AstroBoy Online Forums

So like the 2003 series, the 1980s series episode order was shuffled for the english version. We know that when they did this with the 2003 series they made a mess of things and events happened out order, so I watch the episodes in the Japanese order since the series makes more sense that way.

However, with the 1980s series it's a different situation. Osamu Tezuka was still alive at that time and he did the series, both the Japanese and english versions, himself. My question is which episode order makes more sense to follow for the 80s series, the Japanese order or the english order?

Since Tezuka did not write the mangas in chronological order, (Birth of Astroboy was written years after Astro's manga debut, and Tezuka shuffled the order of his manga stories in subsequent reprints.), so is the same true of the 1980s episodes? Did he make/broadcast them in Japan out of chronologic order and reorganize them for the english version? Was the series edited to make more sense in the order they were broadcast in the english version, and if so, do the added scenes in the Manga DVD set cause the episodes to make more sense if viewed in the Japanese order?

Ok this is comfoozing, can someone explain this stuff please? :huh:

First, I just thought I'd link to this topic because it has the order of the Japanese, English and French versions. It's quite different.

DrFrag (I think) rightfully pointed out that putting "The Runaway Subway Train" before "The Great Meltdown" created a little problem, but I don't want to spoil anything for you so I won't say more.

Other than that, there is nothing wrong with the English order. There is nothing like Uran appearing before she was born, like in the 2003 series!

However, when it comes to the last few episodes, my favorite is the French order, because it ends with both "The Greatest Robot in the World" episodes and then "Atlas Forever". The English series ends with both Greatest Robot in the World episodes, which I find better than the Japanese last episode ("Astro's First Love"). "Atlas Forever" is very close to the end in English as well (closer than in the Japanese series).

However, with Tezuka's introduction in Japanese (cut from the English version, but included in the extras), "Astro's First Love" makes a great ending for the Japanese viewers IMO. To me, it's just not not a special episode without it. It's not the same to watch it in the extras and then take out a disk to put back the one with the episode on it. (It's a little odd that Astro would be given such a difficult mission while still so young - this episode is 4th in English - but it doesn't ruin it anyway.)

Manga put the episodes back in the Japanese order though, so it would be a lot less trouble to watch it in that order. If you want the best of both world, you could just save both "The Greatest Robot in the World" episodes for the end, and why not "Atlas Forever" too. There is no real ending to the series, but these three episodes do bring some kind of ending anyway. When I saw them (in French) when I was young, I was sure that this was how the series was supposed to end, because it seemed so perfect!