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Imagi Launches Tetsujin 28 Site with CG Test Teaser
posted on by Egan Loo
The Japanese animation company Hikari Productions and the Hong Kong-based computer animation studio IMAGI have launched a website for "T28," a teaser video based on Mitsuteru Yokoyama's classic Tetsujin 28 giant robot manga and anime. NBC aired the 1963-1965 black-and-white anime version in the United States under the name Gigantor. The story follows the adventures of a boy who can control a giant robot with his special handheld joystick.
IMAGI Creative Director Felix Ip revealed on his blog last month that his company had created the computer-graphics animation test before he became fully occupied on the Astro Boy film, which will open in the United States in October. Although a full-length film version of "T28" has not been green-lit for production, the new website invites viewers to express whether they want to see one made.
The Tetsujin 28 story has been remade in anime several times, including a color 1980-1981 version, the 1992-1993 Tetsujin 28-go FX re-imagining, the retro-tinged 2004 television remake, and the 2007 film sequel. Kindaichi Case Files artist Fumiya Sato has been revisiting the story in a manga called Tetsujin Dakkan Sakusen. A Japanese live-action film was produced in 2005, and Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii directed and wrote a stage play version that opens this month. The city of Kobe announced in 2007 that it will errect an 18-meter (59-feet) Tetsujin 28 statue at Yokoyama's birthplace. The Right Stuf International, Rhino, and Geneon Entertainment (USA) released some of the anime versions on home video in North America.
Source: AstroBoy World
Image © 2008 Hikari Productions Co., Ltd./IMAGI Studios
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