Spring Anime "Atom the Beginning", Interview with Makoto Tezuka, project planner and supervisor, is now available! What is the relationship with the original "Astro Boy"?

An interview with Makoto Tezuka, project planner and supervisor of the TV anime "Atom the Beginning," which will start in spring 2017, is now available.

Atom the Beginning" is a manga work serialized in "Monthly Heroes" and tells the story of the birth of Osamu Tezuka's eternal hero "Astro Boy". The anime is produced under the supervision of Makoto Tezuka, with Masami Yuki of "Tetsuwan Birdie" fame as the original planner for the concept work, and Tetsuro Kasahara of "RIDEBACK" fame in charge of manga production.
The TV anime will be directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro of "Odoru Daisousasen" and "PSYCHO-PASS Psycho-Pass" as general director, Tatsuo Sato of "Moretsu Space Pirates" as director, and Junichi Fujisaki of "BLOOD+" as series composition.
⇒2017 Spring Anime List

In the interview released this time, they talk about the beginning of the "Atom the Beginning" project and its relationship with Astro Boy, etc. Please read through it in preparation for the TV anime broadcast.

The following is the official interview.

Official Interview
--Please tell us how the project of "Astro Boy: The Beginning" started.

Tezuka: It all started when Gekkan Heroes and I started discussing the possibility of creating new Osamu Tezuka content. While the names of various works came up, we agreed that "Astro Boy" would be the best choice for the project. However, Naoki Urasawa had already created a wonderful remake of "Atom" called "PLUTO. I wanted the new "Atom" to be different from "PLUTO" in its approach. At that time, Gekkan Heroes suggested "How about a story before Atom was born?" and I thought of a new work in that direction. Atom was born in 2030 (*note). If Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanomizu were around 40 years old at that time, they would probably be students. Surely they would have been doing robotics research back then. I thought that would be interesting.

Young Gyotaro Tenma and Hiroshi Ochanomizu (left)

Robot A106 (A106) developed by the two

--So that's how you came up with the idea for the base?

Tezuka: Yes. Then, while preparing ideas that could be used as hints for the manga, we talked with various artists. I met with Masami Yuki and asked her about it, and she had a very interesting idea.

--Why did you choose Mr. Yuki?

Tezuka: Atom is a robot with his own will, right? There are not many robot characters like this in Japanese anime and manga. When you think of robots, most people probably think of "giant, human-controlled robots" like Tetsujin 28 or Evangelion. In such a situation, Yuuki-sensei drew the character of a humanoid robot called "Aaru" in "Ultimate Superhuman Aaru. I was interested in that approach and wanted to hear your opinion.

--So "A-aru" was your inspiration?

Tezuka: Yes. We are usually exposed to Osamu Tezuka's works, so we take them for granted. I had a vague idea that it would be a good idea to draw the introduction scene of Atom's birth and go backwards from there. However, Mr. Yuki insisted that it would be better to start a completely new story. The scales fell from my eyes. Dr. Yuuki added a sense of life to the characters, for example, Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanomizu go to the same university, but they have no money, so they work part-time.