Tezuka In English
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Astro Boy (One Shots)


Best Shonen Magazine July 1970

Best Shonen Magazine
July 1970

For most of the 1970s, after the the successful runs in ShonenMighty Atom Club, and the Sankei Newspaper, all came to a close, there was no regularly serialized manga series featuring Astro Boy.

Instead, Astro was featured in a series of “one-shots” and other special editions, for a wide variety of reasons: “Slippery Catfish in Imminent Danger” was created in response to a request from Takashi Ishikawa, a science-fiction writer and a colleague of Tezuka’s working at the Sunday Manichi Newspaper who wanted to feature all Tezuka’s heroes “in an entertaining way”.

“Showdown in the Standard Deviation Kingdom” was the result of a request by the editors ofWeekly Asahi Newspaper to tackle a contemporary social problem in Japan – the over-reliance of standardized school tests.

“Astro Returns” was published in Fourth Grader as an attempt to address the mountain of fan-mail Tezuka received after the somewhat tragic ending of the original B&W animated television program.

“Astro II” came about after Tezuka was awarded the Bunshun manga award and Bungei Shunju, as the main sponsor, wanted to include an Astro Boy story in their deluxe edition – even though it typically catered to an adult readership.

Finally, “The Silver Tower”, “Astro Boy’s First Love”, and “The End of Astro Boy” were all created as different features on nostalgic manga. In all, 7 separate chapters were published as one-shots and/or special editions.

One of Osamu Tezuka’s most successful creations, Astro Boy has been featured in several publications.  The Astro Boy manga has also been serialized in the pages of Shonen, and published in Mighty Atom Clubas well as the Sankei Newspaper and Second-Grader.

Publication Information and Chapter Summaries

Chapter: 001 Title: Slippery Catfish in Imminent Danger
Published in: Sunday Manichi Newspaper Originally published: 65/01/03
Coming Soon!
Chapter: 002 Title: Astro Boy’s First Love
Published in: Big Comic Originally published: 69/03
Coming Soon!
Chapter: 003 Title: The End of Astro Boy
Published in: Best Shonen Magazine Originally published: 70/07
Coming Soon!
Chapter: 004 Title: Astro Returns
Published in: Fourth Grader Originally published: 72/04, 72/05, 72/06, 72/07, 72/08, 72/09
Coming Soon!
Chapter: 005 Title: Astro Boy II
Published in: Bungei Shunju Deluxe Originally published: 75/09/01
Coming Soon!
Chapter: 006 Title: Showdown in the Standard Deviation Kingdom
Published in: Weekly Asahi Newspaper Originally published: 76/02/27
Coming Soon!
Chapter: 006 Title: The Silver Tower
Published in: Monthly Shonen Jump Originally published: 76/04
Coming Soon!