Astro Boy

Astro Boy is the first Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became known as anime. It originated as a manga comic series started in 1951 by Osamu Tezuka, who is known as the "god of manga". After enjoying success abroad, Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s as Shin Tetsuwan Atomu (Astroboy in the US and other Western countries) and again in 2003. For a time Astro Boy enjoyed a level of popularity in Japan equivalent to Disney's Mickey Mouse. Astro Boy bears some similarities with the Italian boy-puppet Pinocchio.^[3]

The animated Astro Boy series was produced by Mushi Productions, a studio established and headed by Tezuka.

The original Tetsuwan Atomu manga stories are now available in English, published by Dark Horse Comics in a translation by Frederik L. Schodt. They follow the television series in using "Astro Boy", the name most familiar to English-speaking audiences, instead of "Tetsuwan Atomu." Names of the other characters, such as Dr. Tenma and Professor Ochanomizu, are those of the original Japanese.

Chuang Yi published a more recent English language manga version of Astro Boy/Tetsuwan Atom in Singapore (also available in Australia).

The 2003 Japanese television series acknowledges the "Astro Boy" name. Although the character is still named "Atomu" ("Atom" in English), the series' onscreen title is Astro Boy Tetsuwan Atomu, with the latter part written in Japanese characters; the scene in which the newly-activated robot is named has been written to support either character name.

In the original story, Astro Boy was created in Takadanobaba on April 7, 2003. On the same day in the real world, a city in Japan (Niiza of Saitama prefecture) granted Astro Boy a special citizenship. This is in contrast to the hardship Astro Boy went through in the fiction to be a part of human society, including obtaining a citizenship.

In 2004, the character Astro Boy was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame. The series of graphic albums was nominated for the Harvey Award for Best Presentation of Foreign Material in 2003.

A feature film version is slated for 2009 from Imagi Animation Studios.

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Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a future where androids co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy", a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science Dr. Tenma (Dr. Boyton in the first series English anime, Dr. Balfus in the Canadian dub of the second series) to replace his son Tobio (or Astor Boyton III in the first series English anime, Toby in the remake of the first series English anime). After Tobio died in a car accident, Dr. Tenma built Astro in Tobio's image and treated him as lovingly as if he were the real Tobio, but soon realized that the little android could not fill the void of his lost son, especially since Astro couldn't grow or express human aesthetics (in one set of panels, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers). In the original 1960 edition, Tenma rejected Astro and sold him to a cruel circus owner, Hamegg (also known as Cachatore), who abused the performers. In the 1980 edition, Astro naïvely signed himself away to the circus owner.

While Astro languished in Hamegg's circus, Professor Ochanomizu (Dr. Packadermus J. Elefun in the first series & second series, Prof. Peabody in the Canadian dub of the second series, and Dr. O'Shay in the third series), the new head of the Ministry of Science, noticed Astro Boy performing in the circus. He managed to make Hamegg turn Astro over to him. He brought Astro along and treated him gently and warmly, becoming his legal guardian. He soon realized that Astro was gifted with superior powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions.

Soon, Astro Boy became an android super-hero with a variety of special powers. These included:

• Ability to translate more than 60 languages
• Strength equivalent to 100,000 horsepower (75 MW), letting him lift many times his own weight
• The ability to fly using jets in his legs (the manga also featured jets in his arms but they were not featured in the '60s anime)
• Magnification of his hearing up to one thousand times
• Laser guns deployed at his posterior (updated from machine-guns depicted in the original manga) (see image; right)
• An electro-heart that can discern people's criminal intentions
• Bright eye-lamps to assist his vision

In the more recent series, Astro Boy was also given an arm cannon, lasers in his fingers. Also additional jets in his arms were incorporated; but this feature was not new, it was taken from the original manga.

Astro then fought crime, evil and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Each story almost always included a big robot battle involving Astro.

The series explored issues of morality, responsibility, racism, prejudice, true heroism, and loss.

This version originally premiered on Fuji TV, on New Year's Day 1963, but was eventually moved to the NHK network. It was the first anime to be broadcast outside Japan. It lasted for three seasons, with a total of 193 episodes. At its height it was watched by 40% of the Japanese population that had access to a TV. In 1964 there was a feature-length animated movie called Hero of Space released in Japan. It was an anthology of three episodes; The Robot Spaceship, Last Day on Earth and Earth Defense Squadron. The latter two were a special treat for Japanese fans since the theatrical versions were filmed in color.

For the English version, the producers, NBC Enterprises, were forced to abandon a literal translation of the name "Mighty Atom" due to potential legal threats from DC Comics, who already had a superhero comic by that name. They settled ultimately on "Astro Boy." Of the 193 episodes created in the series, 104 were adapted into the English version by Fred Ladd. The manga was not translated into English until Dark Horse Comics published it in the 2000s, although Gold Key Comics published a version in the United States based on the TV episodes.^[4]

• Billie Lou Watt — Astro Boy/Astro Girl/Mother
• Ray Owens — Dr. Elefun/Dr. Boynton
• Gilbert Mack — Mr. Pompus/Father

The English version included an opening theme song with the words: "There you go, Astro Boy! On your mission today! Here's the countdown and the blastoff! Everything is go Astro Boy!...," The English show's original producer Fred Ladd, claims that the Japanese producers were so impressed by the adding of lyrics to the ( until then ) instrumental song that they then added words to the Japanese version, starting the "anime music" trend.^[5]

The Right Stuf International has released 2 11-disc DVD collections of the series' entire American run. The video and audio quality varies widely since the company was forced to make do with the best available sources they could find. This is due to the fact that the original masters were destroyed in 1975. According to Ladd, the masters were destroyed by NBC after the network had attempted to return them to Mushi Productions. Mushi, going through bankruptcy at the time, pleaded inability to take them, and so they were burned by NBC. Due to this, the show as currently seen consists of the English version (even in Japan, where it is shown with Japanese subtitles) supplemented with copies of some episodes taken from the masters, including the first episode, found in private archival collections.

The manga series were first created from 1951 to 1981. The first episode was Ambassador Atom, the last episode was Showdown on Mt. Fuji. Some anime episodes weren't made in the manga. Some episodes were adapted from the manga.

Gold Key created a single American comic based on the TV show. NOW Comics created a 20 issue series.

The Institute of Science- The place that builds robots. Astro Boy was first created by Dr. Boytonn in the Year 2000. The current head man is Dr. Elefun.

Russia- The country of the north. There was a hide out of the Hot Dog Corps.

The underground World- An underground place where the nations of Poi Poi and Terra firma are having a war.

Baal's Temple- A hideout where Novacain and his gang worships Baal. But it's later destroyed by Novacain when Baal happens to be a getaway rocket ship and Astro Boy, Professor Natsu, and the others were able to escape in time.

Halava- The only country with no peace. Dictator Ahmud rules with an iron fist. Astro Boy, Mr. Pompous, Dr. Quad, and Bobka later liberated the country.

Golgonia (Shangri-Le in the English anime) - The country ruled by the dictator Hitlini (Chancellor Rudolph Hatter). He rules the country with an iron fist and is intent on world conquest and in pursuit of immortality. Dr. Ochanomizu is kidnapped and taken there to assist in his ambitions. The country was based on Nazi Germany.

In 1962 MBS released a Live Action movie, a compilation film derived from episodes of the 1958-59 TV series which loosely follows the Manga. The opening sequence (around 1 minute) is an Anime type animation, and the rest is a Black and White movie. The whole movie lasts for 1h15m. It can be clearly seen that it was made at the beginning of Japanese movie making history, as we can see that pistols have their barrels covered with white paper before they are shot, as it can be seen in some of the scenes being cut up to match some dynamic movement and or stunt moves. Special effects and Scenography can be compared to, that time, American B-Class movies.

• Astroboy Flying
  Astroboy Flying
• Same Gun, before and after firing.
  Same Gun, before and after firing.

In 1977 there was an anime called Jet Mars (English translation as Jetter Mars) done by Toei Animation under commission by Osamu Tezuka. It was loosely based on Astro Boy. This series lasted only 27 episodes. He can be found as a cameo in Astro Boy: Omega Factor as well.

Tezuka met Walt Disney at the 1964 World's Fair, at which time Disney said he hoped to "make something just like" Tezuka's Astro Boy. A feature film was announced in 1999 by Columbia Pictures and Jim Henson production. However, nothing has come of this announcement since then. There were plans for a Japanese-Canadian IMAX coproduction, but it was shelved in 2000 while it was early in production.

A new anime of Astro boy was briefly shown on Toonami in North America in 2004 but was put off due to low ratings.

• astroboy-online.com
• Astroboy (TV-Series 1964-1966) at IMDb
• Shin Tetsuwan Atomu (TV-Series 1980-1981) at IMDb
• Astro Boy tetsuwan atomu (TV-Series 2003) at IMDb
• Astroboy (feature film) at IMDb
• Comic Book Awards Almanac
• Mangas: Astro Boy and TEZUKA Osamu
• TezukaInEnglish.com: Astro Boy Series Basics

• Official website

• 铁臂阿童木