Astro Boy

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since September 2007. It may be confusing or unclear for some readers. Tagged since July 2008. It is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Anime and manga or the Anime and manga Portal may be able to help recruit one. Tagged since February 2009. It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since November 2007.

Astro Boy
The cover for Astro Boy volume 1 and 2 compilation by Dark Horse Comics.
鉄腕アトム (Tetsuwan Atom)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Science fiction
Manga
Author	Osamu Tezuka
Publisher	Kobunsha / Kodansha
English publisher	Dark Horse Comics
Other publishers: Madman Entertainment Bonnier Carlsen
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Kobunsha[1]
Original run	April 1952 – March 1968
Volumes	23 (List of volumes)
TV anime
Director	Osamu Tezuka
Studio	Mushi Productions
Licensor	Nozomi Entertainment Madman Entertainment
Network	NBC Fuji TV
Other networks: ABC CCTV Pogo
Original run	1 January 1963 – 31 December 1966
Episodes	193 (List of episodes)
Related works
Astro Boy (1980 TV series) Astro Boy (2003 TV series)
Anime and Manga Portal

Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan Atomu^?, lit. "Mighty Atom") is a Japanese manga series first published in 1952 and television program first broadcast in Japan in 1963. The story follows the adventures of a fictional robot named Astro 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 familiar worldwide as anime.^[2] It originated as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, revered in Japan as the "God of Manga."^[3] 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. In November 2007, he was named Japan's envoy for overseas safety.^[4] An American computer-animated 3-D film based on the original manga series by Tezuka was released on October 23, 2009.

Plot

Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a futuristic world wherein androids co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (sometimes called simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma, to replace his son Tobio, who 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 given that Astro could not grow older 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.

After some time, Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science, noticed Astro Boy performing in the circus and convinced Hamegg to turn Astro over to him. He then took Astro as his own 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 is shown fighting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story included a battle involving Astro and other robots.

Characters

• Atom / Astro / Astro Boy
• Professor Ochanomizu/Dr. Packidermus J. Elefun, head of the Ministry of Science
• Astro's parents, created by Prof. Ochanomizu in order to make Astro more human-like
• Uran / Astro Girl, Astro's younger sister
• Cobalt / Jetto, Astro's younger brother (appears as older brother in the 1960s anime)
• Chi-Tan / Ti-Tan, Astro's baby brother
• HigeOyaji/Mustachio/Shunsaku Ban/Mr. Percival Pompous/Daddy Walrus/Albert Duncan, Astro's schoolteacher and/or neighbor in the original manga and color 1980 tv series; a private detective and surrogate uncle for Astro in the 1960s tv series
• Shibugaki and Tamao / Dinny and Specs, two of Astro's friends
• Chief Nakamura / Chief McLaw
• Inspector Tawashi / Inspector Gumshoe

Media

Manga

The cover for Astro Boy volume 8 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works edition.

The manga was originally serialized from 1951 to 1968, followed by two further series in 1972-73 and 1980-81^[5].

The original Tetsuwan Atomu manga stories were later published in English-language versions by Dark Horse Comics in a translation by Frederik L. Schodt. They follow the television series in calling the character "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.

Astro Boy (along with some of his supporting characters) appear in a series of "edu-manga" that tell biographies of such subjects as Helen Keller, Albert Einstein and Mother Theresa. Astro Boy and his "sister" appear in prologues and epilogues for each story and learn about the famous person from Dr. Ochanomizu, who acts as narrator for each installment. These manga were published by Kodansha, Ltd. from 2000 to 2002 with English language versions published by Digital Manga Publishing and seeing print from 2003 to 2005.

In a 2004 manga of Tetsuwan Atom written by Akira Himekawa, the plot, as well as the character designs, loosely follow that of the 2003 anime series. The artwork is quite different from Tezuka's original. This version of the manga was published in English by Chuang Yi.

Anime series

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, the final episode presented on New Year's Eve 1966. At its height it was watched by 40% of the Japanese population who 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 filmed in color.

English-language version

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, and initially syndicated from September 1963 through August 1965, with repeats continuing until the series was withdrawn from syndication in the early 1970s. The manga was not translated into English until Dark Horse Comics published it in the 2000s. In 1965 and 1966, Gold Key Comics, under license from NBC Enterprises, published a version of "Astro Boy" in the United States based on the English version of the TV series. [The single issue, "Astro Boy" (1965) and "March of Comics"# 285 (1966)]^[6].

• Billie Lou Watt — Astro Boy/Astro Girl/Mother
• Ray Owens — Dr. Elefun/Dr. Boynton/Dinny/McClaw/Narrator
• Gilbert Mack — Mr. Pompous/Father/Specs/Gumshoe/Jetto

The English adaptation included an opening theme song [by Tatsuo Takai, lyrics by Don Rockwell] 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.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 and 2008, Cartoon Network began broadcasting and webcasting NBC's syndicated edition of the original 1960s episodes as a part of its late night Adult Swim line-up. Only the first 52 episodes were aired.

Film

Astro Boy in the 2009 CGI 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 and which loosely followed the manga. The opening sequence (approximately one minute) is animated, and the rest is live action. The movie runs 75 minutes.

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.^[7] 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 computer-animated feature film version was released in October 2009 from Imagi Animation Studios^[8][9][10]. It features the voices of Kristen Bell ^[11] and Freddie Highmore.^[12]

IDW Publishing released a comic book adaptation of the movie to coincide with the film's release in Oct. 2009; both as a four part mini-series and as a graphic novel.

Video games

Konami developed and published Mighty Atom aka Tetsuwan Atom (Family Computer game) for the Nintendo Family Computer System in 1988. It is know for its extreme difficulty level attributed to a one-hit death rule.

Banpresto published the Zamuse developed release of Mighty Atom aka Tetsuwan Atom (Super Famicom game) for the Super Famicom system in 1994. Like its Konami developed cousin, this title follows events in the Manga series.

Sega published a pair of games based on Astro Boy. Astro Boy for the PS2 was based on the 2003 anime, while Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the Game Boy Advance drew from various elements from the series.

Astro Boy: The Video Game is a video game based on the Astro Boy animated feature film from Imagi Animation Studios. It was released in October, 2009 from D3Publisher of America, Inc.^[13][14] for Nintendo's Wii and DS, and Sony Computer Entertainment's PS2 and PSP. It features the voices of Kristen Bell and Freddie Highmore.^[15]

Reception

Astro was listed on Empire magazine's 50 Greatest Comic Characters list ranking forty third on the list.^[16]

The 1960s anime was named the 86th best animated series by IGN, calling it the first popular anime TV series.^[17]

The 1980s anime was extremely popular in Australia, Canada, South Korea,and many parts of Asia, with two different English dubs. The dub shown in Australia (& to a lesser extent in the USA) coordinated by Tezuka Prod. & NTV & produced in the USA & a dub produced in Canada solely for broadcast there.

While the 2003 anime did poorly in North America, having received poor distribution and having been heavily edited, including the removal of its orchestrated soundtrack and much of Astro's childlike innocence, it was better received in the UK on the BBC, where it ran in syndication for almost three years as well as other parts of the world such as Dubai based MBC 3.

On April 7, 2003, the city of Niiza, Saitama registered the Astro Boy character as a resident to coincide with his birthdate in the manga.^[18][19]

See also

• List of Osamu Tezuka manga
• List of Osamu Tezuka anime
• Osamu Tezuka's Star System

References

External links

• Official Osamu Tezuka Web Site (Japanese)
• Astro Boy at TezukaOsamu.Net (Japanese)
• Astro Boy (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

• Astro Boy (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Astro Boy at the Internet Movie Database
• Astro Boy at TV.com
• Astro Boy Encyclopedia at TezukaInEnglish.com
• Interview with Fred Schodt