Astro Boy

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This article is about the 1950s manga and 1960s anime. For the title character, see Astro Boy (character). For other uses, see Astro Boy (disambiguation).
Astro Boy

The cover for Astro Boy volume 1 from the Dark Horse Manga edition.
鉄腕アトム
(Astro Boy: Tetsuwan Atomu)
Genre Action, Adventure, Science fiction
Manga
Author Osamu Tezuka
Publisher Flag of Japan Kobunsha / Kodansha
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Flag of Japan Shōnen
Original run April 1952 – March 1968
Volumes 23
TV anime
Director Osamu Tezuka
Studio Mushi Productions
Network Flag of Japan Fuji TV
Flag of the United States NBC, Syndication, Adult Swim
Original run 1 January 1963 – 31 December 1966
Episodes 193
Related works
The cover for Astro Boy volume 8 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works edition.
The cover for Astro Boy volume 8 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works edition.

Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム Tetsuwan Atomu?, lit. "Mighty Atom") is a Japanese manga series and television program first broadcast in Japan from 1963 to 1966. The story follows the adventures of a robot boy and a selection of other characters along the way.

Astro Boy is the first Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiarized as anime.[verification needed] It originated as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, who is often reputed as the "god of manga".[1] After enjoying success abroad, Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s as Shin Tetsuwan Atomu, known as Astroboy in the United States and other Western countries, and again in 2003. For a time, Astro Boy enjoyed a level of popularity in Japan equivalent to Disney's image character Mickey Mouse.[verification needed] In November 2007, he was named Japan's envoy for overseas safety. [2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Astro Boy is a sci-fi series set in a futuristic world where androids co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (or simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science Doctor Tenma (dubbed Dr. Boynton in the first series English anime and Professor 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 called Caccitore), 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.

Astro then fought crime, evil and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story included a big robot battle involving Astro. The series explored issues of morality, responsibility, racism, prejudice, true heroism, and loss.[citation needed]

[edit] Characters

Main articles: Osamu Tezuka's Star System and List of Astro Boy characters

[edit] Setting

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You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (September 2007)

The Institute of Science- The place that builds robots. Astro Boy was first built by Doctor Tenma in the year 2030. The current head man is Professor Ochanomizu.

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. It's later destroyed by Novacain but Baal turns out 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.

Netcircle- A country in the east inhabited by many strange people.

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. Prof. Ochanomizu is kidnapped and taken there to assist in his ambitions. The country was based on Nazi Germany. The Chancellor's dictatorial name is a portmanteau of "Hitler" and "Mussolini", both fascist rulers, his given name is also a reference to Adolf Hitler.

[edit] Media

[edit] Manga

Main article: List of Astro Boy manga

The manga was originally serialized from 1951 to 1981. The first episode was Ambassador Atom, the last episode was Showdown on Mt. Fuji.

The original Tetsuwan Atomu manga stories are now available in English-language, 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 Doctor 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).

[edit] TV series

See also: List of Astro Boy episodes

The beginning anime series was produced by Mushi Productions. It 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 four 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.

English-language broadcast
Promotional artwork for the USA release of Astro Boy.
Promotional artwork for the USA release of Astro Boy.

For the English version, the producers, NBC Enterprises, settled on "Astro Boy" after discussions with producer Fred Ladd and representatives from NBC led them to the name. (The title "Mighty Atom" for an atomic powered robot, as "Astro Boy" was thought of back then, was considered too generic and not "catchy enough" a title for a children's program for American TV.) 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.[3]

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

The English adaptation 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.[4]

In 2007, Cartoon Network began broadcasting and webcasting episodes of NBC's 1960s broadcast as a part of its Adult Swim line-up. Only the first 52 episodes are scheduled to air at present, though not necessarily in the proper sequence.

Aired broadcasted TV history

Flag of Japan Japan

Flag of the United States U.S.A

Flag of India India

[edit] Stations

Alphabetized by city.

[edit] Film

In 1962, MBS released a Live Action movie, a compilation film made up of episodes from the 1959-60 live action TV series that came before the 1960s animated television series which loosely followed 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.

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.[5]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 Japanese IMAX featurette was made in 2005, based on the 2003-2004 anime, titled Astro Boy/TetsuWan Atomu--Visits the Person, IGZA--100,000 Light Years Away!, but has only been shown in Japan.

A feature film version is slated for 2009 from Imagi Animation Studios.[6][7][8][9]

Astro Boy in the upcoming CG film
Astro Boy in the upcoming CG film

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Profile: Tezuka Osamu". Anime Academy. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  2. ^ McCurry, Justin (2008-03-20). Japan enlists cartoon cat as ambassador. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  3. ^ Comic Book Resources - Comic Book News, Reviews and Commentary - Updated Daily!
  4. ^ Fred Ladd speech, Anime North 2001
  5. ^ Kelts, Roland (2006). Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.. Palgrave Macmillan, 44. ISBN 1-4039-7475-6. 
  6. ^ Imagi International Holdings "Our Films", "Astro Boy"
  7. ^ AstroBoy News/Headlines
  8. ^ AstroBoy (2009) Movie
  9. ^ Imagi Gives New Life to Astro Boy

[edit] External links

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