AstroBoy Online Forums

2014 was a pretty busy year for our favorite little robot hero, wasn't it? Let's take a look at all the things that happened with Astro Boy this year, shall we?

• The announcement and airing of a new Nigerian Astro Boy anime aimed at preschool children.

• The announcement of another Astro Boy series aimed at older children being made in Monaco and France.

• The announcement and debut of a new spinoff prequel manga authored by the guy who made Rideback, drawn by the same guy who did the art for Birdy the Mighty and Patlabor, and supervised by none other than the son of Osamu Tezuka.

• The debut of two new mobile games.

• An Astro Boy crossing signal being installed in Japan.

• The creator of Akira drawing an homage picture for Astro Boy.

Unfortunately, we also lost quite a few voice actors and staff from Astro Boy and Jetter Mars as well. Here are the voice actors who passed away in 2014:

• Seizo Katou (1927-2014), who voiced Skunk Kusai in the 1980s series, and Rommel in the 2003 series

• Ichiro Nagai (1931-2014), who voiced Detective Tawashi and Ham Egg in the 1980s series, and Popporeto in Episode 31 of the 2003 series

• Toshio Hirata (1938-2014), who was Episode Director for Episode 20 and did the Storyboard for Episodes 31 and 44 all of the 2003 Astro Boy series, and was also Episode Director for Jetter Mars

• Iemasa Kayumi (1932-2014), who voiced Skunk Kusai in the 1960s series

• Nobuyoshi Koshibe (1933-2014), who composed the music for Jetter Mars

• Hidetoshi Nakamura (1954-2014), who voiced Epsilon and Lard in the 1980s series, and voiced Gordon in the 2003 series

Out of the three, going on four years that I've been a fan of Astro Boy, I must say that this year has probably been my favorite so far.

Getting to watch Little Astro Boy with some of you guys is an experience I won't forget. Sure, there were technical problems for half of that series, but at least we got to see a new Astro Boy series in some form. Atom the Beginning is great so far as well, and I hope that manga gets an official English translation sometime next year.

Looking ahead to 2015, I most look forward to seeing Astro Boy Reboot. The art style looks interesting enough. I'm sure it'll be handled a bit better than Little Astro Boy was as well.

2015 is also the year Jetter Mars is born in and the year that series takes place in. Maybe we'll see something new regarding that series in 2015? Guess we'll have to wait and find out.

Wow, quite a bit has happened this year! I hope I can see Little Astro Boy soon but I'm more excited for the reboot.
Also, it'd be really cool if there was some Jetter Mars stuff planned for next year. I don't know too much about him and the series except what's posted on the forums so it would be interesting if he was brought back for something (like maybe an animated short?)