Atom the Beginning Anime's 1st Promo Video, Story Intro Posted

Tezuka Productions opened a website on Sunday for the anime adaptation of Tetsuro Kasahara's Atom The Beginning manga. The website confirms the previously listed staff and spring 2017 premiere date, and is also streaming a promotional video. The video features the narration: "This is a previously untold 'episode zero' story leading up to the birth of Astro Boy."
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• Text: Original Concept: Osamu Tezuka​
• Text: Project Planning Collaboration & Supervision: Makoto Tezuka​
• Concept Works: Masami Yuuki​
• Manga: Tetsuro Kasahara​
• Text: Artificial Intelligence + ego-consciousness​
• Text: Bewußtsein [consciousness]​
• Text: Chief Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass)​
• Text: Director: Tatsuo Sato (Bodacious Space Pirates)​
• Text: Series Script Supervisor: Jun'ichi Fujisaku (Blood+)​
• Text: Animation Production: OLM, Production I.G, Signal.MD​
• Text: Two young geniuses …​
• Text: A robot that each one aspired to make​
• Text: Umatarō Tenma​
• Text: God: A lifeform that surpasses humanity​
• Text: Hiroshi Ochanomizu​
• Text: Friend: An entity equal to humanity​
• Text: Is a heart necessary for a robot?​
• Narration & Text: This is a previously untold 'episode zero' story leading up to the birth of Astro Boy.​
• Narration & Text: Atom The Beginning​
• Text: Spring 2017​
• Text: TV anime set to air on NHK-General!​

In Japan after a great calamity, there were two geniuses who dreamed of the future. One was Umatarō Tenma. The other was Hiroshi Ochanomizu.

The two labored day and night in robot research — Tenma to create a "god," and Ochanomizu to create a "friend." Thus a robot, A106, was born from their collaborative friendship. Would A106 really become a god, or a friend? The young brilliant duo glimpsed the impending future…

The anime's staff includes:​

• Original Work: Osamu Tezuka​
• Project Planning Cooperation and Supervision: Makoto Tezuka​
• Concept Works: Masami Yuuki (Patlabor franchise, Birdy the Mighty)​
• Cooperation: Tezuka Productions​
• Chief Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass, live-action Ajin film)​
• Director: Tatsuo Sato (Bodacious Space Pirates, Martian Successor Nadesico)​
• Series Composition: Jun'ichi Fujisaku (Blood+, Appleseed XIII)​
• Animation Production: OLM, Production I.G, Signal.MD​
• Character Design: Takahiro Yoshimatsu (Trigun, Basquash!)​
• Mechanical Design: Shinobu Tsuneki, Yoshihiro Ishimoto, Shinichi Miyazaki​
• Prop Design: Mebara, Asuna Imahashi, Taiyō Yoshida​
• Chief Animation Director: Hideki Ito​
• Color Key: Miho Tanaka​
• Art: Hiroshi Katō​
• 3DCG Director: Takaaki Sugano​
• Monitor Graphics: Takashi Aoki​
• Special Effects: Masahiro Murakami​
• Director of Photography: Teppei Satō​
• Editing: Yūki Honda​
• Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami​
• Music: Noriyuki Asakura​

Kasahara (Ride Back) launched Atom The Beginning in Shogakukan's Monthly Hero's 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 shipped the third compiled volume of the manga on June 3, and will ship the fourth volume on December 5.

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