Spring Anime "Astro Boy the Beginning," Original Manga Artist Tetsuro Kasahara Talks about the Relationship between "Astro Boy" and This Work

An interview with Tetsuro Kasahara, the creator of the original manga, from the TV anime "Atom the Beginning," which will start in the spring of 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 the 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 Uchu Kaizoku" as director, and Junichi Fujisaki of "BLOOD+" as series composition.
⇒ 2017 Spring Anime List

In the interview with Tetsuro Kasahara that was released this time, he talks about the beginning of the project and its relationship with "Astro Boy.

In addition, in order to depict the coming future of AI, the film is supervised by four experts at the cutting edge of AI, including Hitoshi Matsubara (Professor at Future University Hakodate Public), Satoshi Kurihara (Professor at the University of Electro-Communications / Director of the Advanced Research Center for Artificial Intelligence), Hiroshi Yamakawa (Director of Dwango Dwango Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), and Yutaka Matsuo (Project Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo). It was also announced that four experts in the field of AI research will supervise the project.
Mr. Matsubara said, "I was deeply moved to be involved in an animation featuring these young men, having watched the Atom cartoon as a child and having become an AI researcher because of my admiration for Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanomizu. I would be happy if people will admire young Tenma and Ochanomizu and become interested in AI and robots".

Below is an official interview with Mr. Kasahara.

Official Interview

--Mr. Kasahara, how did you get involved in this project?

Tetsuro Kasahara (Kasahara): I was inspired by a request from the editorial department of "Heroes. I had the basic setting created by Yuki-sensei, as well as some names and plot ideas, and they asked me to draw a manga based on them. At that stage, the main focus was on Tenma and Ochanomizu's student life. There was also a love story in the plot plan, so that was the direction we were going.

--I heard that there was no A106?

Kasahara Yes, A106 made an appearance because the editorial department ordered us to keep the setting as it was in a magazine called "Heroes" and make it a story in which heroes play an active role (laughs). Actually, it was a project like this, with many conditions set from the beginning, so at first I wasn't sure if I would accept the project or not. But there were new developments in the world of AI, such as deep learning, and I was also told that the serialization would start in 2015, the year of the TV animation "Jettermalus" ('77), which is also closely related to "Atom. I thought, "If we are going to reboot "Astro Boy," this is the timing that God must have prepared for us. So I decided that although I might not be good enough, I would rather do it myself than have someone else do it! I decided to do it myself.

The action of A106, a robot developed by Tenma and Ochanomizu, is one of the charms of this work.

Mars, a robot that is a rival to A106, also makes an appearance.

--What kind of work do you consider "Astro Boy" to be, Mr. Kasahara?

Kasahara: When I read it as a child, I read it honestly as a boy hero story. But when I reread it this time, I felt that Tezuka-sensei had been drawing Astro Boy for a long time. Take "Black Jack," for example. That is a story about a boy named Kuroo Hazama who nearly dies, but is regenerated by being "hacked up," isn't it?　And Pinoko, his partner, is also a character who was artificially given life. And then there is Olga, who appears in the movie "Firebird 2772: Cosmozone of Love" ('80). Orga is a child-rearing robot for the main character Godot, but she is also Godot's mother and lover at the same time. She is also a robot who wants to be human. In other words, Olga is also Atom. I think the reason why every Tezuka manga contains elements of "Atom" in this way is to "breathe life into the oppressed and lifeless.

A106, given the concept of ego by Tenma and Ochanomizu's research theme "Bevstozine System," begins to seek conversation with other robots.