AstroBoy Online Forums

I just picked up a 50 episode CD and wonder if these are penned by the original writer or if they are someone else's work?

While some of the stories were inspired by the original manga and the earlier two anime series, the 2003 series introduced some new characters and new story plots. (Remember that Osmau Tezuka died in 1989).

The designs for some of the new characters, such as Reno, were based on Tezuka characters from other manga series. I noticed that the design of various supporting characters which might have appeared in only one episode were similar to Tezuka characters I'd seen in other manga, "Ludwig B." for one.

"Tetsuwan Penguin" wrote:While some of the stories were inspired by the original manga and the earlier two anime series, the 2003 series introduced some new characters and new story plots. (Remember that Osmau Tezuka died in 1989).

The designs for some of the new characters, such as Reno, were based on Tezuka characters from other manga series. I noticed that the design of various supporting characters which might have appeared in only one episode were similar to Tezuka characters I'd seen in other manga, "Ludwig B." for one.

Thanks a lot, I am just now learning some of the history of this cartoon and trying to figure out the differences between the different runs of cartoons. The original 1963 -66 is pretty straight forward, but trying to figure out the ties of the later series to the original as far as episodes and characters. That clears it up a bit. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

Well, I've been watching Astro-boy on Youtube, the 1963 originals and it's clear that the only thing in common with the 2003 series is the name and a few of the characters. The originals are superior in every way, animation, the voices and sound effects, story lines, the characters are way more entertaining and the humor is great!! It's no wonder the price of the DVDs are so high, it's a great classic product.

In defense of the 2003 series, some of the stories are pretty good and humorous, but it's just a different cartoon. That's what I was trying to find out in coming here.

The 1980s series, I have no clue on that yet, but I'll be occupied with the original 1963-66 episodes for a long time.

"zone47" wrote:Well, I've been watching Astro-boy on Youtube, the 1963 originals and it's clear that the only thing in common with the 2003 series is the name and a few of the characters. The originals are superior in every way, animation, the voices and sound effects, story lines, the characters are way more entertaining and the humor is great!! It's no wonder the price of the DVDs are so high, it's a great classic product.

In defense of the 2003 series, some of the stories are pretty good and humorous, but it's just a different cartoon. That's what I was trying to find out in coming here.

The 1980s series, I have no clue on that yet, but I'll be occupied with the original 1963-66 episodes for a long time.

Most of the episodes of the 1963 original anime's first two or three seasons (103 episodes) were translated into English with some light editing of the content. As much of the Japanese language writing that may have appeared in the artwork was removed (frames dropped) as possible, and the more violent scenes deleted (which strangely also included some instances of Astro firing his butt guns). A few of the episodes were not included, such as the one where a dog was converted into a cyborg (animal cruelty), and some where other 'issues' made them be be considered unacceptable by the censors at the time. I think the last episode as numbered in the Japanese order to be included was in the 120's. There are charts on the web that show the English language order vs the original Japanse language episode order.

There were three different show opening sequences, and two different ending credits sequences, but only the ones from the first season were used in the ELV. The second season opens with Astro and Uran flying around the world (with Elfun following in an air-car), the third season has Astro alone flying past planes, trains, and the countryside, and also digging his way through Mt. Fuji. That last part was reproduced in the 2009 movie.

In total there were 193 episodes made, so 89 are 'missing' from the ELV. Most of these are available on Japanese DVD's (NOT SUBBED), although there are fansubs for some of these episodes. The RightStuf DVD's include a few of the original Japanese episodes including #1 and #193 (first and last) as well as an episode that was made in full color (which was only aired on TV in B&W in both the USA and Japan). A few of the original Japanese episodes are truly lost, the master films were destroyed in a flood or a fire and no known copies exist. IIRC some of the footage from NBC films was used to restore missing parts of the Japanese episodes when Tezuka productions released their DVD's.

The 1963 anime includes most of the Manga stories (with some modifications to plot) that had been published up to the point where the Anime was made. Some of the Manga stories (such as the angel of Vietnam) have never been made into Anime (HINT!) Some familiar Manga story arcs of the 1963 series are only in the missing 89, such as "the greatest robot in the world", and "the Blue Knight". These mostly because NBC productions avoided any two part episodes (with the Cleopatra story arc as an exception).

Originally NBC productions was only going to buy 52 episodes, but Tezuka got them to accept an additional 52 episodes as a condition for them to get rights to Kimba later on.

To complicate matters, there are also the writers who translated the different versions. The American 1980s scripts were translated in-house and then often rewritten by the production staff and cast, usually on the fly -- to match lip movements with syllables. And also sometimes to soften a name or overly-literal phrase that didn't translate well.