Format: 

DVD

Directed by: 

Osamu Tezuka

Directed by: 

Gisaburo Sugii

Directed by: 

Yoshiyuki Tomino

Publisher: 

Right Stuf

Release Date: 

10.06.2009

MSRP: 

$49.99

Number of Discs: 

5

Digital Copy: 

No

The Show

Astro Boy - Set 1 contains the American cut of the first twenty-five episodes of the original, 1960s Astro Boy cartoon, created by the "god of manga," Osamu Tezuka. Astro Boy is an endearing show about a super-powerful boy robot who fights monsters, robots, and bad guys to protect humans.

Astro Boy (who originally and most prominently appeared in manga) is a unique and lovable character, exhibiting the complete innocence of a young boy even while he fights crime. His goal is not to punish bad guys but to stop them from doing evil, simultaneously trying to turn them to good while he protects innocents. Of course, he does have to use force and actually fight the villains he's up against, but his hope is always to avoid unnecessary harm while fighting for peace.

The cartoon is pure, innocent fun, as a single listen to the show's theme song, sung by young children, will reveal. Watching a boy robot with a "100,000 horsepower" engine fly around, fight giant robots, and protect humans, all with the precise demeanor of a real boy is undeniably enjoyable. The black and white animation is choppy (due to an unimaginably limited budget), with relatively few frames per second, but this adds infinitely to its childlike feel.

The discs contained in this set are taken straight from the Ultra Collector's Set released in 2006, so if you already own that, there's nothing new here. It's just a smaller piece of the collection. The episodes contained herein begin with the first episode, "The Birth of Astro Boy," and end appropriately with an Astro Boy birthday episode, "The Strange Birthday Present." Other notable episodes include "Colosso" (a.k.a. "Frankenstein"), "Grass Boy" (a.k.a. "Plant People"), and "Toxor, the Mist Man" (a.k.a. "Gaseous Beings").

Astro Boy is something that all fans of science fiction, anime, or manga should be familiar with. The manga was revolutionary in Japan and remains iconic to this day. This cartoon was the West's first mainstream exposure to the story and remains the most faithful adaptation of the manga.

One important note, though, to anyone considering purchasing this DVD set. On the back of the box, there are twenty-six episodes listed, along with the claim "Contains Episodes 1-26"), the twenty-sixth being "Don Tay's Infernal Machine." However, the set has only twenty-five episodes. When asked about the discrepancy, the publisher told The Sci-Fi Block that this was the result of a manufacturing error and that "the DVD sleeve will be corrected if and when it is reprinted." I don't see any reason not to believe that this was indeed an honest mistake, especially because their website's page for the product states, "Contains episodes 1-25 of the original Astro Boy series!" Likewise, Amazon.com's description claims twenty-five episodes as well. The company also verified that episode 26 does appear on Set 2.

The Extras

No extras whatsoever. The Ultra Collector's Edition, from which these discs are directly pulled (as stated above), contains extra content on its final, eleventh disc. Since these discs comprise the first half of that set, they contain no extras of any sort.

Video/Audio

The show is presented in its original 4:3, black and white format. The picture is not perfect, but considering how old this series is and the troubles Right Stuf had rounding up prints of the episodes (the original prints were destroyed due to a complex legal/financial situation involving the bankruptcy of Mushi Productions in the mid-1970s), it is impressively clean. There are frequent speckles, and some scenes are of a quality noticeably inferior to the bulk of the set (including the intro to every episode, which is horribly scratched), but the video is far better than one would reasonably expect. Only hardcore videophiles will be put off, and even most of them will recognize that great effort went into restoring the episodes.

We get a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track which is nothing to write home about but which, again, is perfectly fine for a show so old. Not having been around to view (and hear) the show during its original 1960s run, I have to imagine that this is a faithful preservation of the original audio quality.

Though it would have been awesome to have a Japanese audio track, that simply would not have made sense since the show itself, not just the audio, was edited for American audiences. (The Ultra Collector's Set includes a few Japanese episodes as bonus content, if you are interested.) That being said, this DVD set offers no alternate language dubs or subtitles of any sort. It would have been nice at least to have English subtitles.

Packaging/Menus

The DVD cover art is great, a fittingly retro picture proudly embracing the show's black-and-white nature. Other than that, there's not much to be said. The five discs are contained in a double-thick, paged case. There is no insert booklet, nor is there a list detailing what episodes appear on each disc. However, the full episode list appears on the back of the case (plus that extra, non-included episode mentioned above). With five discs and five episodes per disc, some good old math will tell you which disc contains the episode you are looking for.

With no extra features, the menu system is as straightforward as it can be. All episodes on the disc are listed up front. When one episode is over, the disc automatically rolls to the next.

Conclusion

If you are a die-hard Astro Boy fan or a completionist, you'll want to go with the Ultra Collector's Edition, containing the full American series on two mammoth, individually-sold, eleven-disc sets. If you're a less fervent fan of Astro Boy or if you're just looking for a starting point to get into the character (and have already started with the manga), this is a good set to go with. Despite its complete lack of any extra content, the set contains 572 minutes-worth of Astro Boy fun. This is a cartoon that anyone of any age can enjoy.

Click here to purchase Astro Boy Set 1.