Summer 1964

From the TV series of "Astro Boy," three episodes were selected for theater re-edition, "Robot Rocket" (46th episode), "Earth Defense Troops" (56th episode) and "The Last Day of Earth" (71st episode). Of these three, "Earth Defense Troops" was the only one originally derived from Tezuka Osamu's story "Number 7." Its settings were diverted to the "Astro Boy" series. In this film, the whole scene of "Earth Defense Troops" and a part of "The Last Day of Earth" were reproduced in color for this theater version.

It's a pretty basic story about a boy practicing the arts of ninjutsu, fighting evil and trying to find his mother. Young Fujimaru got snatched away from his mother by an eagle and was rescued by a ninja named Sasuke who raised him and taught him ninja techniques. Later Fujimaru embarks on a quest to find his mother, encounters his arch enemy and learns about a secret book that contains secret ninja arts. The series is pretty old, but portraits loads of classic ninja techniques, like elemental manipulation (fire & wind), creating illusionary clones and breathing through a reed.