Get ready for PRINCESS KNIGHT!

YEAH!

Vertical Inc. has announced that Osamu Tezuka's legendary classic manga Princess Knight (Ribbon no Kishi) will be published in its eternity in English.

From Anime News Network:

Vertical will publish Princess Knight in two volumes: the first, about 384 pages long, on October 4, and the second, about 330 pages long, on December 6. Both books will carry a suggested retail price of US$13.95. The books will be the same trim size as Dororo and Black Jack — two other Vertical releases of Tezuka manga.

This is truly incredible news! Princess Knight is one of Tezuka's most popular and important creations. We've only gotten a few glimpses of the Princess Knight manga in English before, but now we're getting the entire series in such a comprehensive fashion. More information will be forthcoming, so keep checking back.

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Snow-Shunsaku

This amusing image is part of the current seasonal background on TezukaOsamu.net. Here we have Uran, Atom, and Jump with a Ban Shunsaku made out of snow. If you look closely, you'll see Ban's trademark fez is actually a bucket.

I know they're robots and all but it's got to be way to cold for shorts and skirts, kids.

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Kyoto Tezuka Osamu World Closed

The Kyoto Tezuka Osamu World, a store and theater in Kyoto Japan, closed down on January 16th. While there are several official Tezuka stores in Japan, and other stores that sell Tezuka related merchandise, the closing of this particular location is notable because it had a theater screen that played exclusive Astro Boy and Tezuka-related short movies, not available anywhere else.

It is unknown at this time what will happen to these movies. There is some speculation that, with 2011 being the 60th anniversary of Astro Boy's manga debut, there may perhaps be some sort of DVD collection, but there have been no announcements at this time.

This news came to me from a couple of different sources, so thanks to everyone who alerted me to this. You can read more about it on Dr. Jerk's Astroboy Online thread.

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Ultimate Dodge!

 There is another unofficial Astro Boy fan-made Flash game out there. Astro Boy Ultimate Dodge puts you in control of Astro as you use his multiple jumping, hovering, and dashing skills to clear a course of deadly obstacles.

 This game is not to be entered into lightly! The levels are incredibly hard. It takes skill and patience.

Get used to seeing this image a lot.

Aside from the futuristic setting, it actually doesn't seem to have much to do with the Astro Boy universe, but it's interesting all the same to see the character like this.

You can play it for yourself on Kongregate, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Remember to check out prior postings on Astro Boy games with the Games Tag.

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Imagi Selling CGI Models

A collection of 3D digital objects made by Imagi for their animated works, including TMNT and Astro Boy, can now be purchased for use by other studios and animators. You can see Dr. Tenma's books, Toby's hat, and some futuristic buildings as part of the examples shown. These are just general items, things like props and buildings, not copyrighted characters.
From what I understand, this is not an unusual thing. It saves time and money to use 3D resources that have already been made over developing them from scratch. It would be quiet interesting to see if anything distinctive from the Astro Boy movie ever shows up in another film.

See the entire CG Model Library here.

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Tezuka Russian Nesting Dolls

Take a look at these customized Russian nesting dolls, hand painted with Osamu Tezuka characters by artist "hooverdam".

 

Originally posted on D. Merril's Let's Anime blog, where you can see more pictures of each layer. I agree, they are the coolest thing ever.

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