Happy Birthday Astroboy
April 6, 2003 10:08 PM   Subscribe

Happy birthday Astroboy - Born on April 7, 2003. Oh how the future has dissapointed; why don't we have flying juvenile robots to protect us from evil? All we have is kitch T-shirts. The history and episode guide to Astroboy, and lots more information on this Japanese cartoon favourite.
posted by Jimbob (14 comments total)
 
OW!
I was working on my own Astroboy Birthday FPP, using this L.A. Times article, this Japanese news story (featured on BoingBoing), and this about last year's release of 1950's Astroboy comics in English, and was just waiting until after Midnight, Los Angeles time, so MY date stamp would reflect the 7th.
And now, you have damned me to DoublePost Hell!
Wish I had laser machine-guns in my butt, like Astroboy, then I'd go totally anime on your ass, Kangaroo Jimbob!!!
posted by wendell at 10:38 PM on April 6, 2003


Hey, it's April 7th where I sit!
I realise others may have had FPP's planned - please contribute your celebratory links.
posted by Jimbob at 10:42 PM on April 6, 2003


O-tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu!
posted by SweetJesus at 10:48 PM on April 6, 2003


In honour of the little guy with rocket boots, a story:

When I was a child my mother thought there was something drastically wrong with me. Without warning, I would remove all my clothes, save for my tighty whities and a pair of red rubber galoshes. A short period of zooming around our country home would proceed, followed by my settling down in front of the television. After I began to repeat this behavior daily, she was needless to say perplexed and a little worried about my sanity. Finally she took a look at what I was watching on the tv and saw my first favourite superhero - Astroboy!

Do your Astroduty by signing the petition imploring Manga Entertainment to release the episodes on DVD.
posted by will at 10:56 PM on April 6, 2003


Those are NOT kitch tshirts!!!

those are state of the art fancy pants shirts.


shit, man.
posted by Satapher at 11:11 PM on April 6, 2003


Astro's creator, Osamu Tezuka, was called Japanimation's Walt Disney, and the little Mighty A. was his Mickey Mouse (That spiky black hair does kinda look like... nah.)
I was there for Astroboy's first coming to America (1963), and for years after, I never quite understood why I liked that show so much better than any of the anime that's come since, until, at the age of 29, a co-worker who was a serious cartoon collector gave me a fuzzy fifth-generation VHS cassette of the FIRST Astroboy cartoon. Great story, surprisingly quality animation, both action AND character development, and those cool robotic gadgets! Yes, I've signed the DVD petition, and you can reach me at my astroboymail.com e-mail address.
Astroboy, bombs away!
posted by wendell at 11:33 PM on April 6, 2003 [1 favorite]


Excellent thread. Tezuka was a genius.
posted by riffola at 11:57 PM on April 6, 2003


Knowing nothing about any of this, I just have to ask... When was Astroboy really "born"? The FPP says "Born on April 7, 2003", but somehow I think that is a typo...

And where would I have heard of this?
posted by tsitzlar at 8:27 AM on April 7, 2003


tsitzlar - in the 1950's the cartoonist set the story of astroboy 50 years into the future, so the character was born in a futuristic 2003. so what we have here is a back to the future sort of birthday party, or something like that.

astroboy aired on canadian tv during the 60's and 70's (weekend mornings mostly) so i assume it aired in the states as well.
posted by t r a c y at 9:20 AM on April 7, 2003


Think of it like when we celebrated HAL's Birthday in 1997, which I was going to link to if I had done the FFP. (Yes, I'm still pissy about it. So sue me.)

And Astroboy aired Monday through Friday afternoons in L.A., right after Engineer Bill (the local kids host who did the "Red Light, Green Light" milk drinking game), until Channel 9 could no longer support back and white cartoons, after which it briefly aired on UHF Channel 52, which was desperate for content.
posted by wendell at 9:44 AM on April 7, 2003


As part of the celebrations, a Tokyo department store is displaying one toy that will be out of reach of most young cartoon fans - a 10 centimetre model of Astro Boy encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds worth about one billion yen ($13.87 million).

Now that's something that actually has me thinking who would ever buy that thing... even if you are the most dyed-in-the-wool Astroboy fan, that's quite a bit of an stretch.
posted by betobeto at 10:55 AM on April 7, 2003


Now that's something that actually has me thinking who would ever buy that thing...

The Japanese...
posted by SweetJesus at 11:22 AM on April 7, 2003


Trailer for the new Sony/Tezuka Productions series mentioned in earlier links (narrowband page; contains Japanese (top-row) and English (bottom-row) versions in Real and WMP formats).
posted by LinusMines at 12:40 PM on April 7, 2003


t r a c y--

Thanks. Being born in '76, I guess I missed most of the fun. Never even heard about Astroboy until this morning.

Thanks again!
posted by tsitzlar at 8:19 PM on April 7, 2003


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