Astro Boy Prequel Manga Atom the Beginning Gets Anime Adaptation

Japanese shopping website 7net is currently displaying the cover of this year's July issue of Shogakukan's Monthly Hero's magazine, which reveals that Tetsuro Kasahara's Atom the Beginning manga will receive an anime adaptation. The actual issue ships on June 1.

Kasahara launched Atom The Beginning in the magazine in December 2014 as a prequel of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga. Tezuka's son Makoto Tezuka handles the editorial supervision of the manga, and the series is in collaboration with Tezuka Productions. Masami Yuuki (Patlabor the Mobile Police, Birdy the Mighty creator) is credited with "concept works" for the series. Shogakukan will ship the third compiled volume of the manga on June 3.

The manga tells the story of what happens up until the birth of Astro Boy, and is considered an "episode zero" story.

Kasahara's Rideback manga inspired a television anime series in 2009 and Funimation released the series on home video. Kasahara is also currently drawing the Full Metal Panic! 0 manga in Kadokawa's Monthly Dragon Age magazine.​