Astro Boy (アストロボーイ・鉄腕アトム) is a Japanese anime television series, based on Osamu Tezuka's manga series of the same name. Produced by Tezuka Productions, Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, Dentsu, Animax and Fuji Television, it was directed by Kazuya Konaka, with Marc Handler as the story editor, Shinji Seya designing the characters, Shinji Aramaki and Takeshi Takakura designing the mechanical elements, Keiichirō Mochizuki serving as chief animation director, and Takashi Yoshimatsu composing the music. The anime was created to celebrate the birthdate of Atom/Astro Boy, as well as the 40th anniversary of the original TV series. It kept the same classic art style as the original manga and anime, but was renewed and modernized with more lush, high-quality, near-theatrical animation and visuals, combining the playfulness of the early anime with the darker, more serious and dramatic science fiction themes of the manga and the 1980 series. The anime was broadcast in Japan on Animax and Fuji TV from April 6, 2003, to March 28, 2004, every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:00 JST, for a total of 50 episodes, and it was also aired outside of Japan on Kids' WB in the United States and other local broadcasters overseas.

Synopsis

The show is set in 2003, where a variety of robots have been developed around the world and have begun working at the humans' beck and call, but are nothing more than machines that move on command. In the midst of this, in Metro City, the renowned Dr. Tenma disappears after trying to construct an AI robot with a "heart." Professor Ochanomizu replaces Tenma as head of the Ministry of Science and discovers a boy-like robot and brings it to life and names him Atom (Astro). He soon discovers he can fly via rocket boosters in his hands and feet, and has superhuman strength and other such abilities, and must deal with robots and villainous robot-hating humans who threaten his friends, fellow robots and Metro City, becoming a hero in the process. Atom quickly learns he is a robotic duplicate of Dr. Tenma's dead son Tobio Tenma, and was shut down after seeing how discarded robots were dealt with by his father, an incident similar to what Tobio experienced before dying. A new arc occurs with the introduction of the Blue Knight, a gallant robot who starts a campaign to free all robots from mankind. Another recurring character, Acetylene Lamp, goes slowly paranoid about the destruction of all robots and becomes a major antagonist of the series. In the final episodes, the Blue Knight declares a new nation for robots, Robotania, located on Antarctica. Lamp deceives the public into believing a house robot pushed a young girl down a flight of stairs, and the girl's father, Duke Red, declares war on Robotania. Most of the core cast becomes involved in the goal to stop the war between man and machine, until Atom convinces the Blue Knight that humans and robots can be friends. The Blue Knight departs Earth on Robotania, which is revealed to be a spacecraft. However, Lamp, who is still paranoid (despite the fact the robots have stopped their crusade against humanity), tries to destroy the spacecraft with a missile, but Atom blocks the attack and is seemingly taken offline. Dr. Tenma manages to restore Atom, but erases his memories as Atom so that he can remain "Tobio" forever. Eventually, his memories are restored by his friends from school and his sister, Uran. In one final attempt to reclaim his lost son, Dr. Tenma goes to a laboratory in the Ministry of Science and tries to convince Atom to join him in ruling the world but the latter refuses. Dr. Tenma tries to kill himself to end his suffering, but Atom embraces and forgives him, causing Dr. Tenma to break down and embrace his son. Dr. Ochanomizu and the robotic police come to the rescue, and Dr. Tenma is willingly arrested and sent to prison. In the end, humans and robots start happily fresh and come closer together, and Atom appears to shed tears at the conclusion of the series.

Characters

Astro's Family

Allies

Rivals

Antagonists

Production

The anime was created to commemorate Atom's birthday, April 7, 2003, as established in the original story. Therefore, the broadcast start date was also set to April 2003. The base of the series is different from the original Astro Boy, as it is more of an epic drama with various episodes depicting the coexistence, confrontation, all-out conflict, and reconciliation between robots and humans in a grounded and serious way. The series has a strong retro-futuristic style that is closer to American cartoons than Japanese animation, and some episodes were written by American scriptwriters. Kazuya Konaka, the director of the anime, testified that the American side had a different perception of Astro Boy as a bright and cheerful action-adventure in black-and-white animation, and had doubts about a story with a serious theme like the original. The series is also a parent-child drama between Dr. Tenma and Atom, and there are several episodes related to other parent-child and pseudo-parent-child relationships. In terms of the setting, many aspects were drastically changed for the family audience. Shinya Owada, who plays Dr. Tenma, was a fan of Astro Boy. Although the series was produced in a 16:9 aspect ratio, it was broadcast in 13:9 at the request of the TV station. The director, Kazuya Konaka, was a live-action director with no experience in animation, but he was hired because he had directed the 1996 live-action direct-to-video Black Jack film. Although Konaka was unsure about participating in an animated series, he decided to take part in the project because it was a chance to visualize Tezuka's representative work, and he said that he was able to produce the anime with the support of the excellent staff, including animation director Keiichirō Mochizuki. Many of the scriptwriters on the Japanese side worked on the Heisei Ultra series, in which Konaka also participated, but Konaka said that the scriptwriters were a natural group of people from the generation who had a strong attachment to Tezuka's works, and that Hirotoshi Kobayashi and Sadayuki Murai had known each other from outside the Ultra Series. Tezuka Productions wanted to keep the series on 35mm film, while Konaka wanted to use 3DCG, so they stuck to the already dwindling cel production method with a mix of 70% traditional and 30% digital animation. Mari Shimizu, who had been the voice of Atom since the first anime, gave up the role on April 6, 2003, the day the first episode aired, so Makoto Tsumura took over the voice for this series. Each episode cost more than $250,000.

Home media

In North America, Astro Boy was released on DVD in one single box set by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in its United States edited form. On May 5, 2015, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released the United States edited complete series on DVD in Region 1. On May 2, 2019, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released the series yet again with different cover art and a slipcover.

Other media

Manga

The anime was adapted into a manga illustrated by Akira Himekawa that ran in the March–July 2003 issues of Shogakukan's Shōgaku Gonensei, the April–May 2003 issues of Shōgaku Rokunensei, and the April–August 2003 issues of Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic. Shogakukan later compiled the series into three tankōbon volumes. It was also released in English in Singapore by Chuang Yi.

Video games

Two video games based on the 2003 TV series were released by Sega. Astro Boy: Omega Factor is a beat 'em up video game developed by Treasure Co. Ltd for the Game Boy Advance receiving release worldwide between 2003 and 2005. An action video game, simply titled Astro Boy, was developed by Sonic Team and released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004 in Japan and North America and in 2005 in Europe.

Theatrical works

Osamu Tezuka Animation Theater special episodes

Three original theatrical movies were shown exclusively at the 300-inch theater in the Kyōto Station building's "Kyoto Osamu Tezuka World" until its closure on January 16, 2011. All three films lasted 20 minutes and 30 seconds and were directed by Osamu Dezaki, with Mayumi Morita writing the scripts, Masayoshi Nishida serving as animation director, and Masami Saitō serving as art director.

Science Museum screenings

Planetarium screenings

IMAX screenings

Reception

The 2003 version of Astro Boy was extremely well reviewed by Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network, receiving a grade of A+ in every category and comments of, "It's perfect." The series won the award for best work in the Television Category at the 2004 Tokyo International Anime Fair.