Mighty Atom (TV series)

Mighty Atom
Based on	Astro Boy
Written by	Shigetoshi Iwata Haruo Koorogi Isoya Shibuya Ichirō Miyagawa Noboru Sakamaki Hiroyuki Shinami
Directed by	Hiroshi Yoshikawa Seika Shiba Hideo Ōhashi Toshio Naniwa
Starring	(see list) Masato Segawa Kazumasa Negishi Mitsuo Nakagawa Gorō Morino Hiroko Negishi Hiroshi Miki Rashōmon Tsunagorō Yonehiko Kitagawa Akio Tanaka Kazuya Tominaga Kinichi Shimizu Harue Wakahara Hiroshi Kiyama Chizō Kurata Ryūsuke Nakae Kiyoshi Itō Kiyoshi Kobayashi Masao Takahashi Takako Irie Nobuo Maki Nikki Kubota Kōtarō Mori
Opening theme	Mighty Atom Theme
Ending theme	Mighty Atom Theme
Composers	Hirooki Ogawa Katsuyuki Masuda
Country of origin	Japan
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	65
Production
Producers	Keiji Matsuzaki Tsuyoshi Yoneyama
Cinematography	Yutaka Yoshida Hiroshi Segawa
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	25 minutes
Production company	Matsuzaki Production
Release
Original network	MBS
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	March 7, 1959 (1959-03-07) – May 28, 1960 (1960-05-28)
Chronology
Related	Mighty Atom

Mighty Atom (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan Atomu) is a Japanese black-and-white Tokusatsu live action TV drama that aired on MBS from March 7, 1959 to May 28, 1960 for a total of 65 episodes split into five parts. It was produced for Mainichi Broadcasting System, sponsored by Lotte Corporation, by Matsuzaki Production, which was founded by Keiji Matsuzaki, who worked with Eiji Tsuburaya as a special effects director before the war and was a producer at Toho. It is the first adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Mighty Atom (a.k.a. Astro Boy) manga comic book series and predates the 1963 Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) anime.

The plot of the TV series has less science fiction elements than the original, and is more in line with the detective hero stories of the time, with a focus on fighting gangsters. In the original, the story takes place in the 21st century, but according to Atom's dialogue in the final episode of Part 2, the historical background of this series is 1959, which is the same year as the broadcast. Although the series was popular for a year, Tezuka became dissatisfied with the live-action adaptation of his own manga, saying that it was too far removed from the image of the original work, and this became the driving force behind the production of the first Astro Boy anime a few years later. In addition, when Sōji Ushio approached Tezuka in 1965 to make a live-action version of Ambassador Magma, Tezuka initially suggested that he make a live-action version of Big X for this reason. However, the live-action adaptation of Ambassador Magma produced by P Productions was highly praised by Tezuka, and the bad impression of live-action adaptation was dispelled, and Tezuka himself considered producing a live-action version of Mighty Atom in 1972.

External links

• Mighty Atom at allcinema
• "Hey everyone, I'm Mighty Atom." (in Japanese)