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1964 Astro Boy: Hero of Space Anime Film Fully Colorized 'Using AI'

Tezuka Productions noted on Saturday that the 1964 Astro Boy: Hero of Space (Tetsuwan Atom: Uchū no Yūsha) film would air on the public network NHK General TV on Sunday at 11:00 p.m. JST (10:00 a.m. EDT). The film's special edition would air in full color, using the "latest video technology."

Tezuka Productions had announced the new edition on the official Osamu Tezuka website on February 18. The announcement stated that the latest technology was used to color the black and white parts of the film. (The film compiles the first Astro Boy television series' episodes #6, #56, and #71 with footage from the first three episodes as well as some new footage. As a result, it originally ran in theaters in 1964 with a mix of both monochrome and color sequences.) The colors of the original manga were used as reference for the parts that were not originally in color, and the restoration also enhanced the color in all scenes.

Tezuka Productions did not mention the use of AI in its description of the new edition, but NHK later posted a March 10 blog entry that said it was "fully colorized with restoration techniques using AI." Sunday's broadcast began with a short making-of clip that said the staff used "AI-based restoration techniques." Neither Tezuka Productions nor NHK specified if the process used generative AI.

Astro Boy: Hero of Space is the first animated feature film of the Astro Boy franchise.

The 1963 Tetsuwan Atom television anime adapted Tezuka's manga of the same name, and it became Japan's first half-hour animated series. Tezuka himself helmed the anime's production at his Mushi Production studio. The show pioneered animation techniques and production methods that gave rise to the earliest aesthetics and styles of television anime.

In 1963, the late Fred Ladd re-edited and re-dubbed the Tetsuwan Atom anime into Astro Boy. This was the first anime to air in North America.

The French-Japanese animated spin-off series Go Astro Boy Go! launched in October 2019. A joint production between Tezuka Productions and Nigerian television station Chanel TV created a television animation project in 2014.

Entertainment news website Variety reported in June 2022 that Thomas Astruc was working on a 3DCG reboot of the franchise.

Sources: Tezuka Productions' X/Twitter account, Osamu Tezuka official website, NHK (link 2), Comic Natalie