called "Joe" by 002 and others beforehand, which loses the impact.
• Dub Name Change: While the dub of the 2001 anime mostly kept characters' names, there were a few changes. Gamo Whisky had his surname changed to "Asimov", thus making Ivan have that surname as well. Van Vogt has his name romanized as "Van Bogoot" (though the spelling seems to give a lot of trouble). The Pu'Awak sister Dinah had what appeared to be pronounciation trouble with being called "Deena" in one episode and by "Dinah" in the following one. Two of the Psychic Assassins also had their names altered slightly; Nichol became "Nicholas" and Mii became "Mai".
  • The dub of the "Legend of the Super Galaxy" film Anglicized Francoise's name to "Francis" (oddly in the masculine spelling), changed Jet to "Jedd", Pyunma to "Puma", Geronimo Junior to "Chief", and most egregiously renamed Great Britain to "O'Shaughnessy" while Albert Heinrich became "Heinrich Struller". The 00 Cyborgs were also referred to as "The Galaxy Legion", perhaps to better explain why they'd be going out into outer space.
  • The Spanish dub of Super Galaxy also had its own name changes in store: Jet was renamed "Zanahoria" ("carrot", for his red hair), Albert to "Siegfried", Geronimo Junior to "Arizona", and "Great Britain" to "Chamberlain". These same name changes carried over to the French dub, although Jet was now called "Poil de Carrote" ("carrot head").
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Dr. Gilmore tended to have his eyes shadowed out a lot early on even after escaping Black Ghost, to mark him as shady and ambiguous. This effect would come and go throughout the early manga.
  • As seen in the "Birth" arc: 004 used to have to take off one of his boots and roll up a pant leg to fire off his knee missile, rather than his pant leg being able to split and accommodate the ability.
    • Combined with Art Evolution; 004 used to wear his hair in a bowl cut, had a sharper face, and had a pointy nose that could almost rival 002's in some instances. Due to occasional art mistakes by Ishinomori and him likely having not decided just how cybernetic 004's overall body would look yet, there also at least two blink-and-you'll-miss instances where he's shown to have a visibly more humanoid body during the "Assassins" arc ^note His bared arms can be seen in the back of one panel due to him wearing short sleeves (which in itself would be another early oddity), and when the cyborgs are first resting at Dr. Kozumi's, one panel briefly shows him to be wearing an undershirt and having more humanoid-looking shoulders).
    • Another very huge early weirdness would be how, in the manga version of the Birth arc, he straight out says that he's happy with his cyborg body, and wouldn't want to get back to his former human one.
  • The pupils in 005's eyes would come and go, giving him eyes like 004's when absent.
  • 009/Joe wore a green uniform in early colored artwork, and his scarf varied between being yellow or being red (the red version being the origin of the "red muffler" line in the theme for the '60s films and series). The entire team originally wore green uniforms as well, but Ishinomori eventually opted to depict them as all wearing red (however, there is some merchandise with the early manga color schemes, as well as artwork and statues with them at the Ishinomori Manga Museum). Early color art also gave Joe blue eyes, as opposed to brown/red.
  • 003 had her hair length vacillate wildly in the early chapters, and her headband was initially not drawn in.
• Electric Torture: Used a lot by various Black Ghost villains and other opponents of the 00-Cyborgs. 0010+/- is a notable example.
• Empathy Doll Shot: At least two in the 2001 series.
• Enemy Mine: The "Bottom of the Sea" arc sees 009 forced to work with Black Ghost Cyborg Bii after both of them are captured by the Lemurians. Although at the end of the arc, Bii tries to steal the submarine they're on for Black Ghost and leave 009 and the others aboard it for dead.
• Eye Open: The first episode of the 2001 anime starts this way, as Joe/009 wakes up in a laboratory on his operating table in one of Black Ghost's bases.
• Final Battle: The "Underground Empire of Yomi" arc, which has the 00 Cyborgs fighting one last battle to defeat Black Ghost and stop their Evil Plan.
• Foreshadowing: Jet/002's first lines to 009 in the 2001 anime have him ask where he would like to fall. Come the finale, Jet's last words are "Where would you like to fall?" as the two plummet to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. The Underground Empire arc in the anime also has a moment where Francoise muses about wanting to be able to wish for peace on the next shooting star. She doesn't get that chance, although another girl does.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Most of the male characters in the original 1968 anime switch between four and five fingered hands depending on the scene.
• Full-Circle Revolution:
  • 008 was a revolutionary in a Western African nation when he was grabbed by Black Ghost. When he returns years later, he finds that his homeland has won its independence, but the rebellion never really ended: all that changed is that they're now rebelling against an oppressive local government instead of an oppressive colonial government.
  • Black Ghost liberated the Pu'Awak in the Underground Empire... so they could enslave them themselves.
• Gainax Ending: The 2012 movie is likely to come off as this, unless you're really paying attention and are already familiar with the series... and even then you'll probably need a second viewing.
• Gay Paree: 003's focus episode in the 2001 anime happens in her natal Paris.
• Genius Bruiser/Gentle Giant: 005 is calm, gentle, wise, empathic... and not only Made of Iron, but gifted with Super-Strength.
• Go Mad from the Isolation:
  • An unusual example with Cyborg 0010+/-, who were twin brothers taken and converted into cyborgs by Black Ghost. They were given electricity powers, but to twist the knife, Black Ghost made them literal pole opposites so they can't touch each other without short-circuiting and frying each other to death. It's implied this was what made 0010+/- so evil; in the 2001 series, when 009 defeats them by tricking them into running into each other, they're seen spending their last moments hugging each other for the first time.
  • In one episode, 009's Acceleration Mode ends up jammed on, and he finds himself trapped in a world where he can't interact or communicate with anyone, or even anything as touching most objects while in Acceleration Mode would destroy them. When it finally turns off, he's pretty close to cracking, having spent a subjective week in total isolation with nothing to do in the amount of time it took 003 to blink.
• Good Costume Switch: Zigzagged in “Conclusion: God’s War”. The team switches their Black Ghost-issued red uniform with yellow scarves for identical blue ones with red scarves. It initially seems like an Evil Costume Switch, given that they initially act a lot more viciously violent in combat. However, when they throw off the attempted subversion of their minds and gain new powers to fight for the world, the new costumes become a way to throw off their origins.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: 001, when awake, can easily trump most enemies with his powerful psychic abilities, despite being a baby 00-Cyborg.
• Grand Finale:
  • "Conclusion: God's War", at least as far as the manga goes. An earlier adaptation of the concept used for the 2001 anime could also be considered such, although the OVA wasn't originally planned to be made, with the Underground Empire arc serving as the actual intended ending. The anime also treats their adaptation of "God's War" as a "prologue", leaving off on a cliffhanger.
  • Before "God's War", the Underground Empire of Yomi arc was originally intended to be the finale, featuring the 00 Cyborgs' Final Battle against Black Ghost and 002 and 009 both dying after defeating the leader of Black Ghost, before it was retconned that they survive. Several adaptations, including the 2001 anime, Tokyopop's English localization of the manga and the Mega CD game, also choose to end the story here.
  • Cyborg 009: Call of Justice could be viewed as another attempt at a finale. It takes place after the Yomi arc but seemingly ignores "God's War", and ends with three of the cyborgs sacrificing themselves. It's currently the last piece of Cyborg 009 that's been produced and no other content has come out since 2017.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Black Ghost are this for any stories where an individual operative of theirs is the main villain. This includes Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman, with Van Vogt in particular being the one who gave Dr. Adams the resources needed to perform his experiments.
  • Call of Justice seems to paint the Blessed as being this for the whole series, as they were apparently keeping tabs on the 00 Cyborgs throughout their battles against Black Ghost.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The 00 Cyborgs get precisely zero public acknowledgement for what they do for the sake of the world - even in situations where the public realizes they needed to be saved, nobody who wasn't physically present when the 00 Cyborgs saved the day ever realize that they were the ones who did it. Which in most cases is just the Cyborgs, Gilmore, and any villains who survive to flee.
• Guest Fighter: 009, 006, 005, and 004 served as these for Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation in probably Capcom's weirdest Capcom vs. crossovers ever. 001 also made an appearance as an Assist Character for 009.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: 003 is the most obvious example, when she is a blonde. 009, too, at least in the '79 anime adaptation.
  • 002, when he is depicted as blond (2012 film, Archaia comics, Call of Justice).
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: 007 was depicted as formerly having blond hair in a flashback in the 2001 anime. He's completely bald now.
• Heavy Sleeper: 001 must sleep for long periods of time, due to his weak baby body.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: 006 and 007 are both very close, to the point of bickering Like an Old Married Couple on occasion. Despite this, they get along greatly.
• Hidden Elf Village: The "Edda" arc sees the 00 cyborgs stumble upon a secluded Norse-themed village in Iceland, who kill anyone who tries to leave the village.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Most conflicts in the manga and 2001 anime turn out to be the doing of Black Ghost in one way or another. This gets lampshaded by 002 in the Devilman crossover where he immediately guesses the High-Teen Numbers were sent by Black Ghost.
• Humans Are Bastards: A common theme of the series. The eponymous hero and his allies owe their tortured existence as Cyborgs to this and often wax philosophy on how horrible humans can be to each other, but still believe in human goodness and never indulge in a Refusal of the Call for good people lest evil humans prevail. Black Ghost banks its existence on this trope and claims humanity as hopelessly corrupt and its warring greed will ensure Black Ghost will always exist in one way or another.
• Hurricane of Puns: The English dub of the 2001 TV remake was notorious for this.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: The twin brothers who make up Cyborg 0010 are named "Plus" and "Minus"; Plus wears red, while Minus wears blue. In the Archaia comics, Plus and Minus were renamed "Alpha" and "Omega" respectively.
• Interim Villain: The arcs in between the "Assassins" and "Vietnam" arcs featured several one-off villains not connected to Black Ghost, including the Neo-Nazis in the "Man or Machine" arc and the titular villain of the "Man with the Expensive Castle" arc.
• Island Base: An Island Base showed up in the first episode of the anime. It was used by two Mad Scientists like their Mad Scientist Laboratory.
• James Bondage: The '79 series frequently saw 007 get caught by the enemy - far more than Francoise/003 ever was, in fact.
• Lethal Chef: 002. That's what happens when you don't take the lessons offered by the local Plucky Comic Relief who happened to be a professional chef. 002 rightfully wonders why the Black Ghost had their Cyborgs able to starve to death. They won't. The food is to maintain their remaining organic parts - their mechanical parts run off of a separate power source - and in the manga continuity they apparently require less than normal humans.
• Love Makes You Crazy - Love Makes You Evil: 0012 has the memories of a lonely lady who lost her husband several years ago. Carl Eckermann aka Sphinx attempts to kidnap Francoise because he's love-starved and lonely. Also, Mad Scientist Gamo started as a not very stable but still not fully evil surgeon who went nuts searching for a cure for his sick child Ivan, who'd become Cyborg 001.
• Mad Scientist: LOTS of Black Ghost-affiliated people.
  • Dr. Gaia was mostly just a Jerkass in the manga, but the 2001 anime amps up to having a god complex
  • Dr. Gamo Whisky went insane trying to find a cure for his infant son Ivan's illness, to the point of aimlessly experimenting on him and ignoring his wife's pleas to stop.
  • Van Vogt, at least to the extent of converting himself into a cyborg.
  • Dr. Gilmore in the 2001 series CLAIMS to be a Reluctant Mad Scientist, but the episode "Black Ghost Lives" subverts his claims with the reveal that he joined to satisfy his quest for knowledge and knew full damn well what he was getting into, something that his own subconsciousness won't let him forget before he ultimately decided to make his Heel–Face Turn.
• Magical Native American: Played around with 005 in the 2001 anime and 009 vs. Devilman OVA, whose empathy with Earth doesn't come from his cybernetic enhancements. He's actually more of a Gentle Giant who happens to be Made of Iron, and fights with either his bare hands or by throwing heavy stuff at his enemies.
• The Man Behind the Man:
  • At the end of the "Underground Empire of Yomi" arc, Skull is revealed to be an envoy of a higher power, which takes the form of three cybernetic brains that control the Demon Statue.
  • In the "Mythos" arc in the anime, the Mythos Cyborgs appear to be actual Greek Gods at first, until it's revealed Dr. Gaia created them and used them as part of his plan to become a god himself.
  • In the "Deinonychus" arc in the manga, Dr. Ross is really going along with the scheme of Dr. Keeley, his supposed assistant, who is working for (you guessed it) Black Ghost.
• Master of Disguise: 007's power, which helps him maintain his appearances while transformed. Justified, since he was a prize-winning actor in his prime days.
• Mecha-Mooks: Black Ghost is shown to use robot soldiers on occasion, in addition to fully human ones.
• Meet the New Boss: Discussed in the "Angels" arc. While the so-called "angels" are very different Black Ghost, 004 notes that their callous disregard for human life and desire to modify humankind to their liking doesn't make them too far off from what Black Ghost was aiming to do.
• Monster of the Week:
  • The "Assassins" arc of the manga saw the 00 Cyborgs facing a new cyborg assassin from Black Ghost each chapter. Later arcs in the manga also followed this format to a degree by having self-contained plotlines with one-shot villains.
  • The 1968 anime also followed this formula. Rather than having Black Ghost or any other sort of overarching villain, each episode had a new foe the 00 Cyborgs needed to fight.
• More Dakka: 004's way of fighting. Baddies pop up? Just load them with bullets/missiles!
• Multinational Team: Pioneer in this, preceding even the "all-new, all-different" '70s incarnation of the X-Men. The story goes that Shotaro Ishinomori took a trip around the world just before starting this series, and this inspired him to take this trope and show how it was supposed to be done.
• My Greatest Failure: In the 2001 anime, Jet/002 regrets not preventing the other kids in his old Bronx neighborhood from becoming delinquents like him. The episode that revealed this had him become The Atoner by having 002 convince a group of psychic alien children to stand up to the monsters who were tormenting them.
• My Hero, Zero: The 00-Number Cyborgs are all Black Ghost Super Prototypes.
• Named by the Adaptation: The unnamed esper of the Mythos team became "Hera" in the 2001 anime, while the talking hippo (originally named "Hippo Man" in Ishinomori's character guide) was christened "Nereus". Joe's old friends also received full names, with Mary receiving the surname "Onodera" and Ibaraki and Oyamada receiving the respective given names of "Shinichi" and "Masaru".
  • Cyborg 0013 is given the name of "Tsutomu" in the 1979 anime, although his story was changed for him to be a cyborg of the Neo Black Ghost, so there was no 00 number codename for him.
  • English dub-wise, Van Bogoot/Van Vogt received the given name of "Klaus" (or "Claus"), which carried over to other dubs that were made to follow that adaptation. In both the Japanese anime and manga, the character is only ever referred to by his surname or as "Director".
• Nebulous Evil Organisation: Black Ghost are a consortium of arms dealers with a globe-spanning reach and their fingers in nearly every major armed conflict. Most of the foes the 00 Cyborgs go up against are creations or agents of Black Ghost. There's also Neo Black Ghost, a successor organization looking to follow in the original Black Ghost's footsteps, which serve as antagonists in both the 1979-1981 run of the manga and the 1979 anime.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Let's face it, had it not been for Black Ghost augmenting the characters with their cybernetics, most of their lives would have been terrible: 001 would have succumbed to his disease before his first birthday (in the 2001 series and Archaia graphic novel only); 002 would have been jailed due to his Accidental Murder, and if not that then he would have been on the run for the rest of his life; 004 would have died of his injuries sustained from his accident; 005 would have continued wandering alone; 006 would be dead, either from suicide or starvation; 007 would probably have continued living in the gutter as an old drunk; 008 would have become a slave or escaped successfully, living in the wilderness, or died in battle; and 009 would probably would have been put back into juvie, or on the run (Though in his case it should be noted that if it wasn't for Black Ghost, the arson and murder he was accused of wouldn't have happened in the first place).
• No Ending:
  • The "Mythos" arc doesn't really come to much of a conclusion in the manga, as it just ends with Magma Island exploding and a brief note explaining that the 00 Cyborgs haven't been spotted since.
  • The "Angels" arc ends on a rather abrupt cliffhanger showing a fleet of Flying Saucers heading towards Earth... which isn't ever followed up on. It's retelling "Battle with the Gods" ends on a similar note.
• Number Two: 004, usually, due to always being able to bring out some big guns when needed and keep his wits more or less cool while using them. The rest of the cyborgs have yet to be shown functioning as a full-fledged team without him. Black Ghost halted the entire program for the guy for 40 years. Not to mention 002 and 009 are all but stated die in the final dubbed episode. Even villains as high as Black Ghost tend to notice (far more than some viewers) about the role 004 plays. The first fight with 0010 - leaves everyone else unconscious (save for 003). Pre-battle, 004 is the lead tactician (with 008 as the strategist). He has several character-enhancing discussions with other entities; machines, cyborgs, people. He's the backbone of the team, which is ironic considering he's all machine except for his brain and spinal cord.
• Oddly Small Organization: 006's restaurant staff consists of him as the only chef and 007 as the only waiter.
• Origins Episode: Episode 38 centers around how Gilmore was recruited into Black Ghost, and his later Heel–Face Turn.
• Orwellian Retcon: Happened with one of the later manga stories, "Heart of the Machine". In the original serialization, the Fille Fatale Nana Kashima was stated to be an 11 year old 6th grader. Perhaps due to the risque content in the story, her age and grade were raised when it was reprinted in the tankoban releases (to where she was now in 8th grade and a 14 year old).
  • Ishinomori initially gave 009 the name of "Joe Muramatsu" in the first print run in Weekly Shonen King, but the instances of his surname were corrected to "Shimamura" in the later reprints. 003 was also only initially referred to by her surname "Arnoul", or by "Francois" (the masculine spelling of her intended name), though these too were corrected (save for a moment of Joe referring to her as "Arnoul" in the "Assassins" arc).
  • A one-shot scientist in the "Aurora Strategy" story had a daughter named "Iruka". In some reprints, her name was altered to "Cynthia", which the 2001 anime also utilized. The Tokyopop edition sourced the original printing of the chapter.
  • Originally in the "Immigration" arc, Lina and her nameless brother were said to have deformities due to the fact that a nuclear war had happened on Earth and the fallout caused several children to be born with defects. Ishinomori later revised the text due to controversy, to have Lina state that the nuclear war caused animals to mutate and become hostile, and then attack humans and cause them to lose limbs and have the deformities.
• Out-of-Character Moment: "The City of Wind" is seen as an Out of Character Episode for 009. once he meets Princess Ixquic. It's not unusual for him to immediately empathize with others and want to help those in need... the problem is his abrupt Lack of Empathy for his True Companions, particularly towards G.B./007, who has just lost one of his oldest and most idolized friends from his old life (and the person they were searching for in the first place) as well as towards his best friend and possible Love Interest Francoise/003 (who had been Brought Down to Normal and traumatised upon finding several emtombed corpses, so she was desperately trying to not give into Heroic Self-Deprecation) because Ixquic, while not being evil, isn't very good at being Kabrakan's leash. Considering that compassion is one of Joe's defining traits as a whole, his treatment of the others during that episode is jarringly off, though thankfully isn't brought up again. The possibility that Ixquic has a siren-like influence on him with her beautiful singing) is brought up by Albert who compares her to the legendary Lorelei, but it's neither confirmed nor denied.
  • A case of adaptation caused inconsistency: in the manga, especially the late '70s run, Joe would take his role as The Hero very seriously, and put his duty of helping people asking for his help before anything else, usually with little to no objection from his teammates. The original version of the story was an acknowledgment of this issue, and intentionally showed what would have happened if, for once, someone in the group had their own motivations and stakes in one of these situations, and the tensions that would have been born from it. And it should also be noted that, when the group meets Ixquic for the first time in the original, there was no prior clarifying discussion between Joe and them about her and her situation (Joe just disappears and reappears later with her). So when he first sees her G.B., who has grown to believe that she has murdered his friend on purpose, points his gun at her yelling that he'll kill her, which is completely omitted from the anime version and explains Joe's more protective stance towards her. The 2001 anime version, on the other hand, has none of these elements, and while it goes out of its way to make Ixquic's character and G.B.'s relationship with his friend more fleshed out than the original manga did, it also leaves all this out, making the situation and Joe's actions and logic feel decidedly out of character and confusing.
• Our Angels Are Different: The angels seen in the "Angels" arc, who are really a race of Winged Humanoid aliens. Rather than serving God, they claim to be god for humanity and to have created them long ago.
• Outrun the Fireball: The 2012 movie puts 009's Super-Speed to the test when he has to outrun the shockwave and thermal pulse of the atomic bomb dropped on Dubai by a thrall of "His Voice". He survives, but unfortunately, Dubai doesn't.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Surprisingly Averted. Every cyborg has their own advanced powers. Despite that 009 is the most advanced make of the cyborgs, he actually doesn't render them useless; even 002, despite having a invoked early prototype of 009's accelerator, can still fly. If anything, 001 can overshadow everyone with how he seems to have near unlimited Psychic Powers... when he's awake, that is. 002 proceeds to avert this even more. Out of the 1st Generation Cyborgs, he was the only one who did not need to be fixed in order to work.
  • Played straight in the first anime adaptation, however. There, 009 Took a Level in Jerkass and was clearly The Hero, while some of the other cyborgs were lucky if they even got to appear in the episode. Thank God that was fixed later.
  • Also played straight with 004's role in keeping the team functioning.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: The Cyborgs, and Ishinomori Shotaro's trademark. They were created by Black Ghost to be Living Weapons, but rebelled and chose to fight against them instead.
• Plucky Comic Relief: 006 and 007, whose antics and witty banter provide much humor for both manga and various media adaptations.
• Poison and Cure Gambit: The Egypt episode of the 2001 series is about the Cyborg team trying to defuse one of these. It's also 003's Episode of Awesome, as her Super-Senses and Wrench Wench skills make her the perfect Spanner in the Works.
• Post-Script Season:
  • The chapters following the "Underground Empire of Yomi" arc are this. Yomi was originally intended to be the finale, but fan outcry led Ishinomori to continue the manga by having the 00 Cyborgs go on new adventures.
  • "Battle with the Gods" was another attempt to bring the manga to a close, but when it too attracted backlash, Ishinomori cut it short and continued the manga with more self-contained story arcs.
• The Professor: Gilmore in all continuities, and both Dr. Kouzumi, Dr. Eckermann and Professor Finder in the 2001 series.
• Psychic Powers: 001 in all adaptations, and 005 who becomes The Empath in the 2001 anime and the 009 vs. Devilman OVA.
  • All of the 00-Cyborgs gain psychic powers of their own in the 2012 Conclusion: GOD'S WAR manga, thanks to 001's upgrades:
    • 007 gains the ability to straight-up possess his foes instead of just shapeshifting his appearance to mimic them. The 2012 manga ups it further by giving him Astral Projection.
    • 006's fire breath evolves to full pyrokinesis, allowing him to change the shape and direction of his fire breath, and breathe freakin' flame dragons!
    • 008 can manipulate water pressure in both manga and OVA, making enemies explode from the inside. The manga ups it with full hydrokinesis.
    • 003 gains Telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance... after she loses her eyes twice (the second time she them out herself).
    • 009 later gets teleportation and telepathy after having an arm ripped off and replaced with a machine gun one.
    • 004 can shoot bullets that always home in on targets, and later can teleport them to the target(s)' location no matter how far. The OVA depicted his bullets as energy projectiles.
    • 002 is given the ability to psychically accelerate to light speed during flight, and eventually teleport.
  • The Psychic Assassins arc featured a group of psychic assassins working for ex-Black Ghost personnel Dr. Gamo Whisky, who wants them to kill all the 00-Cyborgs but 001 who is his son.
• Psycho Electro: 0010 +/- wields devastating electrical powers, as the nine 00-Cyborgs find out the hard way. It was only through an unexpected rainstorm that they survived. And not only can 0010 wield it, so does his twin...
• The Psycho Rangers:
  • The "Assassins" arc reveals that Black Ghost kept creating 00 cyborgs even after the original nine escaped, and now they have to fight them.
  • The Mythos Cyborgs are also superpowered cyborgs capable of going head to head with the 00 Cyborgs, with Apollo in particular being an Evil Counterpart to 009.
  • The High-Teen Number Cyborgs in Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman, to the point of even wearing black versions of the 00 Cyborg uniforms.
  • The one-shot "Ghost Island" chapter of the manga has a Mad Scientist create doppelgangers of the 00 Cyborgs in order to get revenge on 009.
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: A few of Black Ghost's employees claim to be this, including Gilmore himself. Some of them are lying... including Gilmore too. The 2001 episode "Black Ghost Lives" confirms it, at least for Gilmore.
• The Remnant: Though the 00 Cyborgs eventually defeat Black Ghost in the Underground Empire of Yomi arc in the manga, leftover cells of the organization continue to pop up in later arcs as antagonists. Although some arcs imply Black Ghost isn't as destroyed as the cyborgs think, and in the "Deinonychus" arc Dr. Ross reveals that much of their top brass is still alive. The remnants of Black Ghost eventually fully reorganize into "Neo Black Ghost" in both the manga and the 0079 anime.
• Retcon: A later retelling of the cyborgs' escape from Black Ghost had 007 depicted in his child form (which Ishinomori had introduced due to Executive Meddling, but was never consistent with), although this seemed to get forgotten about later due to Ishinomori's stated distaste for having had to incorporate that change.
• Revealing Cover-Up: "Call for Justice" has the Blessed try to kill the cyborgs the moment they learn of the other group's existence, then frame them for terrorism when the first two attempts fail, inspiring the cyborgs to investigate the Blessed and eventually stop them. Given that at the time this happened, the team knew nothing of the Blessed's plans and were still trying to figure out if there was a reason they should care that there was a hidden group of immortals out there, the Blessed's plans were less than a week from reaching the point where they'd be unstoppable, and nothing in those plans required that the 00-Cyborgs be destroyed, merely that they stay away from the one incomplete part of their plan, which they had no way of knowing was important at the time, if the people who had allegedly been ruling the world from the shadows for a thousand years had any understanding of subtlety, they'd have won.
• Russian (and German) Guys Suffer Most: Disturbingly, they are also the only ones even slightly justifiable in that Black Ghost saved both of their lives. The 'Russian Guy' is a baby who never knew life outside of constant experimentation (by his own father, no less!) prior to the team's escape. The German... hard to know where to start with him.
• Ripped from the Headlines: The civil strife in 008's native country involves access to a precious mineral simply called "Metal X". Though originally intended as a condemnation of colonialism and an exaggeration of the real-life phenomenon of blood diamonds and other "conflict minerals," it hits far, far harder in the digital age with the ever-rising demand for Coltan, used to make tantalum capacitors - as in, the stuff in the computer you are now using. Friends and family members of his may very well have died to produce parts of his new body.
• Robot Buddy: There's a thin, simplistic robot in the 2001 series that 006 calls "Scarecrow," due to its lanky body. After 007 and 006 are stranded on an island, they find a robot who accompanies and aids them until rescue comes.
• Sad Clown:
  • 007, who despite his humor and Large Ham tendencies, is still at heart a washed-up actor and emotionally broken man who turned to alcoholism in the face of overwhelming failure onstage.
  • Subverted with 007's buddy, 006; despite having an equally Dark and Troubled Past, his jovial demeanor isn't used as a mask to hide his emotional scars. He is really that cheerful!
• Sapient Cetaceans: The main heroes of Cyborg 009 named their ship "The Dolphin", much to 002's chagrin. In the manga, genetically and cybernetically enhanced dolphins were a pretty common enemy, used by Black Ghost as underwater scouts, soldiers and assassins.
• Scarf of Asskicking: An iconic trademark for the 00-Cyborgs, who are characterized by their impossibly long, flowing yellow scarves. This is the same guy who later created Kamen Rider, after all...
• Secret Project Refugee Family: Gilmore sees his proteges as his adoptive children, and they often live together like a real family. Especially in the 2001 series where Gilmore's beach house is also the home of Ivan/001, Francoise/003, Chang/006, G.B./007 and Joe/009. Lampshaded in one of the earlier episodes of the same series by Gilmore's friend Dr. Kozumi, who dedicates a whole scene to telling Gilmore how he had gained a new family after leaving Black Ghost.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Was used in the episode 'Mystical Island.' The self-destruct sequence was deactivated when the black scarecrow robot knocked the computer chip out of the self-destruct mechanism.
• Series Fauxnale:
  • The "Underground Empire of Yomi" arc was intended to wrap up the series, but received for fan outcry over its ending, which had both 002 and 009 dying. The manga resumed soon enough with "Monster Island", which included a retcon to explain that the two characters didn't die.
  • The "Angels" and "Battle with the Gods" arcs were also intended as finales to the series, but due to various publication issues (and in the latter case, backlash from fans) they both ended on cliffhangers that weren't resolved, with the manga instead moving on to several self-contained stories.
• Seven Deadly Sins: The "Battle with the Gods" saw the 00 Cyborgs (sans 001) being overtaken by their human impulses and coming to embody one of these.
  • 004 is Pride, viewing himself as so above other living beings that he kills a bird on a whim.
  • 006 is Greed, using his abilities to steal money.
  • 002 is Sloth, choosing to dance around to music rather than do anything productive.
  • 008 is Envy, taking annoyance at 002 being able to have fun while he's in depression.
  • 005 is Wrath, venting his anger by destroying things, in stark contrast to his regular Gentle Giant demeanor.
  • 007 is Gluttony, choosing to sit around and drink himself into a stupor.
  • 003 and 009 are both Lust, as they give in to their impulses and have sex with each other.
• She's a Man in Japan: 0012's former appearance is never shown in the manga, although Ishinomori seemed to intend them to be a woman. The Tokyopop release has 0012 referred to by male pronouns by others. Averted in dubs of the anime, due to them clearly being a woman. Hera was also misgendered in the Tokyopop translation, with 001 referring to her as a "he".
• Shoo Out the Clowns: In "God's War", 006 is the first to die.
• Shout-Out:
  • The British 00-Cyborg is codenamed "007" and changes shape. Who do you think he's based on?
  • Jet/002's first scene in the manga parodies West Side Story. Yes, even the dancing. Bad thing? It doesn't work AS well for modern readers.
    • The names of the gangs are even given as the "Jets" and the "Sharks". The '79 anime shortens the origin sequence some, but retains a bit of the dancing. Jet's would've-been love interest in the episode is also given the name Natalie (after Natalie Wood).
    • Jet's own name is derived from the "Jett Rink" character in the film Giant, although Ishinomori took some liberty with the spelling.
  • The ending of volume 10 bears a strong similarity to Ray Bradbury's short story Kaleidoscope.
  • Overlapping with Homage - in episode 8 of the 2001 anime Joe and 0013 face off at the Ishimori shrine - or, to be precise, at the shrine of Ishimori Daimyoujin ^note Ishimori was the alias Ishinomori was mostly known as early in his career, a misreading of his actual pen name.
• Sinister Shades: A lot of Black Ghost agents wear black sunglasses, making them appear very shifty and shady.
• Smart House: 0012, who is a Black Ghost assassin whose body is an entire house. Depending on the adaptation, the body itself is either controlled by a brain hooked up to various machinery (manga), or the mind of a long dead, grief-stricken noblewoman (2001 series)
• Spell My Name With An S: Various cases crop up through the series, here and there:
  • Black Ghost's second-in-command has had his name rendered as "Von Bogoot", "Van Bogoot", "Van Bogart", "Ban Bogart", and "Van Vogute" throughout official sources. The English dub went with the second option, while Tokyopop's translation shifted between the third and fourth spellings. His surname was inspired by the science fiction writer A.E. von Vogt, although the katakana used to spell his surname (ヴァン・ヴォークト) is different from the Black Ghost character (バン・ボグート). This may have been intentional by Ishinomori, or there may have been difficulty in trying to render the name in Japanese.
  • The Pu'Awak sister with the blue tiara is "Vina" in the English dub, while Tokyopop referred to her as "Venus". The katakana spelling her name is ビーナ, which can be rendered in multiple different spelling (Vina, Beena, Bina, Veena, etc.). The spelling "Venu" has also been seen, as it's theorized that Ishinomori might have had the Roman goddess in mind but altered the name slightly (removing the "su" katakana). "Vena" is another option presented that keeps the pronunciation intact but edges closer to the possible intent.
  • 001's name is sometimes spelled "Iwon Whisky" in official materials, owing to the difficulties of rendering "Ivan" in Japanese and then translating it back. It has also been seen as "Ivan Wisky", which Archaia used in their version as well.
  • 006's name, due to the complexities of the Chinese alphabet, has alternatively been rendered as "Zhang Zhanghu", "Chang Changhu", "Chan Chanko" (based off the Japanese spelling of his name), and "Chang Chanko" (used in the dub).
  • 002's surname sometimes appears as "Rink", due to L/R confusion, although Ishinomori and most related materials use "Link".
  • 008's name is sometimes translated as "Punma" or "Puma".
  • Some fansubbers tend to render 003's family name as Arnelle rather than Arnoul.
• Starfish Robots: 0011 resembles a flying saucer; its "windows" can shoot adhesives, or 0011 can bring out its legs through them. 0012 serves as the AI for an even bigger mech.
• Stealth Pun: 008 throws one in Episode 4 (2001):
  008: Let's see how he likes being behind the 8-ball for once. I have an advantage under water!
• Super-Speed: 002 and 009. Makes sense - 002 says that his accelerator was a prototype of 009's.
• Super-Strength: 005, and the other 00-Numbers (minus Ivan/001) to varying degrees. Yes, even Francoise.
• Talking the Monster to Death: 005 on the Spirit Of The Earth, then 009 and 003 on Carl Eckermann aka Sphinx.
• Team Chef: 006; the 2001 series even devoted a full episode to showing how important his skills were.
• Team Dad: Dr. Gilmore, who views the 00 Cyborgs as family and offers them support. 006 sometimes acts as this as well, on account of being the most senior member of the team.
• Team Mom: 003 is often the voice of reason of her team, always trying to look for peaceful solutions to conflicts. She is especially this to 001, who is often asleep due to his psychic powers.
• Teru-Teru Bōzu: One briefly appears hanging upside down in the fourth episode of the 2001 series. To put this in context, the episode takes place after the escaped 00-cyborgs horribly lost their first battle with 0010 but barely survived due to a sudden downpour preventing the enemy cyborg from using his electric powers.
• Those Wacky Nazis: The villains of the "Man or Machine" arc (and episode 3 of the 1968 anime) are a Neo-Nazi organization based out of the Antarctic.
• Time Stands Still: When 009 uses his Super-Speed, he sees the world like this. In fact, he once spent a whole episode like this.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: In an episode of the 2001 series, the 00-Cyborgs must convince a bunch of powerful psychic alien children to fight against the ones who want to enslave them. In the end, it's Jet/002 who succeeds, by pleading with them to stand up for themselves until he breaks down crying.
• Trapped in Villainy: Black Ghost is fond of picking a hero, then going out and getting a nice and sympathetic guy (or tracking down the hero's loved ones if Black Ghost is feeling particularly mean), forcibly augmenting them with cybernetic parts, and ordering them to go kill said hero or the self-destruct mechanism in them will explode. Scarl does this so often that it's practically his modus operandi.
• Truer to the Text: Aside from the Setting Update (which had to be written around for the first four Cyborgs), the 2001 anime is primarily a direct adaptation of the first ten volumes of the manga, utilizing characters and concepts that were generally skipped or altered in previous adaptations.
• Unexplained Recovery:
  • As far as the 2001 anime goes, the writers seemingly don't explain how 002 and 009 survived their fall to Earth when they aired the "Conclusion: God's War" OVA arc after the end of the Underground Empire arc. This is due to the fact that episodes 49-51 of that adaptation aren't counted as being in continuity with the rest of the series, although fans would only know this from some outside sources (such as the artbooks), or if they were aware that the events of "God's War" are meant to happen in a timeline parallel to the original one created by Ishinomori. In short, 002 and 009 are dead at the end of episode 48, while episodes 49-51 take place in a timeline where they survived. The English and Latin American dubs getting rid of the special opening and ending sequences for the arc may add to the confusion.
  • As far as the manga goes, Ishinomori was rather vague on what happened to the 00 cyborgs after the Mythos arc, or how they survived the explosion. This probably had to do with the fact that the manga switched magazines after that arc, and he had to re-introduce the characters with a retconned version of their origin story.
• Universal Driver's License: Justified, since Joe is able to become a star car racer in the manga thanks to his enhancements.
• Unseen Pen Pal: Francoise aka 003 gets one of these: the super-computer named "Sphynx" that controls the robot city of Compu-Utopia. That AI actually is the placeholder of the memories and mind of Carl Eckermann, a deceased young man with hidden and huge Mommy Issues, who happened to be the son and right-hand of the creator of Sphynx and Compu-Utopia.
• Villainous BSoD: In Call of Justice, Emperor starts becoming enraged as the 00-Cyborgs persist against him, despite all being woefully underpowered compared to him. He starts becoming more unhinged when he experiences, for the first time, the constant loneliness 009 feels every time he Accelerates, thanks to Catalina telepathically linking Emperor to 009. After Emperor kills Catalina with his powers, a vengeful 009 exceeds his usual Acceleration speed so Emperor can't even read his movements, and traps Emperor in a white void where he will be alone forever. It's where Emperor's cool facade finally breaks completely and he's reduced to a ranting, screaming madman.
• War Is Hell: A main theme of the manga is that, no matter which side you’re on or who wins, war is a terrible thing that should be avoided whenever possible.
• War for Fun and Profit: Black Ghost, who sells highly advanced weapons to the highest bidder and manipulates things behind the scenes to stoke the fires of conflict so more weapons can be sold.
• Wham Episode: The "Deinonychus" arc ends with Dr. Ross giving a particularly startling revelation: much of the top brass of Black Ghost still lives and have kept the organization working in the shadows.
• Wham Line: Near the end of the Mythos arc in the 2001 anime, Dr. Gaia (who built the Greek god cyborgs) reveals that he is still loyal to Black Ghost, even though Black Ghost was seemingly destroyed before the start of the arc.
• What Could Have Been: An In-Universe example when Professor Gilmore draws a picture of 0013 wearing their uniform.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Sometimes, poor 003 could only sit and watch as things went boom, causing her genuine psychological problems and, at some point, almost sending her into an Heroic BSoD until 004 asked if she'd rather be a war machine like him.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed In-Universe, with the 00 Cyborgs often lamenting their status as Living Weapons and questioning if they still hold the same value as regular humans.
• What You Are in the Dark: Horribly twisted during the "God's War" OVA arc when the cyborgs go through a collective Mind Rape meant to draw out the fear that, underneath it all, they really are just horrible monsters, along with the rest of humanity. This is also visible in the "Battle with the Gods" arc in the manga, when the team members suddenly experience flashbacks to shameful things they had done. The manga and light novel version of "God's War" has another take on this, where the team is driven mad and wind up either nearly killing themselves or others in their despair (leaving Ivan to have to bail them out).
• Whole Episode Flashback: 2001: Episode 38 relates the history of the 00-cyborg project as filtered through Gilmore's eyes. It concludes where Episode 1 begins.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • The Greek God Cyborgs thought their mission was to cleanse Earth by destroying humanity. Subverted, as they were actually Unwitting Pawns for Dr. Gaia, who tricked them into fulfilling Black Ghost's goal of creating a Crapsack World on Earth.
  • Also present in the 2012 movie, if you're charitable.
  • The Big Bad of the Call of Justice miniseries, Emperor, is this - he wants to introduce a deadly, incurable plague to humanity in a bid to force them to evolve and gain powers, because he believes humanity will die off if they don't. It's later subverted in that Emperor actually Hates Being Alone, and wants someone to validate his existence as a supposed benevolent leader and god. Once he's completely isolated, he freaks out.
• You Are Number 6: Black Ghost named them after numbers based on the order they were taken and converted into cyborgs. Joe Shimamura, the last 00-Cyborg to be named, is renamed "009". Eventually their numbers are what the main characters respond to as their former lives are gone. 003 does sometimes call 009 by his first name, "Joe", especially in private moments.
  • In the 2001 anime, Jet Link was originally planned to be named "001", but after the psychic Ivan Whisky showed more promise, Jet was named "002" instead.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Several episodes featured various cyborgs returning to their original hometowns, only to find that due to the passage of time and/or the manner in which their lives there ended before getting grabbed by Black Ghost, they don't really have a life to return to. That said, several of said episodes do allow them to get some personal closure before they move on.

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