Jetter Mars: Q&A

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Jetter Mars: Q&A

Postby Dr. Jerk » 13 years ago

Lately I have been seeing quite a bit of questions regarding Jetter Mars lately, many of which had the same questions repeated, and I imagine that these will be repeated again.

So, I figured, to hopefully cut-down on these repeated Jetter Mars questions, I have decided to make this thread, a miniature 'question & answer' thread. Hopefully these should clear up some of the most common things that people ask about Jetter Mars. I encourage that if anyone sees another thread or post asking Jetter Mars, that it might be good to link back to this thread to help save some time.

I would ask this to be pinned/stickied, but that's really up to the mods.


Q: What is Jetter Mars?
A: Jetter Mars is a 1977's anime series created by Osamu Tezuka. It stars the character 'Jetter Mars', who notably looks almost exactly like Astro Boy, with the exception of some minor changes. Osamu Tezuka originally wanted to create a color remake of Astro Boy earlier, however because Mushi Productions had went bankrupt in the 70's, he had lost the rights to many of his characters and wouldn't be able to secure them in a couple of years. During that time, he worked at Toei Productions and created Jetter Mars.

The series takes place in the year 2015. Two scientists, Doctors Kawashimo and Yamanoue, have partnered up to create a super robot. Dr. Kawashimo, who can be seen as parallel to Ochanomizu/Elefun, created the robotic brain. Yamanoue, similar to Tenma, created the robotic body. With their projects finally done, Jetter Mars is born. Both scientists have different things in mind for Mars. Yamanoue wants him to become a super powerful robot, hence his name, Mars was named after the Roman God of War. Kawashimo however wants Mars to live a peaceful and practical life, and being the creator of his brain, understands the robot boy a little more.

Mars is very similar to Astro Boy, as they both possess super strength and can fly. Unlike Astro Boy however, Mars does not have rocket-boots and instead flies by opening up his red cape. He also does not have seven abilities and can also grow up physically and emotionally.

Other reoccuring characters includes Mars' older robotic sister, Miri, and his eventual robotic baby brother named Melchi. Miri can be seen parallel to Uran, while Mechi is similar to Titan/Chii-tan. Many other characters from Tezuka's works make appearances too.

The series ran for less than a year, lasting for 27 episodes before Tezuka grew tired of it and moved on. Tezuka also did not create his own Jetter Mars manga, however several other mangaka had created their own manga adaption of Jetter Mars. The most notable one being Shigeto Ikehara's.

Q: Where can I watch this dubbed?
Jetter Mars was never dubbed into English.

It was however dubbed into Spanish (Jet Marte), Italian (Capitan Jet), Portuguese (O Menino Biônico), Arabic (Kooky Al Ajeib) and Greek (Super Mars) which was cancelled. It was also over-dubbed into Russian with a very small voice variety due to the low budget of the dubbing production.

Q: Where can I watch this in subtitles?
A: There are no subtitles, in any language. And given Jetter Mars' obscurity and lack of popularity, plus considering how old it is, it is very likely that no one will want to sub it, not even fansubbers.

Q: Was there any home-releases? Where can I buy them?
A: There was a DVD boxset released in Japan in 2009, which includes all 27 episodes. It is very expensive though, and copies can go up for around 300 American dollars. It's also likely to be out of print very soon, and will probably become a rare item. You can purchase it at Amazon Japan here: http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%83%83%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B9-DVD-BOX-%E6%89%8B%E5%A1%9A%E6%B2%BB%E8%99%AB/dp/B001PFNWY0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298262716&sr=8-1

Videx offers downloadable rentals for 20 dollars for the whole series (30 days). The first episode is also offered for free. Expires 2012/04/30. Make sure to run the video test using the two buttons at http://www.videx.jp/info/faq_pc.php to verify that your PC supports the videos on that site.

There was also a DVD of Capitan Jet (Italian dub) released some years ago, however it was not a full release and it instead compiled four episodes into a 'movie'.

That should be about it. I don't think I'm missing anything.
Last edited by F-Man on Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:21 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Reason: 1) at the author's request. 2) added details about the Russian version. 3) added digital rentals

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Xenops
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Postby Xenops » 13 years ago

Good idea Jerk! This should be a sticky thread! :)

If you search for "Jet Marte" on Youtube, you can find some of the episodes in Spanish. The quality varies since they are ripped from VHS tapes.

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Postby Bakabits » 13 years ago

I saw italian and i cheered BUT when i found out it is only EPISODES i cried. :cry: over half my family lives in italy and i have almost 20 cousins (it may be more though) who live over there. ah well.... guess i am going to go detective again to find this series. :ninja: Thx anyway!
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AprilSeven
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Postby AprilSeven » 13 years ago

Wow, what a great thread! Thanks, Dr. Jerk. I find Jetter Mars a fascinating character and would like to read more about Tezuka's ideas about him (I noticed he dropped the jet propulsion and made this character able to grow up, two interesting changes from Astro Boy). I wondered what was going on with that cape - thanks for solving a lot of the mystery!
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F-Man
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Postby F-Man » 13 years ago

"AprilSeven" wrote:and made this character able to grow up


I'm still not sure if that's true, other than maybe emotionally (through the gain of a younger brother, and the loss of a close family member). Anyway, if it is mentioned that he really grows in the show, I could not understand it, cause it's in Japanese. :d oh:
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Postby Fauna » 13 years ago

"Xenops" wrote:Good idea Jerk! This should be a sticky thread! :)


Done and done. :cool: I consider Jetter Mars and Astro Boy to be closely related, so this would be a good thing to have present in the forum.


@F-Man: His profile in the Omega Factor game definitely said Jetter could grow, but I don't know if that's how it is in the anime.
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Dr. Jerk
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Postby Dr. Jerk » 13 years ago

My theory is that perhaps Jetter Mars was intended to age physically in some later episodes, but then Tezuka grew tired of it and cancelled the anime, so... I guess he didn't had a chance to grow.

The Omega Factor profiles are very accurate in explaining the characters. The 'growing up' thing was certainly a part of the Jetter Mars series, but I guess it was only merely mentioned then.

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Postby F-Man » 13 years ago

I don't know why I forgot to mention it, but there is a bit of a theme of Mars learning emotions as well. In one episode he'll learn to laugh, then another he learns to cry, another he learns about cute things ("kawaii"), and so on.
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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 13 years ago

I just watched METROPOLIS, last night, & realized that Miri is Tima! :lol:
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Postby F-Man » 13 years ago

"jeffbert" wrote:I just watched METROPOLIS, last night, & realized that Miri is Tima! :lol:


See this thread: http://www.astroboy-online.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5307

I wouldn't be surprised if the Tezuka character mr skunk talked about was Miri. The curly hair on the sides and, I just noticed, the hair on her forehead is certainly similar. However I do not think Miri has the curly hair on the entire back of her head like Tima does.
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