AstroBoy Online Forums

I have been watching episodes of JONNY SOKKO AND THE GIANT ROBOT online at YouTube, including the first one which I watched last night. It was actually well executed for a 1960s Japanese TV programme and was in fact based on a manga by a man named (and I hope I've got this right) Miyagu Yokosama. What I don't understand, and perhaps never will, is why the supporting cast from the manga and live-action show could not be used for the remake, GIANT ROBO.

I though JS&GR was just the English dub name for GIANT ROBO.

It is. The title was retained for the English version of the anime, but not the supporting characters for some reason. Most of the supporting characters in the anime are from Yokosama's feudal era manga because for some reason the supporting cast from the live action version could not be used.