We really missed the chance of having the original series

[Toshio Tenma]

I really know that Astro Boy is a very popular title, but I'm kinda disappointed with the fact that is actually a inconsistent dubbed series which follows the rule that "anything animated is a cartoon and should be suitable for children".

That's true the series gave a lot of contribution for Tezuka's work to be known outside Japan, but analizing the dub and comparing with the original and unchanged series it's possible to see that most of Tezuka's ideas were lost and he doesn't seemed to be quite pleased with the dub considering one of his stories introductions of the manga re-issues which he said that americans were too sensitive about fantasy violence, but they still had no problem to send soldiers to kill people in the southweast Asia (yes, he generalized, but I don't think he is quite away from the truth since the politicians who keept whining about fantasy violence were still involved with violent actions like warfare).

Tezuka believed that atomic energy could be used for peaceful purposes and many hints about it can be seem in the Dark Horse publication which is a faithful translation of his work, but just changing the name in order to be in check with the dubbed series.

Dr. Ochanomizu even said that Japan (and not America like the dub was saying) reached the atomic age (not sure about the rest of the world, since they got few trips outside Japan) and that could be also notified while reading the Dark Horse publication.

So, regardless of having characters with "Atom" on it, the change of name and lack of atomic refferences were like removing good part of Tezuka's original ideas.

Well, we got other characters with the name "Atom" and putting "Tezuka's Mighty Atom" or "Powerful Atom" would not be quite a trouble and yep I known that is too late to think of a name change, but I do hope that at my country don't bother with the dubbed title anymore since we have a different rule about animated works than America.

Astro Boy keept being at times goofy, due that kid's friendly rule, while the original Tetsuwan Atom keept serious and serious.

And is a pity they missed a great opportunity of licensing the original japanese episodes with subs, after all we could understand what were Tezuka's original ideas since the "kid's friendly" rule took away most of them in the dubbed material.

I read that NBC tried to convince Tezuka to change his concept of story, but he refused and I even understand why, because it would against his right as a creator.

But, the dub anyway had most of his ideas removed to fit the said "kid's friendly" rule anyway.

In Brazil it become troublesome, because we never got the original Tetsuwan Atom and neither Shin Tetsuwan Atom, so a lot of people mistook Astro Boy with Jetter Mars which was released here during early 80s.

Astro Boy 2003 series was very critized and some people who were misinformed thought it was a "remake" or a "Rip-Off" of Jetter Mars which is ironically not true.

Here, the 2003 series came without the original japanese episodes which is rather disappointing since all what we would buy is just what aired in television.

I can't give any praize for the dub since they were rather incomplete and inconsistent, although they helped anyway, is worth to know the original work still deserved to be better known.

Although dubs can sounds good, I can't say that is enough to tell that is a great contribution, since having a badly altered story to the point of being almost emotionless may make people alike reject it and go after the original japanese episodes.

Anyway, a bad movie with good actors may turns out bad, despite the effort.

I hope the original series finally get the chance to be translated and subbed in the blu-ray releases so nobody will bother to import or try search on-line.

The 1980 series had dvds with just a full unchanged episode and missing scenes which were subbed, so we were still missing much of the original series joy.

[omega.factor]

lol I'm getting them professionally translated!

Ideally crowd funding, otherwise maybe we all chip in privately?

Who's interested and who would contribute?

[Toshio Tenma]

[omega.factor]

I have the original 193 Japanese episodes in Japanese!

[Toshio Tenma]