Jetter Mars (ジェッターマルス, Jettā Marusu) is an anime series directed by Rintaro and written by Osamu Tezuka. Originally planned by Tezuka as a full-color remake of the original anime adaptation of his popular manga series Astro Boy, unfavorable circumstances during the pre-production phase of the project led him to abandon it temporarily and create Jetter Mars instead. Although it remains as one of Tezuka's lesser known works, it gained a large following and is fondly remembered.

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. (January 2010)

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Jetter Mars
Jetter Mars Picture Book cover, illustrated by Osamu Tezuka, 1977
ジェッターマルス (Jettā Marusu)
Genre	Science fiction
Anime television series
Directed by	Rintaro
Written by	Osamu Tezuka
Music by	Nobuyoshi Koshibe
Studio	Toei Animation, Madhouse
Original network	Fuji TV
Original run	February 3, 1977 – September 15, 1977
Episodes	27

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Unlike the vast majority of Osamu Tezuka's characters, Jetter Mars was not first published in comic book form, written and illustrated by Tezuka. In 1977, Tezuka's animation studio Mushi Productions faced bankruptcy, leading Tezuka to work as an animation director for Toei Animation for some time. He wanted to produce a color anime adaptation for his landmark manga Tetsuwan Atom, (known to western audiences as Astro Boy), but due to the financial distress of Mushi Productions, the copyrights on some of his characters were in limbo. Due to the deadline imposed on Tezuka by Toei to produce the new series, he wasn't able to secure the copyrights to his characters on time, which forced him to compromise his original project and redesign it somewhat, reworking it conceptually and visually to some extent.

Tezuka then redesigned Atom slightly, and renamed him as Jetter Mars. Some aspects of Atom's original story are taken and used as the origin of Mars, such as him being created as a powerful android in the image of a boy. Two scientists are involved in Mars' creation, one conceiving him as a combat instrument and the other opposing that purpose, conceiving him as an instrument for peaceful pursuits. This element mirrors the disagreement found in the characters Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanomizu in Tetsuwan Atom. Some other borrowed concepts can be found across the series.

Some storylines in the episodes of Jetter Mars were remakes of classic and beloved stories Tezuka wrote and drew in his Tetsuwan Atom manga, such as The Artificial Sun and The Last Day on Earth. The series was beautifully animated^{[according to whom?]}, and in the Tezuka tradition, it showcased many of his characters from his various manga works in different roles.

In the same manner he wrote and illustrated his Tetsuwan Atom manga, Tezuka stayed away from graphic violence in Jetter Mars, although the typical traits of his works are also present in it, such as the importance of moral values, humanity and strong emotiveness.

The series was received by Japan's population with mixed feelings, as some wanted the original Tetsuwan Atom and some accepted Jetter Mars wholeheartedly as a different character, as it was intended to be. This made Tezuka lose interest in the series and it finished with 27 episodes produced. Having successfully secured the copyrights on all his characters once again, Tezuka founded Tezuka Productions a few years later, and was able to produce the color anime adaptation of Tetsuwan Atom as he wanted initially, which became a hit, much in the same way as the original anime adaptation from the 60's.

The storyline is set in the year 2015. Two scientists, Dr. Kawashimo and Dr. Yamanoue, have created a robot with advanced capabilities. Dr. Kawashimo created his miraculous artificial intelligence, making him almost human, while Dr. Yamanoue created the robot's body, endowing him with astoundingly powerful weaponry.

The series had 27 episodes, each lasting 24 minutes approximately. Broadcast by Fuji TV, on Thursday nights. As with all Tezuka's works, the series made use of his Star System cast technique, featuring many of his characters from previous works (manga or animated) as guests performing various roles. The following list includes the episode title, airing date and guest characters.^{[1] [2]}

The anime series also was adapted into a few manga issues published as one-shot stories, based on the storylines shown in the anime. They weren't written or illustrated by Osamu Tezuka, but by various licensed artists. The issues are listed as follows:

• Televiland Comics Issue

One-shot story illustrated by Shigeto Ikehara, published in the first issue of the magazine in 1979.

• Bōken-ō Manga Magazine Issue

Illustrated by Rentarō Iwata for the defunct Bōken-ō manga magazine.

• Televi-Magazine Issue

Illustrated by Kai Nanase and published in 1979.

• Chū'ichi Jidai Magazine Story

Illustrated by Saisuke Hiraga, published from April to August, 1979. Short-story divided in five chapters.

Jetter Mars was released by Avex on March 27, 2009, as a five-disc DVD Box set which contains the complete series.^[3]

Several records containing the musical score of Jetter Mars were released during the series run. These are listed as follows^[4]

1. Mars LP Record (マルスのLPレコード, Marusu no LP recōdo)

Jetter Mars' only LP record, it contained several songs along a mini-drama. The songs included in the record:

• Mars, year 2015 (マルス2015年, Marusu 2015 nen)
• Mars' dream (マルスの夢, Marusu no yume)
• Melchi, Let's Bakaruchi (メルチバカルチガンバルチ, Meruchi Bakaruchi Ganbaruchi)
• Goodnight, Mars (おやすみマルス, Oyasumi Marusu)
• Fighting Mars (戦いのマルス, Tatakai no Marusu)
• Boy Mars (少年マルス, Shōnen Marusu)
• Hate! Love! (キライ!スキ!, Kirai! Suki!)
• Wandering robot (さすらいのロボット, Sasurai no robotto)
• The March of Mars (マルスのマーチ, Marusu no Māchi)
• Space Scat (宇宙のスキャット, Uchū no Sukyatto)

2. Single Releases

Several records containing single songs were released. These are listed as follows:

• Mars Single Record 1, included the songs:

• Mars, year 2015 (マルス2015年, Marusu 2015 nen)
• Boy Mars (少年マルス, Shōnen Marusu)

• Mars Single Record 2, included the songs:

• Goodnight, Mars (おやすみマルス, Oyasumi Marusu)
• The March of Mars (マルスのマーチ, Marusu no Māchi)

• Mars Single Record 3, a re-release of the first single record, it also included a track containing the sound effects of the anime:

• Mars, year 2015 (マルス2015年, Marusu 2015 nen)
• Boy Mars (少年マルス, Shōnen Marusu)

• Mars Single Record 4, with the same content of single records 1 and 3, except it didn't include the sound effects track. It also contained a Drama track, with the voices and sound effects of the first episode of the anime:

• Mars, year 2015 (マルス2015年, Marusu 2015 nen)
• Boy Mars (少年マルス, Shōnen Marusu)
• Drama track: Mars is born, year 2015 (2015年マルス誕生, 2015 nen Marusu tanjō)

• Mars Single Record 5, its contents were practically the same as Single Record 4, only with some editing variations.

• Mars, year 2015 (マルス2015年, Marusu 2015 nen)
• Boy Mars (少年マルス, Shōnen Marusu)
• Drama track: Mars is born (マルス誕生, Marusu tanjō)

• Mars Single Record 6, included the opening and ending songs of the Jetter Mars anime, along the theme song for the anime adaptation of Yumiko Igarashi and Kyoko Mizuki's classic shōjo manga Candy Candy:

• Mars, year 2015 (マルス2015年, Marusu 2015 nen)
• Boy Mars (少年マルス, Shōnen Marusu)
• Candy Candy (キャンディ・キャンディ, Kyandi・Kyandi)
• I love tomorrow (あしたがすき, Ashita ga suki)

Involved in the production of the series:^[5]

Original concept, creator: Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫)
Planning: Kōji Bessho (Fuji TV), Takeshi Tamiya
In charge of production: Kiyoshi Ono (first season), Kichirō Sugahara (final season)
Music: Nobuyoshi Koshibe
Series composer: Masao Maruyama
Script: Masaki Tsuji, Shunichi Yukimuro, Yoshitaka Suzuki, Masaru Yamamoto, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
Chief Director: Rintarō (りん・たろう)
Producers: Sumiko Chiba, Noboru Ishiguro, Wataru Mizusawa, Masami Hatano, Katsutoshi Sasaki, Yugo Serizawa, Jihiro Taizumi, Rintarō
Character Design Supervisor: Akio Sugino
Animation Supervisors: Akio Sugino, Toshio Mori, Satoshi Jingu, Wataru Mibu, Tsuneo Kashima, Toyō Ashida
Graphic Designer: Liang Wei Huang
Art: Shohei Kawamoto, Liang Wei Huang, Tadao Kubota
Photography: Masaaki Sugaya
Editing: Masaaki Hanai
Audio Director: Ryōsuke Koide (Arts Pro)
Recording: Hideyuki Tanaka
Production Co-operation: Madhouse
Production: Fuji TV, Toei Animation

• List of Osamu Tezuka manga
• List of Osamu Tezuka anime
• Osamu Tezuka's Star System
• Tezuka Award
• Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize