AstroBoy Online Forums

Hey Everybody! I'm new to this board (obviously). I watched Astro Boy all the time as a kid up here in Canada on ITV. It was on every day and I had the privilege of having many years of Astro. Then it vanished. But now it's back in DVD and my world became a better place! My other favourite cartoon show as a child (which was also always on ITV everyday) was The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin and now that is being released on DVD, so I am very excited about that! Now on to my actual post:

I know this question has been asked several times, but all the other threads are not out of date (or maybe I just don't know how to get the links to work!)

Is there some way that I can watch the first two, unedited Japanese (but with English subtitles!), episodes of the 80s Astro Boy series. I own the 51 episode DVD set and was confused when I saw that the Japanese order given in the booklet had an extra episode, Astro Boy vs. Atlas! I found this site and have now learned that I have been deprived

Also, why on earth was this episode taken out of the English series? It only seems incredible essential to the Astro Boy/Atlas plot!

tellville wrote:Hey Everybody! I'm new to this board (obviously). I watched Astro Boy all the time as a kid up here in Canada on ITV. It was on every day and I had the privilege of having many years of Astro. Then it vanished. But now it's back in DVD and my world became a better place! My other favourite cartoon show as a child (which was also always on ITV everyday) was The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin and now that is being released on DVD, so I am very excited about that! Now on to my actual post:

Hello and welcome! I'm Canadian too.

tellville wrote: I know this question has been asked several times, but all the other threads are not out of date (or maybe I just don't know how to get the links to work!)

No problem.

Is there some way that I can watch the first two, unedited Japanese (but with English subtitles!), episodes of the 80s Astro Boy series. I own the 51 episode DVD set and was confused when I saw that the Japanese order given in the booklet had an extra episode, Astro Boy vs. Atlas! I found this site and have now learned that I have been deprived

With English subtitles? Well, if you are willing to spend around 200$ CAN to order the 1980 Australian boxset for those 20 minutes or so, yes. Otherwise, these episodes are on Anapan's FTP, with Cantonese subtitles however. It's not very hard to understand what's happening. Fafner also created a page explaining what was missing, it's here (warning, this is obviously a spoiler!).

Also, why on earth was this episode taken out of the English series? It only seems incredible essential to the Astro Boy/Atlas plot!

I don't know, maybe because the Atlas plot was violent...? It was a decision of the Japaneses themselves.

Edited because once again my link failed... And below DrFrag said the version with English subtitles was in the parent directory of the one I linked to.

You know, in all honesty. I wish the Japanese R2 DVD release had a seperate Volume release, instead of limited to boxset fashion. (which is essentially expensive, but then again, 4 volumes at 4800yen gets pretty expensive.)

Astro forever wrote:Otherwise, these episodes are on Anapan's FTP, with Cantonese subtitles however.

The parent directory contains a version with English subtitles.

It's unfortunate the boxset description was copied from the Madman release. I think quite a few fans were disappointed at being misled by this.

DrFrag wrote:The parent directory contains a version with English subtitles.

Oh good. It's unfair to pay for a 1980 version and ending up missing those episodes that really should have been included, and to have no way to buy it separately.

It's unfortunate the boxset description was copied from the Madman release. I think quite a few fans were disappointed at being misled by this.

Indeed. On the other hand, it's weird that the Japanese audio isn't mentioned anywhere, not even on the box itself.

I'm not sure where this magical parent directory is....

BTW, thanks everybody for your replies!

tellville wrote:I'm not sure where this magical parent directory is....

Click on the very first link in the page that I gave you.

Or, even easier, click here. They are the ones that start with "Astroboy (1980 sub)".ftp://ast:ast@atomu.ath.cx:6872/video_eps/80s/Astroboy%20%281980%20sub%29%2001%20-%20The%20Birth%20of%20Astroboy.avi

tellville wrote:Is there some way that I can watch the first two, unedited Japanese (but with English subtitles!), episodes of the 80s Astro Boy series. I own the 51 episode DVD set and was confused when I saw that the Japanese order given in the booklet had an extra episode, Astro Boy vs. Atlas! I found this site and have now learned that I have been deprived

That happened to me too. Personally, I get fed up with American DVDs and the misleading info on the covers. Here's what you should do:


Avoid this DVD boxset:



And order this one instead:



I orderd mine from EzyDVD when it was still $130 U.S. dollars. Hope you can find it cheaper at Ebay, Amazon or Half.com.

tellville wrote:Also, why on earth was this episode taken out of the English series? It only seems incredible essential to the Astro Boy/Atlas plot!

Astroboy Vs. Atlas



I have the DVD tin boxset and I have to say that the Atlas story is a little extreme and not for kids (well, that's how it was viewed back in 1980).

There are a number of reasons why the United States never picked up the Atlas footage....




Livian serves Walpur Guiss whiskey serveral times, but then again she does it in the U.S. dub on the "Anti-proton Gun" episode. Go fig.




The real drama begins when Livian breaks a statue that belongs to Walpur Guiss.




Guiss is an evil little bastard who shows no mercy to his robots. Livian begs for his forgiveness to which he replies, "Forgive you?! I created you! I can do whatever I want to you!"



Guiss takes Livian down to his underground lab and brutally dismantles Livian (yes, while she's still online). Not for the kiddies.



Atlas discovers this and attacks Guiss.




Guiss shocks Atlas with an electric whip and leaves.



Atlas follows Guiss and Guiss' car fires a bunch of missles that almost reduce Atlas to scrap.


Atlas is damaged, but continues after Guiss and knocks his car off a cliff.



Atlas collapses and crawls back to the castle. Pretty sad stuff.

gentleman92576 wrote:That happened to me too. Personally, I get fed up with American DVDs and the misleading info on the covers.

There was no misleading info on the cover of Manga Entertainment's box? They don't mention they included the Japanese audio, but that's better than claming there is something that isn't there. It's the websites that have wrong information.

As for buying Madman's version and not Manga's, I don't know. Manga's is something like $150 more, and that doesn't include the delivery, taxes and duty fees, plus it's R4 PAL, which may not be convenient for everybody in North America. That's a lot for about 20 minutes of missing footage. And the US release has the Japanese audio and all these little scenes added here and there, so it's not bad at all IMO.

Astro forever wrote:There was no misleading info on the cover of Manga Entertainment's box?

You're right about that. Sorry, I meant to say that the information on most websites about the Magna boxset are misleading, like this one: Astroboy DVD Collection when it explains the DVD features.

See? We both know there are no Japanese episodes in that box set.

As for buying Madman's version and not Manga's, I don't know. Manga's is something like $150 more, and that doesn't include the delivery, taxes and duty fees, plus it's R4 PAL, which may not be convenient for everybody in North America. That's a lot for about 20 minutes of missing footage. And the US release has the Japanese audio and all these little scenes added here and there, so it's not bad at all IMO.

Well, I wasn't talking about getting it from Madman's directly. As I said before, I got mine from EzyDVD for much less than Madman's price; it was $130 USD when I purchased it earlier this year. Madman's price is way up there now and I'd rather not spend that kind of bread just to see young Atlas raise hell over Livian's destruction.