Have we seen the last of traditional Astro Boy anime series?

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F-Man
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Postby F-Man » 7 years ago

The 2003 series definitely went for a lot of traditional animation techniques in an era where cartoons had gone to cheaper (in both meanings of the term) computer animation. You can tell it's shot on film thanks to the grain texture that's still present on the higher quality R2 DVDs. I think they did this both because of the big budget allotted to the series but also as a respectful nod to the series's history and importance within the medium of film (yes, TV is film too!).

It's crazy to think but in many ways animation has gone backwards now. Even Disney is now making flash-style Mickey Mouse cartoons, which is complete heresy. In Japan, the quality of animation hasn't dropped perse, but we're seeing a lot less longer series. Atom the Beginning will likely be 12 episodes like Young Black Jack was. So while I never considered it until now, it's true that a newer long-form Astro Boy anime seems less necessary than ever before, unfortunately.
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Postby Tetsuwan Penguin » 7 years ago

Not only was LAB only 8 episodes, but only 15 minutes each (without commercials). At least they left the door open in YBJ for the possibility of a sequel set of episodes.
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Dragonrider1227
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Postby Dragonrider1227 » 7 years ago

If they did do a new traditional Astro Boy anime they should put it on CrunchyRoll so they wouldn't have to worry about things like dealing with death. Heck, if they wanted to I think they could just do an uncut subbed version of the 2003 series and put THAT on CrunchyRoll. Unlikely but a guy can dream.

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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 7 years ago

"DrFrag" wrote:There's virtually no sign of the "Hanna Barbera effect", where the foreground characters don't match the background art.

I cannot visualize this; care to elaborate?

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Postby DrFrag » 7 years ago

I don't know where I read that it was called the "Hanna Barbera effect". All my searching is coming up with sound effect sites. But visually it looks like this:

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This is from a 1980 episode of Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo. You can tell when this guy leaves the room he's going to shut the door because it has black edges and a flatter colour fill. It doesn't even line up with the background properly. Sometimes this breaks the tension of the storytelling, like if they're locked in a room and say "How are we gonna get out, Scoob?" and you can see a very obvious foreground painted crowbar and window frame, you know they're going to break the window.

In contrast, here's a pic from 1980 Astroboy:

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This is from the start of The Robot Vikings, where the Vikings pass through the city and the tin cans rattle on the street from the vibrations. The other junk in the background doesn't move, but it's hard to distinguish what will move because the boxes and bags and bottles have the same black edging and flat colour fill.
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AstroAllies
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Postby AstroAllies » 7 years ago

Honestly, I am the old-style person (or conservative?), and I would love to see the new AB series with the traditional look (though it does not have to keep the original plot).

With his green shirt, Astro in ABR is like Ben 10 for me :lol: My rest opinion is similar to Kitty Lue's comment below:
"Kitty Lue" wrote:It was probably why I initially wasn't so receptive to the art style seen in the ABR trailer; the different look made me a bit suspicious that other things would change, and there was no guarantee that what I had seen would be returning.


I have watched few episodes of the 60s and 80s series, and would like to see more of it. I love the jokes in 60s, Tezuka had a good sense of humor I think. :D

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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 7 years ago

Thanks, DrFrag. I hade no idea what it was, & a youtube video that came up in the search certainly did not fit.

Hey! where are the door's hinges?
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Juanita
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Postby Juanita » 7 years ago

Oh wow I had no idea about some of these new series'. Have the other ones (besides Little Astro) come out yet? I'd like to watch them.
I really hope the reboot one turns out more traditional in story than in its looks. Not a fan of Astro's new look, but if they can keep some of the original stories I might come to like it.

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AstroAllies
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Postby AstroAllies » 7 years ago

"Juanita" wrote:Have the other ones (besides Little Astro) come out yet?


Currently there's no other AB series that have come out.

The Reboot series will be released in 2018, correct me if I'm wrong.

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F-Man
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Postby F-Man » 7 years ago

We might actually hear something about Astroboy Reboot at the MAGIC conference in 4 days. In a recent interview it was said that they're set to announce the worldwide distributor for it "soon." I wouldn't count on a release date yet though.
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