Astro Boy

Genre: Mecha / Action
General Audience
1980. Osamu Tezuka (creator).Noboru Ishiguro (director). Tezuka Production.

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Firesenshi's Description:
It was a time of great technology when robots were at its height to aid humans in production. But it was also a time of hostility of humans against robots, where the former feared that robots would take over their place in their industries. It was this time that Doctor Boyton's son died; he created a robot that was an exact match for his son. It is Doctor Boyton that this boy robot would eventually know as his father. However, when they were both on board a ship, the ship was endangered by icebergs. The boy robot saved the ship but realized that his father was gone. He then went on to a circus and this is where he got his name, Astroboy (Tetsuwan Atom "Mighty Atom"). It was then that one of Japan's leading doctors, Dr. Elephan, took Astroboy in and had people adopt him. Small yet strong, Astroboy wants to prove that he is a robot helping humans by saving them from catastrophe. Later, Dr. Elephan made a sister for Astroboy called Uraine (Uran).

This is a remake of the 1963 original Tezuka classic of the same name. This one has 52 episodes done in 1980.

NOTE: Some of the reviews were written sometime in 2001 and was recorded in the classic Otaku Fridge as ??.??.2001. Unfortunately the database would not accept non-numerical values, so this review is now dated January 01, 2001 by default.

An Unforgettable Classic. >>> by firesenshi
Every kid in Japan remembers Astroboy. And I wasn't even born then. When I first came to see this, I was in kindergarten and saw this remake. In third grade, they revived this again on TV and I made sure I came home to see it. I still remember my favorite episode about a mighty robot that was created to destroy the world's seven greatest robots, Astroboy included. That episode was indeed so great to detail the differences in their horse power, speed, kind of metal used, their purpose and creator. Wow! The battle scenes on that one were excellent! Astroboy was a small robot compared to that big mighty black one. But the tactics employed as shown in this anime were so great, I think this is the anime that made me love the mecha genre (where my favorite, Gundam Wing, also belongs to).

And this, my friends, was Ozamu Tezuka's vision in 1963! How great he created a universe where robots and humans lived together and a dire threat of robots either as our ally or greatest competition was done by Tezuka 30 years before Steven Spielberg even launched his movie called A.I.. That alone made Tezuka a visionary.

The art here is trademark Ozamu Tezuka. But very well done. Can you imagine the mecha designs here were created in 1980? The stories here are engaging as well. You will emphatize with Astroboy's struggle and laugh at Uran's antics. More importantly, this anime is totally WHOLESOME! There are many ways why this remains a classic and why, if you really love anime, must see this heckuva legend that made anime the leading pop culture it is today.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 9; Story 9; Characters 9; Sounds 9