Jetter Mars
Jetter Mars was Astro Boy in the 1970's. Some people consider him a rip-off of Astro, but the story is more complicated than that:
By 1977, Tezuka's company Mushi Productions was bankrupt and the copyrights on his characters were in limbo. Tezuka needed work so he took a job as a director at the Toei Animation studio. He wanted to do a color remake of Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu/Mighty Atom). But he had a deadline for the show and couldn't secure the copyrights fast enough and wouldn't get them until a few years later, so he compromised and redesigned Astro slightly and changed his name to Jetter Mars. Many of the stories in Jetter Mars were remakes of classic Astro stories such as "The Artificial Sun", "The Headless Robot" and "The Last Day on Earth". Some people didn't like this redesign and wanted the same Astro as in the 60's. That and the combination of micro-managing at Toei Prod. led Tezuka to lose interest and abandon the project after 27 episodes. He founded Tezuka Productions a few years later with new copyrights on all his characters. He then remade Astro in color again with no compromises and it was a hit, lasting 2 seasons of 52 episodes.
Jetter Mars is still a good show, with eye-candy colors, beautiful animation and great classic stories as only Tezuka can bring. The story of Jetter Mars is this:
Jetter Mars was a boy robot created by 2 scientists; Dr. Yamanoue, who created Mars' body and Dr. Kawashimo, who created his artificial intelligence. Both men are considered his fathers. Dr. Yamanoue is like Dr. Tenma and wants to use Mars' body for combat and such while Dr. Kawashimo who is like Dr. Ochanomizu (Elefun/Oshay) desires more peaceful pursuits for Mars' heart, such as being a super-hero and helping people. He's even enrolled in school with the same classmates as Astro had; Kenichi, Shibugaki and Tamo. More evidence that this is Astro. Other Tezuka regulars appearing in the series including Lamp, Skunk, Tawashi, Higeoyaji, Rock, Boon and Garon. See the full cast picture in the link below:
Jetter Mars Character List (Japanese)
Jetter Mars Episode List (Japanese)
Google Translator - somewhat helpful, not great
Jetter Mars DVD in Italian = 4 episodes made into a movie, dubbed in Italian, beautifully restored.
Info provided by Atoman.
More info:
Though Rock does appear in the credits to Jetter Mars, he does not appear in the series:
TRANSLATION:
Rock is the great dark actor in the Tezuka Star System. If Kenichi is “yang,” then Rock is “yin.” The two of them are “light and shadow.” In the masterpiece “Metropolis,” they played refracted characters [ie. opposite], which is still fresh in all our memories. At the end of the opening to Jetter Mars, you can see Rock wearing his trademark sunglasses in the final group shot. However, he unfortunately does not seem to have an actual part in Mars.
ORIGINAL TEXT:
手塚スターシステムのダークな名優ロック。ケンイチが「陽」なら、ロックは「陰」の存在で、２人はまさに「光と影」。大作「メトロポリス」でも屈折したキャラクターを演じていた事は記憶に新しいですね。マルスでは、オープニングの最後、全員集合カットの中にトレードマークのグラサンをかけたロックの姿が確認できます。しかし、残念ながらマルス本編での出演は無かったようです。