Astro Boy

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka, The character Astro Boy appeared in the 1951 manga series Captain ATOM where his character became an instant hit in Japan .Astro Boy premiered in Shonen in April 1952 until March 1968, the original 112 chapters were published into 23 tankōbon volumes by Kobunsha, and later in a revised order overseen by Tezuka himself published by Akita-Shoten. After its initial publication it was followed up by The Astro Boy Chronicles published in the Sankei Newspaper from January 4, 1967 to February 28, 1969. In 1980, Tezuka wrote new chapters of Astro Boy to promote the release of the 1980 anime series, these stories published in Second Grader magazine were aimed towards much younger audiences and ran until December of 1981. These were the last official chapters written by Tezuka before his death in 1989. Astro Boy is one of the best-selling manga series of all time with over 100 million worldwide sales.

In 1963, Astro marked his anime debut in the 1963 series produced by Mushi Productions. Astro Boy premiered on Fuji TV in Japan on January 1, 1963 and ran until December 31, 1966. 193 Episodes of the series were produced. The rights were later licensed by NBC Enterprises for broadcast in the United States, the dubbing process was managed by Fred Ladd who also renamed many of the original characters to more English friendly names. Astro Boy premiered in the United States in syndication starting in September 1963, in total 104 episodes were dubbed into English and 52 were broadcast. This was the first such example of a Japanese animated series being dubbed and distributed for a foreign market. The 1963 series was a success in both countries and due to its success in the US, it was later released into other foreign markets, becoming the first example of an anime series to receive widespread global distribution. The 1980 remake by Tezuka Productions, known as Shin Tetsuwan Atomu, premiered on Nippon TV on December 1, 1980 and lasted until December 23, 1981. The Network aired a total of 52 episodes and like the 1963 Series, the 1980 series was successfully distributed globally. The 2003 series was created to commemorate Astro Boy's birthday which occurred April 7, 2003 in the manga. The new series was intended to bring Astro Boy to a new generation of audiences. The show premiered on Fuji Tv on April 6, 2003 and lasted until March 28, 2004. The series aired 50 episodes. It was aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block in the US in 2004.

Plot
Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a futuristic world wherein androids co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (sometimes called simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma, to replace his son Tobio, who died in a car accident. Dr. Tenma built Astro in Tobio's image and treated him as lovingly as if he were the real Tobio, but soon realized that the little android could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or express human aesthetics (in one set of panels, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers). In the original 1960 edition, Tenma rejected Astro and sold him to a cruel circus owner, Hamegg.

After some time, Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science, noticed Astro Boy performing in the circus and convinced Hamegg to turn Astro over to him. He then took Astro as his own and treated him gently and warmly, becoming his legal guardian. He soon realized that Astro was gifted with superior powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions.

Astro then is shown fighting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story included a battle involving Astro and other robots.

Other Wikis

 * Osamu Tezuka Wiki (wiki encompassing series from Osamu Tezuka including Astro Boy)