143, Bird Street Story

jeffbert · Postby **jeffbert** » 12 years ago

This one left me baffled, as it contained an element that was incomprehensible without knowledge of the Japanese language. I upload it now, because I have spoken with Strange Wings on this subject, & he viewed it, & answered my questions.

Here is the poor guy who was also in #69 Rebellion of the Dinosaur People (59, Dinosaur Dilemma), merely pasting advertisements, but the punk kid must hassle him.

There are two gangs in this run-down neighborhood, human & robot boys. They will soon clash.

This is Ringo, a kid who is being used by a mobster to drive away the robots. The tool he has was given to him for that purpose.

The boss wants to develop this area, which is Bird Street, & is apparently behind the conflict between the gangs.

This pose seems more like one a girl might do, after losing her top.

I am still confused as to why Ringo let Atom go, & now they are going to work as a team, rather than as enemies.

jeffbert · Postby **jeffbert** » 12 years ago

Here are Strange Wings' comments:

I just watched the episode, which appears to be a little homage to "West Side Story".
The booklet only tells a brief synopsis of the plot, the one shown on the Tezuka website may be more specific.
There's a quarrel going on between the human kids gang ("Eagles") and the robot kids gang ("Red Hawks") about taking claim of the "Bird Street Quarter", but Atom just wants them to get along well with each other.
The human kids' gang hired a young lad ("Ringo") skilled in destroying/mending mechanical things, probably for getting rid of Atom and the robot kids.
Atom and Ringo were duelling each other, and Atom lost the fight. In turn, Atom persuaded Ringo to propose friendship between both gangs. Eventually both the robots' and humans' gang joined forces
to resist the Mafia boss's plan of taking over 'Bird Street'. (Name of the Mafia boss: "Ara Yabone",
probably aka "Al Capone". I guess he wanted the area for building hotels or the like).
Al Capone and Ringo didn't seem to have any connection to each other; and Ringo didn't get mortally shot,
judging from the way both he and Atom were acting in the car, however I did understand that Atom was on the
way to the hospital in order to treat Ringo's gun shot wound.

AprilSeven · Postby **AprilSeven** » 12 years ago

[quote][/quote]WOW!! :w00t:

Like seeing Atom in West Side Story!!

: 143_Bird_St_155_zps16d2c583.jpg (35.66 KiB) Viewed 2817 times

Astro as a "Juvenile Delinquent!" Look at that expression! All he needs is a cigarette and a can of beer! :lol:

: 143_Bird_St_040_zps19276fea.jpg (60.94 KiB) Viewed 2905 times

Notice Joan Baez's name on the poster? I wonder if Tezuka was a fan of hers (I heard her once - incredible voice). Also notice the '69 . . .as in 1969? I can't decipher the word above it. Is that possible? She was extremely popular at that time (also the year of Woodstock)

ASTROBUDDY · Postby **ASTROBUDDY** » 12 years ago

"AprilSeven" wrote:
WOW!! Like seeing Atom in West Side Story!!

[attachment=]2108[/attachment]
Astro as a "Juvenile Delinquent!" Look at that expression! All he needs is a cigarette and a can of beer!

[attachment=]2107[/attachment]
Notice Joan Baez's name on the poster? I wonder if Tezuka was a fan of hers (I heard her once - incredible voice). Also notice the '69 . . .as in 1969? I can't decipher the word above it. Is that possible? She was extremely popular at that time (also the year of Woodstock)

Actually if you take a closer look at the poster and notice that the letters in the picture are reversed like in a mirror image, you will notice that the numbers are really "96"! But I can't make out the symbols or letters above it.

I :heart:

Tetsuwan Penguin · Postby **Tetsuwan Penguin** » 12 years ago

You know, "Ringo" looks like he was drawn to look a bit like his namesake. The Beatles were big about then......
It's a real shame that NBC never picked up on a third and fourth season.

BTW, did Tezuka change the opening scenes for the show after the second season? The opening in the English version is different than the one in the last Japanese episode (it has Astro digging his way through mount Fuji like in the movie) which doesn't appear in the English version. However, I have seen the first episode in Japanese with English subs on Youtube. I always thought that was a re-dub of the English BACK into Japanese with the Japanese titles re-inserted as there was a story on the web about the original Japanese prints being lost and they recovered them for the Japanese market from the English dubbed ones. But maybe, that wasn't true and both versions had the same intro for the first two seasons.

ASTROBUDDY · Postby **ASTROBUDDY** » 12 years ago

"kscharf" wrote:You know, "Ringo" looks like he was drawn to look a bit like his namesake. The Beatles were big about then......
It's a real shame that NBC never picked up on a third and fourth season.

BTW, did Tezuka change the opening scenes for the show after the second season? The opening in the English version is different than the one in the last Japanese episode (it has Astro digging his way through mount Fuji like in the movie) which doesn't appear in the English version. However, I have seen the first episode in Japanese with English subs on Youtube. I always thought that was a re-dub of the English BACK into Japanese with the Japanese titles re-inserted as there was a story on the web about the original Japanese prints being lost and they recovered them for the Japanese market from the English dubbed ones. But maybe, that wasn't true and both versions had the same intro for the first two seasons.

Actually the scene of Astro Boy digging thru Mt. Fuji is from the opening for the second season of Tetsuan Atomu and also used for the third and fourth seasons in Japan. In the US the opening was the same for all 104 dubbed episodes as it was cheaper to use the same opening for all the episodes.

I :heart:

jeffbert · Postby **jeffbert** » 12 years ago

"AprilSeven" wrote:

Notice Joan Baez's name on the poster? I wonder if Tezuka was a fan of hers (I heard her once - incredible voice). Also notice the '69 . . .as in 1969? I can't decipher the word above it. Is that possible? She was extremely popular at that time (also the year of Woodstock)

The series started in 1963, & this was in the late 3rd season, November of 1966, I think.

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143, Bird Street Story

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