is a
Japanese television series that premiered on
Fuji TV on
New Year's Day and is the first popular animated
Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as
anime. It originated
as a manga of the same name in 1952 by
Osamu Tezuka, revered in Japan as the "God of Manga." After enjoying success both in
Japan and abroad as the first anime to be broadcast overseas,
Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s under the
same name(s), and in 2003 as
Astro Boy: Mighty Atom. It lasted for four seasons, with a total of 193 episodes, the final episode presented on
New Year's Eve 1966. At its height it was watched by 40% of the Japanese population who had access to a TV. In 1964, there was a feature-length animated movie called released in Japan. It was an anthology of three episodes;
The Robot Spaceship,
Last Day on Earth and
Earth Defense Squadron. The latter two were filmed in color.