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1st Astro Boy Anime's 'Lost' Episodes 125, 127 Streamed in Japan

The linear streaming service R Channel streamed episodes 125 ("Saikin o Sagase" or Find the Bacteria) and 127 ("Jikken Robot" or The Experimental Robot) of Osamu Tezuka's first Astro Boy anime on March 2 and 3. The episodes were long considered "lost," as the film prints and negatives for these episodes were missing for decades.

The film prints and negatives for episode 139 ("Nusumareta Atom " or Atom Stolen) of the original series remain missing. For episodes 125, 127, and 139, the anime's earlier Japanese DVD release had edited together still frames and storyboard art with the surviving audio soundtracks.

The 1963 Tetsuwan Atom 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 English dub did not include content from Japanese episodes 125, 127, or 139.)

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: Osamu Tezuka official website, R Channel Twitter account via Astro Boy News & Artwork, Cartoon Brew (Jamie Lang)