A giant Osamu Tezuka mural decorates Takadanobaba train station in Tokyo.  I have rather fond memories of this place as the film school that I graduated from, Toho Gakuen is also located here.

Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astroboy, was born in Takadanobaba on the 3rd November, 1928. Take a stroll down the busy streets of Baba ( that’s what the locals call it here, Ta-ka-da-no-ba-ba is quite a tongue twister. ) and you’ll be greeted with many a sign of Tezuka-san’s manga characters on murals and lamp posts, a tribute to the late manga artist.

At Takadanobaba JR train station, the chime that signals just before trains depart is the theme from the Astroboy TV series. Someone made a recording of it on Youtube.

( below ) While we’re on the topic of Astroboy, you might be thrilled to know that Imagi Animation studios ( who bought us 2007’s TMNT ) is making a CG feature film of the same name, due for release in 2009. I’m all for CG but I hope they’ll keep the classic, vintage look of the original series.

For more updates and news on the upcoming Astroboy animation film, check out Imagi creative director Felix Ip’s blog.