AstroBoy Online Forums

I believe somebody somewhere asked about the opening & closing scenes for the !960s anime. Don't remember if any has posted on this site, but here they are for your edification!

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And here are the closing scenes. As one can see there were three different openings. Astro Boy was aired for four years and there is an opening for each year with the third version airing for both the third and fourth year. The first version is probably the most familiar to most of you out there as this is the version is used throughout most dubbed versions outside of Japan.

Two closings. Not exactly sure how many years each of these were used. Maybe two years apiece!?

Hope you guys enjoy!

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Wow . . . thanks Astrobuddy!

I absolutely do remember the 1st version of both the beginning and end (the image with Astro's head small and in the left corner is the panel where the "NBC Enterprises" logo was displayed).

And third version is used on episode 193 (the finale) in my boxed set (I thought it was a special ending for the final program . . . but I guess not!)

What are this images from? It looks like they're from a book.

The second closing credits must have been done at the same time as the second opening, they both have Atom and Uran flying together. The first opening sequence looks like a collection of scenes from various episodes, which means that they must have had quite a few episodes "In the can" before they aired the first show. The second and third opening sequences look like they were made specially for the purpose, and don't look like any footage from any episodes were used. Probably by the second season they were running "hand to mouth" barely making the production deadline before air time. While I have never seen the second opening sequence, I have also seen the third (someone once posted episode 193 on youtube). I think I like that one the best.

Maybe someone who owns the Japanese DVD set (Jeff?) could rip the three different openings and two endings and post them on youtube? Exerts of TV shows are usually not treated as "Piracy" by the DMCA Gestapo.

Yes, it did occur to me that the second closing was used for the last three years and the first one was used for the first year only.

kscharf: Yes most productions have several "in the can"! They have to or else they would run the risk of not having enough episodes to air.
Most productions do run "hand to mouth" because of money and time constraints.

AprilSeven: Yes the pictures are from a book.

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I do not know if most later episodes were made just in time, but I have seen 1 that used clips from at least 7 other episodes. I think it is fair to assume that they often were cutting it close to the broadcast time; perhaps not always, but often. I will create a thread soon.

"jeffbert" wrote:I do not know if most later episodes were made just in time, but I have seen 1 that used clips from at least 7 other episodes. I think it is fair to assume that they often were cutting it close to the broadcast time; perhaps not always, but often. I will create a thread soon.

Great, a new thread! What about?

Does your collection have any of the other openings? I mean on the Japanese episodes I have seen, they only have the third opening and use the second ending.

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Maybe Jeffbert can identify all the episodes from which the original opening credits came from. For starters there was Colossus, and the Artificial Sun.

Looking at the photos for the ending credits the second image (astro flying) was used in the very first episode where he first flew while fighting Zog. The cells for that image were superimposed over various backgrounds as that frame was re-used all over the place (in 'White Comet' for one). The first image where he is using his super hearing (as in my Avatar) was also reused frequently. I really like the last frame shown in the first closing sequence. This flying shot is sorta "superman-ish".

"ASTROBUDDY" wrote:[QUOTE=jeffbert;208018]I do not know if most later episodes were made just in time, but I have seen 1 that used clips from at least 7 other episodes. I think it is fair to assume that they often were cutting it close to the broadcast time; perhaps not always, but often. I will create a thread soon.

Great, a new thread! What about?

Does your collection have any of the other openings? I mean on the Japanese episodes I have seen, they only have the third opening and use the second ending.

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episode #137.

It has all of them.


kscharf, I would rather not identify them.

Interesting pictures from the 60's credits, thanks for sharing, ASTROBUDDY!

Oh btw Jeffbert, I haven't forgotten your request about episode 138.
I will look into it as soon as possible.