Astro Boy Gets A New Anime Reboot
By Erik Sugay
Astro Boy, one of Japan’s most famous and long-running anime and manga properties, is being rebooted with a new series that mixes traditional 2D and modern CG animation.
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The new series, which was announced at the Annecy Festival’s International Animation Film Market, will be comprised of 26 half-hour episodes that are targeted toward children from eight to twelve years of age. It’s a joint production from studios across three separate countries, including Japan’s Tezuka Productions, France’s Caribara Animation and Monaco’s Shibuya Productions.
There will also be a separate series of animated shorts developed by Tezuka Productions and YTV. These will run between five and seven minutes long each and are described as an “edutainment” series aimed at children from three to five years of age.
The Astro Boy IP was created by Osamu Tezuka, with the comic book debuting way back in 1952 and running through 1968. It focuses on the titular robot who was designed as a replacement for a scientist’s dead son. However, the scientist rejected his creation after realizing the robot could not age. Astro Boy was then taken in by another scientist who discovers that the robot can actually feel human emotions. Astro Boy eventually ends up using his abilities to fight all sorts of evils like other robots and alien invaders. The manga has sold approximately 100 million copies worldwide.
The popular franchise has spanned several mediums beyond the initial manga, with a 1963 anime that was remade once in 1980 and again in 2003. Astro Boy is the quintessential anime property, responsible for the design style that would be the very source of the entire genre. It also spawned a 1962 live-action film, a 2009 CG-animated film adaptation by Imagi Animation Studios and several video games spanning from the 8-bit era to as recently as a 2009 appearance on the Nintendo Wii and DS. Dark Horse Comics currently holds the manga license.
Fans can expect to get an official teaser of the new Astro Boy series in September.