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The 1980's Astro Anime was the first time that Astro was seen in color in a full series. Jetter Mars was an Astro clone by Tezuka, it also was in full color.

Astro was drawn in color by Tezuka in some of the manga issues, for while the comics were published in B&W, the first few pages of the magazine, as well as the cover were done in color. So any of the magazines that featured Atom as the 'star story' (most probably did!), would have him on the cover in color.

There were two episodes of the 1963 anime series that were done in color. The 'Moon Monsters' episode was drawn in color and a color print was made. However this episode was never actually broadcast in color in Japan or in the US. The Right Stuf did include the color version of this episode in their DVD collection as an extra.

The episode 'last day on earth', (the one with 'Bem') was done is a kind of sepia tone. The prints that were released to NBC Enterprises for translation were done in this fashion. While primarily a mono tone print, parts were done in blue, purple, or a redish tint. This episode was probably broadcast in B&W (no color subcarrier) when it was first seen in the US, but it IS in the color format on the Right Stuf DVD (and on youtube).

The first time that Astro was actually seen in full color on an anime broadcast was as a cameo roll in 'Kimba' where he was part of a museum display.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ3VgTEMhLI&index=5&list=PLHbjFKwV9a1eYj-cB8CtcycBQmI-RYm7z
(about 5:50 into the video)

(Which makes no sense since Kimba takes place in a time frame BEFORE Astro's time. Tezuka was just looking for any way to put Astro into a current anime production. Kimba was being produced AFTER Atom had ceased production. This wasn't Astro's only cameo in Kimba either!)

You are also forgetting that the two original Astro Boy episodes, "The Last Day on Earth" and "The Moon Monsters" were part of the film "Astro Boy, the Brave in Space" which incorporated the above mentioned episodes and was released to Japanese theaters.

I

Were those in color as part of the movie? I know that the opening was in B&W (you can see a clip of that on the Tezuka productions web site).

"Tetsuwan Penguin" wrote:Were those in color as part of the movie? I know that the opening was in B&W (you can see a clip of that on the Tezuka productions web site).

As I remember it, those two episodes were done as tests when Tezuka (with money from NBC) was converting his studio to color production for the Kimba series. They were then released as part of a film made from episodes of the series for theatrical distribution in Japan only, (as far as I know.) and was shown in Japanese theaters beginning in the summer of 1964.

P. S. I don't know what opening you are referring to as the opening for the color episodes I've seen were also in color.

I

Nice read i think i saw one a episode with a blue tone that was somewhere in the 60 episode count and not as an extra ? really have to get back to watching it been way to long.
perhaps since i got those Japanese set's i haven't even watched more of that series at all maybe just because i really want to have episodes like the greatest robot in the world with subs ... having them dooesn't actually mean i wanna watch them raw just yet :d oh: