Astro Boy | |
鉄腕アトム (Tetsuwan Atomu) | |
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Created by | Osamu Tezuka |
Anime television series | |
Directed by | Noboru Ishiguro[1] |
Produced by | Hidehiko Takei (NTV) Satoshi Yamamoto (Tezuka Productions) |
Written by | Osamu Tezuka, et al. |
Music by | Shigeaki Saegusa |
Studio | Tezuka Productions |
Licensed by |
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Original network | NNS (NTV) |
English network |
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Original run | October 1, 1980 – December 23, 1981 |
Episodes | 52 |
Related works | |
Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan Atomu, lit. "Mighty Atom"), sometimes referred to as New Mighty Atom (新・鉄腕アトム, Shin Tetsuwan Atomu), is a color remake of the 1960s anime black-and-white series of the same name, both series are adapted from the manga series by Osamu Tezuka.
This series places more focus on Astro's robotic abilities and has a darker tone than previous incarnations of the series. Although this series places much more emphasis on action scenes than the first one, the theme of "robots with hearts" is still prevalent in this anime. It is also the last Astro Boy work that Tezuka himself wrote and directed, and the humor of the story and direction that is typical of Tezuka can be seen throughout. The English dubs cut out some of the series' more violent moments, such as Astro being beheaded in the episode "Lilly on Peligro Island" and Blackie Young and his crew destroying the robot guard and factory owner in the episode "Blackie Young".
The original Japanese version of the series ran for 52 color episodes, while the English dubs (American and Canadian) ran for 51 episodes. The English dubbed version also combined the first two episodes of the series into a single half hour show, omitting the entirety of the backstory for the main antagonist Atlas.