Golden Bat (Anime)

NOTE: This article is about the incanation of Golden Bat from the anime. Other versions of the character can be found here on the disambiguation page.
Golden Bat (Phantoma in the English dub), is the main protagonist of the 1967 anime of Golden Bat based on the original 1930 kamishibai of the same name.
In Japanese, he is played by Osamu Kobayashi who also played him in The Golden Bat (1966), and in the English dub he is voiced by Burr Middleton who also played Snooper (as Mickey Hoyle) in The Choppers (1961), BBQ man #1 in Hunters Blood (1986), Captain Marvel/ Billy Batson in The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! and Hero High, Bailiff in Hunter (1984–1991), and also voiced. The latter also voices his archenemy under the name Dr. Zero, the narrator, and Gabby.
== Overview ==
The Golden Bat originates from a lost continent of Atlantis, the legend tells that every five thousand years the world is threatened with destruction but can be protected if the Golden Bat is awakened from his casket. What is needed to reawaken him is a drop of water. The one who awakened him will have a special connection with Golden Bat and be able to summon him whenever danger arises. His archenemy is Dr. Nazo and has an evil counterpart who goes under the name of Dr. Death.
== Appearance ==
Golden Bat is a muscular humanoid creature with black eyes and golden pupils, golden teeth, and for attire wears a black and red cape with a golden button at the front and matching golden boots. He carries a silver baton as his signature weapon.
== Personality ==
Not much is known about Golden Bat's personality, he rarely speaks and doesn't show much emotions and is often seen exposing his teeth closed together. He even has an apparent lack of blinking due to a likely lack of eyelids and doesn't appear to open his mouth widely. He does however have some astonishment when encountering a very powerful opponent. He also has a disdain of evil and is willing to protect and help the ones who are in danger and restore peace to the world. 
== Trivia ==
* Golden Bat's design from this show is apparently based off his one seen in The Golden Bat (1966) despite the differences.
* The Golden Bat is named differently in other localizations of the cartoon:
** In the English dub, he is referred to as Phantoma or otherwise Phantaman along with the title Warrior of Justice. (the other titles below were likely based off all the aforementioned due to their similar pronouncations).
** In the Spanish dub he is called Fantasmagorico.
** In the Portuguese dub he is referred to as Fantomas.
** In the Italian dub he is named Fantaman.
* In some dubs of the anime, he has little to no speaking lines, and due to the English dub being (almost) completely lost, it's currently unknown if he has any lines in the latter, however in a tumblr post in thesearchforphantaman, it's been stated that Golden Bat spoke very little in the lost English dub or spoke like the same amount in the Japanese version.
* Fun fact; ''Fanta'' in his Italian name ''Fantaman'' has the same name as the Coca Cola drink Fanta. Whether this was a coincidence or not is unknown.
* In 2005, the live-action gothic horror series under the name Garo, apparently started as the name Skull Z very early on during its project, Keita Amemiya the creator of the series, originally began the project with a simple idea and drafted up some characters with one being a concept art that appears to be based off the Golden Bat himself albeit a modernized version of him. But as the design evolved, he resembled him less and less and settled the character's final design to a wolf theme instead.
== External Links ==
* Golden Bat on the Golden Bat Wiki
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