Manga Entertainment is continuing to release the 51-episode full color 1980 Astro Boy series on VHS only. Volumes 4-6 of the VHS series will hit the street on August 27, but Manga can't release the DVD versions until 2004 because of an agreement with the Tezuka estate. The DVDs will not be released until after a computer-animated Astro Boy feature film produced by Sony Films and Jim Henson's Productions appears in 2004 (see 'Director Signed For Astro Boy Feature').
Given the overwhelming dominance of the DVD format in the anime collector market, the lack of Astro Boy DVDs is a real blow to collectors, since Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy (Mighty Atom outside the U.S.) is a crucial character in the development of anime. Though it wasn't the first TV anime, the original Astro Boy was a stunning hit in Japan in 1963 where it ran for 193 episodes, and it was also the series that introduced American audiences to the possibilities of anime. The original series was shot in black-and-white, so when Tezuka was able to return to the character in 1980, he created the second Astro Boy series in full color. This is the series that Manga Entertainment is now putting out for the first time in the U.S., and many experts like Frederik Schodt (who is translating the Astro Boy manga for Dark Horse) consider the second series to be the definitive anime version of the character. Certainly Tezuka had more resources to work with in 1980, and he also managed to make the series darker and more complex than the black and white version. Unfortunately American fans will have to wait until 2004 to check out the full color Astro Boy series on DVD.
