Astro Boy Is Weak In The USA

[F-Man]

Astro isn't that weak here in the States; in fact it may have inspired some American animators (just look at "The Powerpuff Girls" - Buttercup's hairstyle is kinda reminiscent of Uran's).

Artists tend to know well about other good artists (the creator of Powerpuff Girls is indeed a Tezuka fan) but that sadly doesn't hold true for the general population. Astro Boy is actually at an all time low in America. Both his newer flashy anime and high-budget CGI film failed terribly.

[Dragonrider1227]

it's weak maybe because the people bringing the anime to America's shore are just plainly catering to what people WANT and not what they actually NEED.

and what they want: too much violence, too much sex, too much beautiful animation but crappola story... basically what they see in other tv shows and the environment they wallow in.

and what they need: a major push by the media industry for a show with good values and a sense of morality like astroboy have. this is what the youth needs. not just in america but in the entire world.

Oh god, yes. It's too "kiddy looking" for older fans who just want boobs, violence, fanservice and Yaoi. Too "dark" and "violent" for children. Yet at the same time, probably not action-packed enough. Go figure :/
and not enough desire from the industry to give Astro a serious push. Not enough push from the few fans it has either I'm gonna have to say. I mean, don't any Tezuka fans go to conventions? Don't any of them make AMVs for the convention contests? I know plenty of people that gotten into animes through the push it gets in AMVs. But now I'm going to stop because I'm getting bitter and angry again

[Androids101]

I agree. Although we've kinda established that... in a lot of other threads.

[AprilSeven]

I agree. Although we've kinda established that... in a lot of other threads.

You're correct, Andriods, this certainly is a reoccurring topic, but I believe it NEEDS to be restated, updated, and kept fresh in our thoughts as people who value the works Dr. Tezuka created.

One person who has inspired me of late is our fellow ABO member Ghost. He wrote a fanfiction, "Astro Boy 2085" and has actually been in communication with Tezuka Productions. A number of ABO members were working with him on the project in different ways, and it was really exciting to see for us to see Tezuka Pro RESPOND to his email. Not long before this, Atomars also contacted them and had a response.

The United States - for WHATEVER reason never gave the 80's or '03 anime enough time to BECOME successful, as the 60's version was (they kept moving networks, time slots - nothing can survive that). And the movie was dreadfully under-promoted. Dark Horse's manga of Astro Boy should NOT be out of print, but continually available to new generations of readers. And we shouldn't have to go to a Japanese website to purchase DVDs that need a special player to view them.

I still stand on my solid believe that Astro - and Tezuka as a storyteller and artist - was about a century ahead of his time. More people are yearning for what he champions in his works. All we have to do is tell other people about it - and - perhaps MORE important - contact Tezuka Productions, and let them know we are here, and we want to be able to read/watch all that is not readily available now! If we all take a minute to do this, and then keep in touch, every few months, they'll know we're here, and we might very well help make Astro/Tezuka STRONG in the USA and elsewhere.

One thing that might be helpful is a thread with dates/locations/websites for upcoming conventions so we can see what's happening and begin to make a presence in that area, too.

would be proud!!

[Bigdog]

[QUOTE=Androids101;169129]I agree. Although we've kinda established that... in a lot of other threads.

You're correct, Andriods, this certainly is a reoccurring topic, but I believe it NEEDS to be restated, updated, and kept fresh in our thoughts as people who value the works Dr. Tezuka created.

One person who has inspired me of late is our fellow ABO member Ghost. He wrote a fanfiction, "Astro Boy 2085" and has actually been in communication with Tezuka Productions. A number of ABO members were working with him on the project in different ways, and it was really exciting to see for us to see Tezuka Pro RESPOND to his email. Not long before this, Atomars also contacted them and had a response.

The United States - for WHATEVER reason never gave the 80's or '03 anime enough time to BECOME successful, as the 60's version was (they kept moving networks, time slots - nothing can survive that). And the movie was dreadfully under-promoted. Dark Horse's manga of Astro Boy should NOT be out of print, but continually available to new generations of readers. And we shouldn't have to go to a Japanese website to purchase DVDs that need a special player to view them.

I still stand on my solid believe that Astro - and Tezuka as a storyteller and artist - was about a century ahead of his time. More people are yearning for what he champions in his works. All we have to do is tell other people about it - and - perhaps MORE important - contact Tezuka Productions, and let them know we are here, and we want to be able to read/watch all that is not readily available now! If we all take a minute to do this, and then keep in touch, every few months, they'll know we're here, and we might very well help make Astro/Tezuka STRONG in the USA and elsewhere.

One thing that might be helpful is a thread with dates/locations/websites for upcoming conventions so we can see what's happening and begin to make a presence in that area, too.

would be proud!! [/QUOTE]

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Tezuka_Productions

Apparently Tezuka Pro. has done everything, more than we know . It's too funny as I don't even recall them doing Red Dragon or so many animated....

Screw it. Wikipedia sucks.


You are definitely right , but it seems like it would be difficult to do considering the language gap would make it hard to contact them.

I would love to do a serious reboot of the Kimba series and a spinoff of Astro Boy as a tie in to a reboot. I'll probably have to do a few comic series for experience before I would even get a slightest chance, but that's why I want to move to Japan and work under Tezuka's son .

it's weak maybe because the people bringing the anime to America's shore are just plainly catering to what people WANT and not what they actually NEED.

and what they want: too much violence, too much sex, too much beautiful animation but crappola story... basically what they see in other tv shows and the environment they wallow in.

and what they need: a major push by the media industry for a show with good values and a sense of morality like astroboy have. this is what the youth needs. not just in america but in the entire world.

Too much violence? It depends on the content and tone of the story, but if it's unneeded it gets quite annoying.

Also, add mindless fighting, entire seasons worth of filler, too dark and emo, effeminate metrosexual heroes who have no spine and look like hermaphrodites and ultimately trying to cater to society.

Basically anything that tries to be DBZ , which I HATED out of all anime series to date. It's predecessor was cool since it had a plot and had gripping characters , but DBZ fell off somewhere. I have a feeling Toriyama should have stopped.

Naruto on the other hand is much better, but falls with entire seasons of filler when you might as well just read the manga. It does what DBZ set to do but much better since it has a ton of work into it and kept consistent where Z just ruined what was good .

I want a story that actually does something with itself, builds a convincing world and has a beginning ,middle and end with room for spinoffs. I want stories that are like Tezuka's which shows the greys of the world and its complexity, not any black or white crap that most others do.

[Tetsuwan Atom]

it's not so difficult really most folks in the US only like new shonen from the 90's and up or something that is etleast new with alot of action right ?

in the big countries of Europe it's diffrent they actually wanna try out diffrent things take France for example from all western countries they have the most genres to choose from and they like history and diffrent cultures so it makes alot of sense.

[Shiyonasan]

it's not so difficult really most folks in the US only like new shonen from the 90's and up or something that is etleast new with alot of action right ?

Yeah, that's pretty much true. Like a lot of other people have been saying on this topic, us Americans usually go for the violent, bloody, crude, or sexual manga or anime. Oh, and don't forget the moe. :d oh:

But yeah, I generally see typical American anime fans liking the stuff from the '90s and up. The oldest anime that these kind of fans typically like are Dragon Ball Z, which came out in 1996 in America (1989 in Japan), Evangelion, which was about the same time, Inuyasha, or one of the giant mech shows (Gundam, Voltron, etc.).

You really don't see Tezuka stuff in general mentioned at cons or on big anime news sites all that often. I wonder if it has to do with the author being dead for such a long time and not having new content. Americans typically like the newer stuff unless they grew up with an older anime, which they label as "retro" or "nostalgic". An acquaintance of mine said it right, "America is a very ADHD nation."

That's my two cents anyway.

[jeffbert]

I still stand on my solid believe that Astro - and Tezuka as a storyteller and artist - was about a century ahead of his time. More people are yearning for what he champions in his works. All we have to do is tell other people about it - and - perhaps MORE important - contact Tezuka Productions, and let them know we are here, and we want to be able to read/watch all that is not readily available now!

I thought only the Japanese pages had any contact form; I would really like to talk with Tezuka Prod., & see if my book has any chance of being published, but relying on google to translate is problematic.

[Tetsuwan Atom]

Yeha all the good stuff that's not available in english (yet) i recently ordered the Japanese version of Midnight so i can translate it in english i know there are translations from it online so i can take advantage of that but of course it is not the preferred way.

Well i have sad it many times at least we have the good folks at Vertical that ain't going to drop Tezuka Manga any time soon though i heard each Black Jack volume doesn't sell more than like 5000 copies so it really isn't such a chash machine they have established a loyal fanbase and that's the only reason they can keep it going for example when Ayako came out it dropped in the second week from 26,99 to 16,99.

[Bigdog]

[QUOTE=AprilSeven;169138]I still stand on my solid believe that Astro - and Tezuka as a storyteller and artist - was about a century ahead of his time. More people are yearning for what he champions in his works. All we have to do is tell other people about it - and - perhaps MORE important - contact Tezuka Productions, and let them know we are here, and we want to be able to read/watch all that is not readily available now!

I thought only the Japanese pages had any contact form; I would really like to talk with Tezuka Prod., & see if my book has any chance of being published, but relying on google to translate is problematic.[/QUOTE]

I would say to either find a capable translator to do the translating for you or for you to learn to write in Japanese yourself. I prefer the latter because you would be in control of your words, your grammar and it would be you. Just state your intentions, put info about yourself, etc.

If you have any success, could you vouch for me when I apply for a job there?