Jetter Mars
Development. Unlike the vast majority of Osamu Tezuka's characters, Jetter Mars wasn't first published in comic book form, written and illustrated by Tezuka. In 1977, Tezuka's animation studio Mushi Productions faced bankruptcy, leading Tezuka to work as an animation director for Toei Animation for some time. He wanted to produce a color anime adaptation for his landmark manga "Tetsuwan Atom", (known to western audiences as "Astro Boy"), but due to the financial distress of Mushi Productions, the copyrights on some of his characters were in limbo. Due to the deadline imposed on Tezuka by Toei  to produce the new series, he wasn't able to secure the copyrights to his characters on time, which forced him to compromise his original project and redesign it somewhat, reworking it conceptually and visually to some extent. Tezuka then redesigned Atom slightly, and renamed him as Jetter Mars. Some aspects of Atom's original story are taken and used as the origin of Mars, such as him being created as a powerful android in the image of a boy. Two scientists are involved in Mars' creation, one conceiving him as a combat instrument and the other opposing that purpose , conceiving him as an instrument for peaceful pursuits. This element mirrors the disagreement found in the characters Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanomizu in "Tetsuwan Atom". Some other borrowed concepts can be found across the series. Some storylines in the episodes of "Jetter Mars" were remakes of classic and beloved stories Tezuka wrote and drew in his "Tetsuwan Atom" manga, such as "The Artificial Sun" and "The Last Day on Earth". The series was beautifully animated, and in the Tezuka tradition, it 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 and strong emotiveness. 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 lose interest in the series and it finished with 27 episodes produced. Having successfully secured the copyrights on all his characters once again, Tezuka founded  Tezuka Productions a few years later, and was able to produce the color anime adaptation of Tetsuwan Atom as he wanted initially, which became a hit, much in the same way as the original anime adaptation from the 60's. Plot. The storyline is set in the year 2015. Two scientist, Dr. Kawashimo and Dr. Yamanoue, have created a robot with advanced capabilities. Dr. Kawashimo created his miraculous artificial intelligence, making him almost human, while Dr. Yamanoue created the robot's body, endowing him with astoundingly powerful weaponry. 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: Episode list. The series had 27 episodes, each lasting 24 minutes approximately. Broadcast by Fuji TV, on Thursday nights. As with all Tezuka's works, the series made use of his Star System cast technique, featuring many of his characters from previous works (manga or animated) as guests performing various roles. The following list includes the episode title, airing date and guest characters. 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: 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. 2. Single Releases 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