History

Tetsuwan Atom was called as Astroboy outside Japan. The black and white series was created, animated and produced by Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) through his own company named Mushi Productions. Tezuka, like his father, was a qualified doctor of medicine but was more interested in drawing. Astroboy was a successful comic strip in Japan in the 1950's. It was released in Japan between 1963 and 1966 and was shown on Melbourne TV in April 1966 at 5:30pm Sunday's on channel 0. The TV week described it as "Cartoon adventure series about a youngster in the 21st century." It was the first anime series to be broadcasted outside Japan and became a worldwide hit. It lasted for four seasons with a total of 193 episodes were produced, but only 104 of them were redubbed and shown on TV outside Japan. In 1964, there was a feature-length animated movie called Hero of Space released in Japan. It was an anthology of three episodes; The Robot Spaceship, Last Day on Earth and Earth Defense Squadron. The latter two were a special treat for Japanese fans since the theatrical versions were filmed in color. In 1982 a colored version was released and shown in Melbourne throughout the 1980's. In 1996 it was shown here on cable TV. Many of these episodes are available on video in Pal format through Siren Entertainment and are still enjoyed by young children today.


Summary
Main Characters
Others