Astro Boy

Too old.

>>145179858
Astro Boy is fucking awesome.

The fucking noses.

>>145183381

It literally just had an anime in 2003. The 80s anime also could have been popular during the 90s and 2000s anime booms.

Why did it not become popular but Speed Racer did.

>>145179858
Tezuka isn't really known to the western audience in general, aside hearing about him.
Astro Boy or Kimba are his most famous works, yet barely anyone read them.
I'd also say the art-style isn't seen as appealing to the mainstream, since it doesn't look "anime-ish" enough.

But hey, people like you got still into it 50 years after it was published, so it's not like it doesn't have some kind of niche-audience.
But it's all it's ever going to be - niche.

>>145183742
>>It literally just had an anime in 2003
2003 was 13 years ago anon

>>145183742
And the 2003 anime appealed to people in Japan because Astro Boy is something of major cultural significance there.

>>145183879

Yeah. And? That's still a relatively new anime, plus we're not talking about the now. We're talking about why it never became popular period. Not all anime fans got into anime right now.

>>145183811

That's the question. WHY didn't Tezuka hit off with western fans? Things inspired by him did but not Tezuka himself. Is there something about Astro Boy that doesn't appeal to Americans, Canadians, Brits, etc? Or is it that it just because it hasn't aired on tv enough?

>>145179858
>but no one else seems to like him
"seems" is the key word here. Have you tried hanging around anime fans that aren't 14 years old?

>>145184052
Like I said, I honestly think it's the art-style that pushes people off.
Adding to that, Tezuka's (mostly) cute art-styles clashes with some extremely heavy themes that are featured even in his more kid-friendly works, which is very hard to market.

Read his anecdote when he discussed the changes the Americans wanted him to make for Astro Boy for example.

>>145184052
because western gaijins are fucking stupid

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>There are people who haven't watched a single Tezuka anime (or read his manga) on this board

>>145184503

Most anime fans I've seen don't care for Astro much.

He was the pinnacle of cutting corners with regards to animation costs, and came out at a time when American cartoons were in their golden age. It worked for Japan because everyone was poor as shit following the war, but that narrative isn't so compelling to everyone else in the world. Plus stuff back then was either lost (like early Doctor Who), or just not exported (because really, they're just cartoons, and Japan is a tiny island nation).

That said, there's no point to reading Astro Boy now except for a deeper understanding of Pluto.

For what it's worth, Astro Boy might seem like a cute kid's character, but Tezuka wrote his novels without furigana. So the bar for reading his works is annoyingly high.

>>145186406

Astro Boy's story is great though.

Might as well ask why the World Masterpiece Theater isn't popular at all even though it has lots of things /a/ likes.

80's Astro Boy is popular in Australia because it was screened on the free to air ad free station.

>>145179858
I probably wouldn't mind these days but when I was younger it weirded me out how he wears nothing but briefs.