is a 1971 manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series by Mitsuteru Yokoyama

Mitsuteru Yokoyama

was a Japanese manga artist born in Suma-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo. His personal name was originally spelled , with the same pronunciation. His works include Tetsujin 28-go, Giant Robo, Akakage, Babel II, Sally, the Witch, Princess Comet, and adaptations of the Chinese classics Outlaws of the Marsh and...

.

Yokoyama's manga has been animated three times: in 1973 as a television series, in 1992 as an original video animation

Original video animation

, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...

 series, and in 2001 as a 13 episode television series.

Yokoyama also wrote a sequel manga set in a parallel universe

Parallel universe (fiction)

A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 called .
The series follows Koichi, a Japanese schoolboy who learns he is the reincarnation of the alien entity "Babel". As such, Koichi is entrusted with Babel's powers and joined by three protectors: Rodem, a shape-shifting black panther; Ropross, a Pteradactyl-like flying creature; and Poseidon, a giant robot that always rises from the depth of the ocean when summoned.