Jetter Mars

is an anime series directed by Rintaro and conceptualized by Osamu Tezuka. It was produced by Toei Animation and debuted on Fuji TV on the 3rd of February, 1977. The story follows a robot boy named Jetter Mars who must learn the difference between right and wrong under the care of two conflicting parental figures: Director Yamanoue, who wishes to use Mars as a tool for war, and Professor Kawashimo, who believes Mars should be raised similarly to a human boy.

Jetter Mars was conceptualized as an animated television show, but supplemental manga were published alongside the show's run to promote the show. Primarily, Ikehara Shigeto's version of the manga published in TV Land magazine, which had some of its chapters reprinted and compiled into a paperback manga in 2019.

Development

Unlike the vast majority of Osamu Tezuka's characters, ''Jetter Mars'' was not first published in comic book form, written and illustrated by Tezuka, but the character does bear physical resemblance to the titular character of Tezuka's previous work, '' Tetsuwan Atom''. Initially, ''Jetter Mars'' was planned as a sequel series to ''Tetsuwan Atom'' called ''Mighty Mars'' (マイティ・マルス ''Maiti Marusu'')

In the original pitch written by Osamu Tezuka, Dr. Ochanomizu wished to rebuild Atom after the events of the final episode of the 1963 version of the Tetsuwan Atom anime. Dr. Ochanomizu seeks out Dr. Tenma, who has isolated himself on Mars. Ochanomizu begs Tenma to rebuild Atom, but refuses. Instead, Dr. Tenma shares blueprints for a new robot: "Mighty Mars", who Ochanomizu would name in honor of Tenma who isolated himself on Mars. Mighty Mars would have all of Astro Boy's abilities, but amplified. he'd also be more human than Atom was. His more human-like nature leads to trouble, as he can act selfish. He makes mistakes, causes trouble, and is tempted by others. The pitch script compares this aspect of Mars' character to Pinocchio.

In the end, the ''Astro Boy'' aspects were removed and Mars' backstory changed with it. Mars' name would be changed to ''Jetter Mars'' and the origin of his name would change to him being named after the roman god of war, Mars. Rather than having all of Atom's abilities, Jetter Mars' abilities would be stripped down to super strength, flying, searchlight eyes, and super hearing.

Some episodes of ''Jetter Mars'' closely mirror that of classic stories Tezuka wrote and drew in his ''Tetsuwan Atom'' manga, with ''The Artificial Sun'' being the most blatant, replacing the Sherlock Holmes parody with a James Bond parody and replacing the artificial sun with a cryogenic freezing device. ''The Artificial Sun'' withstanding, episodes mirroring Tetsuwan Atom stories mix in or introduce many new elements into the stories, significantly changing the story and creating something more original than might be expected, sharing only similar characters and/or moral lesson.

In the Tezuka tradition, the series showcased many of his characters from his various manga works in different roles.

In the same manner he wrote and illustrated his ''Tetsuwan Atom'' manga, Tezuka stayed away from graphic violence in ''Jetter Mars'', although the typical traits of his works are also present in it, such as the importance of moral values, humanity.

The series was received by Japan's population with mixed feelings, as some wanted the original ''Tetsuwan Atom'' and some accepted ''Jetter Mars'' wholeheartedly as a different character, as it was intended to be. This made Tezuka to lose interest in the series and it finished with 27 episodes produced.

Plot

The story is set in the future, the year 2015. Two scientists, Professor Kawashimo and Director Yamanoue, have constructed a highly sophisticated robot. Professor Kawashimo created his highly advanced artificial intelligence, gifting him with the personality of a young boy, and the capacity to learn and grow. While Director Yamanoue designed the robot's body, which was constructed by the Ministry of science and endowed with astoundingly powerful abilities. Director Yamanoue names the robot Jetter Mars, taking him into the care of the Ministry of Science. Professor Kawashimo and Director Yamanoue are at odds with each other regarding the purpose of Mars' creation and how he should be raised. Director Yamanoue designed him to be a tool of war and insists on training him as such, while Professor Kawashimo programmed his AI to behave like a normal boy. Mars himself seems to struggle with these two sides of himself, enjoying acts of destruction and mischief and feeling bad when it ends up hurting people. With the help of Professor Kawashimo and his kindhearted robot daughter Miri, whom Mars has taken a liking to, Mars will learn kindness and beauty. From his father, Director Yamanoue, Mars will train for battle, and learn to use his destructive abilities. It's up to Mars which one he decides to indulge in.

Characters

As expected from Osamu Tezuka, he put his "character acting company", known as Star System, to use to define the cast of ''Jetter Mars''. He created a few of the characters specifically for the series, such as Mars and Melchi, and the vast majority of the cast was classic and well-known characters from Tezuka's works, playing various roles. In the adjacent picture, it is possible to identify many of Tezuka's characters, from left to right: Daidalos, Shunsuke Ban aka ''Higeoyaji'' and Tezuka himself in the upper row; Inspector Tawashi, Rock Holmes and Marukubi Boon in the middle row; and Tamao, Shibugaki, Spider, Chief Nakamura, HamEgg, Acetylene Lamp, Ken'ichi and Hyōtan-tsugi in the lower row; among some others.

The following list describes the characters featured more prominently during the series:

: The protagonist of the series. A powerful robot built in the image of a boy, he has a body that can be used for destruction of cataclysmic proportions, and a near-human artificial intelligence. Mars was designed as a machine for war, and thus named his creation after the Roman god of war. He finds himself often in the predicament of needing to find a balance between his boy heart and overwhelming strength.

: Mars' younger brother, with the body of a baby. Endowed with tremendous physical strength, his only word is (a word invented by Tezuka with no real meaning). He will also, however rare, speak a sentence.

: A robot made in the image of a young girl by Dr. Kawashimo. She possessed powers that enabled her to restore destroyed robots and machinery. She is the sister of Mars and Melchi, and daughter to Dr. Kawashimo.

: Creator of Jetter Mars' artificial intelligence and heart, and creator of Miri and Melchi. Opposing fellow scientist Dr. Yamanoue, he desired Mars to live a life of good purpose and peace.

: A renowned roboticist responsible for designing Mars. Mars looked up to him as his father. He disappears after the testing of a new gravity weapon.

: In many of his works, Tezuka drew himself as a character, immersed in the universe of his creations, and interacting with his characters. He was included in the Televiland manga adaptation as a famous roboticist Dr. Yamanoue sees as a rival.

and : Two cartoonish characters which briefly appear as comic relief. Hyōtan-tsugi usually appeared falling in front of a character at the most inappropriate of times, and getting kicked out angrily by them, and Spider usually appeared in moments of tension, uttering his trademark phrase, , roughly "Here ta meet ya!". Additionally, Hyōtan-tsugi appeared in each episode during the end credits sequence. Spider appears only in the manga and the opening of the Jetter Mars anime.

: One of Tezuka's most recognizable characters in his Star System. As usual, he is up to no good in Jetter Mars, running a robotic circus. In the anime, he tricks Mars into performing for his circus, but in the manga, HamEgg tricks Mars' little brother, Melchi, into joining the circus instead. Both of them end up sapped of their energy due to HamEgg being upset at them.

Episode list

The series had 27 episodes, each lasting approximately 24 minutes. It was broadcast by Fuji TV, on Thursday nights. As with all Tezuka's works, the series made use of his Star System cast, featuring many of his characters from previous works (manga or animated) performing various roles. The following list includes the episode title, and airing date.

Manga adaptation

The anime series also was adapted into a few manga issues published as one-shot stories, based on the storylines shown in the anime. They weren't written or illustrated by Osamu Tezuka, but by various licensed artists. The issues are listed as follows:

* Televiland Comics issue
:Stories illustrated by Shigeto Ikehara, published monthly in Televiland Magazine throughout the show's run.

* Bōken-ō Manga magazine issue
:Illustrated by Rentarō Iwata for the defunct Bōken-ō manga magazine.

* Televi-Magazine issue
:Illustrated by Kai Nanase and published in 1977.

* Chū'ichi Jidai magazine story
:Illustrated by Saisuke Hiraga, published from April to August 1979. It is a short story divided in five chapters.

DVD release

''Jetter Mars'' was released by Avex on March 27, 2009, as a five-disc DVD box set which contains the complete series.

Merchandise

Several records containing the musical score of ''Jetter Mars'' were released during the series run. These are listed as follows:

1.
:''Jetter Mars only LP record, it contained several songs along a mini-drama. The songs included in the record:
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2. Single releases

:Several records containing single songs were released. These are listed as follows:

* Mars Single Record 1, included the songs:
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* Mars Single Record 2, included the songs:
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* Mars Single Record 3, a re-release of the first single record, it also included a track containing the sound effects of the anime:
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* Mars Single Record 4, with the same content of single records 1 and 3, except it did not include the sound effects track. It also contained a Drama track, with the voices and sound effects of the first episode of the anime:
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:* Drama track:

* Mars Single Record 5, its contents were practically the same as Single Record 4, only with some editing variations.
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:* Drama track:

* Mars Single Record 6, included the opening and ending songs of the ''Jetter Mars'' anime, along the theme song for the anime adaptation of Yumiko Igarashi and Kyoko Mizuki's classic shōjo manga ''Candy Candy'':

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Staff

Involved in the production of the series:

Original concept, creator: Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫)

Planning: Kōji Bessho (Fuji TV), Takeshi Tamiya

In charge of production: Kiyoshi Ono (first season), Kichirō Sugahara (final season)

Music: Nobuyoshi Koshibe

Series composer: Masao Maruyama

Script: Masaki Tsuji, Shunichi Yukimuro, Yoshitaka Suzuki, Masaru Yamamoto, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama

Chief director: Rintarō (りん・たろう)

Producers: Sumiko Chiba, Noboru Ishiguro, Wataru Mizusawa, Masami Hatano, Katsutoshi Sasaki, Yugo Serizawa, Jihiro Taizumi, Rintarō

Character design supervisor: Akio Sugino

Animation supervisors: Akio Sugino, Toshio Mori, Satoshi Jingu, Wataru Mibu, Tsuneo Kashima, Toyō Ashida

Graphic designer: Liang Wei Huang

Art: Shohei Kawamoto, Liang Wei Huang, Tadao Kubota

Photography: Masaaki Sugaya

Editing: Masaaki Hanai

Audio director: Ryōsuke Koide (Arts Pro)

Recording: Hideyuki Tanaka

Production co-operation: Madhouse

Production: Fuji TV, Toei Animation

See also

* List of Osamu Tezuka manga
* List of Osamu Tezuka anime
* Osamu Tezuka's Star System
* Tezuka Award
* Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize

References

{{Toei Animation

1977 anime television series debuts
Animated television series about children
Astro Boy
Fictional robots
Osamu Tezuka anime
Television series set in 2015
Toei Animation television
Fuji Television original programming
Mars (mythology)