"Mighty Atom," originally created by Osamu Tezuka, began serialization in the April 1952 issue of the monthly boys' magazine "Shonen" (Kobunsha), following the long-running science fiction manga "Mighty Atom," which began in the April 1951 issue and ran for a year. Full-scale television broadcasting began a year later. At the time of its launch, television stations shot live TV dramas based on popular novels, similar to feature films. However, beginning in 1957, attempts were made to produce film works that could be both broadcast on television and shown in theaters. This led to the creation of television films, which were produced outside the confines of a television studio and shot on 16mm film.
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Osamu Tezuka, creator of Mighty Atom, had been publishing works for years. At the time, he had many manga being published in manga magazines. (Requiring him to create up to 161 pages per month!) But despite his prolific works, he hadn't yet been able to breach other forms of media such as television.
Many tokusatsu shows were airing at the time, a lot of them being manga adaptations. The question became "when will one of Osamu Tezuka's works be adapted?" According to a Tokyo children's survey, the Osamu Tezuka manga children in Japan wanted to see be adapted into television the most was Mighty Atom.
A Mighty Atom 3D paper-theater story featuring paper drawings moved on a stick was broadcast on KR Television in 1957. According to Osamu Tezuka's essay "I Am a Manga Artist," it was "a shabby picture-story show done in a shabby studio." Due to cost and time constraints, 30-minute animated films for television was just completely unrealistic in the early 1950s. Atom would soon be getting a new TV adaptation, a tokusatsu show.
Filming for the first season would be produced by the Mainichi Broadcasting System in Osaka, Matsuzaki Productions, and Mikasa Films. The series was scheduled to begin broadcasting in March 1959, the same year that Mainichi Broadcasting TV and Fuji TV launched simultaneously.
First news of Mighty Atom being adapted for television was published in late November 1958. Shonen Shimbun featured the headline "Yaguruma Kennosuke and Mighty Atom, serial manga coming to TV one after another." The Q-Hei Shimbun featured a column titled "Mister Godzilla Teaches Mighty Atom TV," with a photo of Godzilla, stating, "As announced in Shonen Shimbun, the Mighty Atom TV series will be instructed on tricks by Eiji Tsuburaya, the man known for Godzilla and Rodan. Tsuburaya is Japan's number one film trick technician, so the Mighty Atom TV will surely be a breeze to pull off."
The following year, the February issue of Shounen Shimbun released in January 1959 ran an article with a photo and the headline "Segawa to play Atom: Tokusatsu finally completed," and captioned, "The first volume of the tokustasu Mighty Atom, The Führer ZZZ Chapter, has just been completed and is scheduled to begin broadcasting this March. The role of Atom will be played by Segawa Masahito. The photo above shows Segawa as Atom. He makes quite a fine Atom, doesn't he?" The April issue of Shonen Shimbun, released the month the show first aired, carried a large headline with photos, titled "First broadcast scheduled for March, first in Osaka, then in Tokyo." Due to the timing of Mainichi TV's launch, Fuji TV actually began broadcasting earlier, on March 7th (every Saturday, 6:15-6:45 PM). Mainichi TV began broadcasting on the 12th (every Friday, 6:15-6:45 PM), with Shinetsu Broadcasting Television, Nankai Broadcasting Television, and Hokuriku Broadcasting Television also broadcasting. The show was sponsored by Lotte.
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