{"id":8897,"date":"2009-10-21T11:26:09","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T15:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=8897"},"modified":"2009-10-21T11:37:51","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T15:37:51","slug":"wit-life-53-astro-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/21\/wit-life-53-astro-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"WIT Life #53: Astro Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITLi<\/strong><\/em><\/a>fe<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong> <\/strong><\/a>is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter\/Translator\/Writer Stacy Smith<\/a><\/strong> (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).\u00a0 Recently she\u2019s been<\/em> watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends togethe<\/em>r <\/em>w<\/em>ith her own observat<\/em>ions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last night at Japan Society I had the chance to catch a sneak preview of the American movie version of the Japanese manga series “Testuwan Atomu<\/em>,”\"\" known here in the States as Astro Boy.\u00a0 This wide-eyed, spiky haired superhero has a huge following both here and at home, and his Hollywood debut was greatly anticipated.\u00a0 Though I had never seen the original series, which based on a manga became an anime first in Japan and then here in 1963, I truly enjoyed the Western interpretation of the life of this legendary icon.<\/p>\n

The voices were provided by a star-studded cast including Nicholas Cage as Astro’s father Dr. Tenma, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane and Charlize Theron.\u00a0 The story’s universal themes are about finding yourself and where you fit in, as well as being true to one’s own nature.\u00a0 It wasn’t laugh-out loud funny but there were definitely parts that caused chuckles, especially those jokes geared toward adults.\u00a0 Particularly delectable were the lines from Sutherland’s diabolical power-hungry politician.<\/p>\n

The creator of this series was the now deceased Osamu Tezuka, known as the “father of manga.”\u00a0 His oldest son Makoto Tezuka served as supervising editor for this film, and he made it to yesterday’s premiere at LA’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.\u00a0 Joining him was the musician Yoshiki (who was scheduled to be in charge of the film’s music but had to withdraw due to neck surgery) and Koji Yakusho (of “Shall We Dance” fame) who provides the voice of Dr. Tenma in the Japanese version (A life-size Astro Boy himself was also in attendance).\u00a0 Tezuka had visited Grauman’s 32 years ago to see Star Wars, and Makoto commented, “It’s miraculous to have the premiere at this theater that my father loved.\u00a0 I think he would be very happy.”\u00a0 The movie opens for general release this Friday, October 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter\/Translator\/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).\u00a0 Recently she\u2019s been watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations. Last night at Japan Society I had the chance to catch a sneak preview of the American movie version of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,30,18,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-japan-trends","category-translatinginterpreting","category-wit-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t