Astro Boy (1980 TV series)

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Astro Boy
Tetsuwan Atomu (Mighty Atom)
Genre	Adventure, Mecha, Science Fiction, Shounen
TV anime
Directed by	Noburo Ishiguro
Studio	Tezuka Productions DiC Entertainment
Network	NTV RJTV 29 (1992) RPN (1984) Hero TV (2006) NBC (1981-1986), ABC (1986)
Original run	1 October 1980 – 23 December 1981
No. of episodes	52
Related works
Astro Boy (1960) Astro Boy (2003)

Astro Boy is a remake of the 1960s anime series Astro Boy; both series are adapted from the manga series by Osamu Tezuka.

This series, which first aired during the 1980's, placed more focus on Astro's robotic skills--and had a somewhat darker storyline--than the previous incarnation of the series. While mostly light-hearted, and intended for general audiences, the series could be quite sombre and sad at times. It wasn't uncommon for robots or human characters to suffer for their actions or the misdeeds of others. During the course of the series, Astro gained a robotic mother, father, and sister. The scripts of this version were largely written by Osamu Tezuka, although other writers were also involved. The story introduced Astro's evil brother Atlas, who was created from stolen blueprints by Count Walpurgis, a European arms manufacturer.

Characters' personalities in this series are somewhat different from other versions of the series. Astro himself comes across as much more child-like and innocent than his counterpart from the 2003 series; he seems quite unsure of himself at first, but gains confidence with time.

The series ran for 52 episodes (edited down to 51 episodes for the English versions) and did not have a proper ending (although the final episode in the Japanese run, "Astro's First Love", featured a special introduction by Osamu Tezuka). The US dub, while staying true to the original Japanese version, aired the episodes in a different order from the Japanese version.

There are two different English language dubs: one version which was shown in the US and Australia, and another version for audiences in Canada. In the Canadian version (which was also available in French), most of the characters had different names from their American counterparts. (Uran, for example, was named "Sarah", and Dr. Boynton was named "Professor Balthus".) Due to laws which limited advertising on children's programming, the Canadian versions featured extra, "filler" material in every episode: a pre-title sequence which recapped Astro's origin, and a bizarre epilogue wherein Astro would give a brief "report" about that episode's adventure. (The report would invariably contain a minor, intentional error about the story, and a narrator would encourage the viewers to write down Astro's mistake, and compare answers with their friends.)

The US version of the 1980 series has since been released on DVD by Madman Entertainment and Anchor Bay, although there are differences between the Madman and Anchor Bay sets. Madman's set contains more deleted scenes, as well as the first 2 episodes, unedited (in Japanese with English subtitles). The Anchor Bay set has a newly-edited Japanese language track to go with the U.S. version of the first episode.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 2.1 Astro Boy 2.2 Dr. Boynton 2.3 Dr. Elefun 2.4 Daddy Walrus 2.5 Uran 2.6 Atlas 2.7 Jump 3 Episodes 3.1 The Lost Episode 3.2 List of Episodes 4 Music 4.1 Astro Boy opening theme (English version) 4.2 Uran's theme (Insert) 4.3 Uran's theme ("Uran and Uran" version; Insert) 4.4 Astro Boy closing theme (English version) 5 External links 6 Notes

[edit] Plot

In the future, the Head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma (Dr. Boynton in the official Tezuka Prod./NTV-coordinated English dub; Dr. Balthus in the Canadian dub), is attempting to create a robot with a soul, capable of expressing human emotions. After several failed attempts, his son, Tobio (Toby in English), suggests that his father should create a "boy robot". Doctor Tenma thinks it's a great idea and starts work on it.

While working on the robot, Tobio is killed in a car crash and Doctor Tenma is ordered to stop work on the project by the government. He secretly continues and remakes the robot in the image of his dead son Tobio. During the building of the new robotic Tobo, the plans for the Robot are stolen by Skunk for an arms dealer and evil genius, Count Walpurgis. He uses these plans to build a robot called Atlas.

After activating the robot Tobio. Tenma treats the robot like his child right away and takes it back to his home. It soon becomes apparent that robot Tobio struggles to have control over his strength, after a disastrous meal on a cruise Tenma denounces the robot as his son. While brooding the robot signs himself away to a man called "Hamegg" who runs a robotic circus. He's treated badly by "Hamegg" however he is later saved by Hamegg's assistant, Kathy and Doctor Elefun, an inventor (Prof. Peabody in the Canadian dub) that takes Tenma's place as head of Ministry of Science after Tenma goes mysteriously missing.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Astro Boy

Astro has a strong sense of morality and is always gentle and kind towards others. Astro is a super powered robot, with seven secret super powers^[1] designed to look exactly like Toby, the son of his creator. Dr. Boynton initially treated Astro like a real boy as a replacement for his son who died in a car accident. However, Astro Boy was clumsy from an inability to control his strength. After being rejected by Dr. Boynton, Astro joins Hameggs' Robot Circus, where he learns to control his powers, and meets Dr. Elefun.

Through out the series, Atlas attempts to persuade Astro to help Atlas conquer the world. By design, both Astro and Atlas were created from the same blueprints, and so are considered to be brothers. However, Astro refuses to help Atlas in his quest for world domination.

[edit] Dr. Boynton

After several robot design failures, Dr. Boynton created Astro Boy from a suggestion from his son, Toby. Dr. Boynton zealously worked on creating a robot that would be able to act and behave like a real human. In his zealous search to obtain his goal, Dr. Boynton neglected Toby, forgetting his promise to take Toby to the amusement park. As a result, Toby decides to go on his own and crashes the robot car, dying from the accident.

Dr. Boynton continues to work on the boy robot, and when the project finally reaches completion calls the robot Toby, after his son. However, Toby's (Astro) inability to control his own strength begins to infuriate Dr. Boynton, and while on a cruise Dr. Boynton angrily disowns Toby. Dr. Boynton is last seen mournfully calling out for Toby, and is not seen through the remainder of the series.^[2]

Dr. Boynton is hardly featured at all in this version of the series. It is implied at the end of the second Episode (third in the Japanese version) that Boynton died while Astro was away being forced to work in Hamegg's circus.

[edit] Dr. Elefun

Succeeding Dr. Boynton as Minister of Science, Dr. Elefun rescues Astro Boy from Hameggs' Robot Circus. Dr. Elefun is a robot rights advocate and creates the "Robot's Bill of Rights" which allows robots to be of equal status of humans. He often acts as a surrogate father for Astro Boy, providing Astro Boy with advice and teaching him about the world. In addition, Dr. Elefun provides Astro Boy with a family, creating for him a mother, father, and finally a little sister, Uran.

[edit] Daddy Walrus

Daddy Walrus is Astro's Teacher. He is a judo expert, a private eye, and sometimes a flower arranger and always loves the smell of action. His real name is Albert Duncan.

[edit] Uran

Uran is Astro's little sister. She was "born" on New Years Day, built by Dr. Elefun as a gift to Astro. She has half the horsepower of her brother but is quite powerful. Uran is a cute little girl and uses this to her advantage, however her personality is more that of a tomboy.

Uran isn't as wise as her older brother is and sometimes her naive personality gets her into trouble. Though Uran's decisions are sometimes bad, she doesn't realise the consequences of some of her actions until they happen. Despite this Uran is generally a good girl and gets on fairly well with her brother Astro.

[edit] Atlas

Astro's Brother and arch enemy. Atlas was developed by Walpurgis after he obtained Astros original design plans through Skunk. He was designed with a similar child like look to Astro originally and was known as "Atlas". Walpur guiss and Skunk planned to use him to steal things however they became fustrated when Atlas stole recipts instead of cash. After this Walpur guiss installed an Omega Factor into Atlas that allowed him to defy the robot laws. After attacking Walpur guiss and Skunk for destroying Livian and being heavily damaged himself, he rebuilt his own body and Livian's, along with a horse and a special weapon.

The new Atlas and Livian are adult in appearance. Over the course of the series, Atlas gained a floating crystal castle and delt with his creator and Skunk again. In his second-to-last episode of the series, Atlas learns from Livian that Astro is his brother.

Atlas' character is similar to that of the Blue Knight in the 2003 series--he often attempts to recruit Astro in his plans to defeat the humans.

[edit] Jump

Jump was the pet dog of Toby, an off white coloured dog with brown batches. Jump was loyal to his master and rushed to the scene after Toby crashed the car and died. When Astro was introduced to Jump originally Jump was scared and didn't like him.

It's unknown how Dr. Elefun found him but when Astro visits his new home and parents for the first time, Jump is also with them. Jump has grown to like Astro and his family. Though Uran doesn't have the same amount of respect for him that Astro has.

[edit] Episodes

Though there is a rough story progression throughout the series, it need not necessarily be watched in order, something reflected by the fact that the English broadcast order was significantly different from the original Japanese broadcast order. Some scenes were also cut for the English version, usually because of violence.

[edit] The Lost Episode

For unexplained reasons, the first two episodes of the Japanese series were edited into one for English language broadcast. Most material omitted related to the birth of Atlas, Astro's brother-nemesis. This made for a confusing situation for English-speaking viewers, as some of these events were alluded to in later episodes.

The two episodes are available in their unaltered state on the Madman Entertainment DVD release, though the first exists in Japanese with English subtitles only.

[edit] List of Episodes

1. The Birth Of Astro
2. Robot Circus
3. Save the Classmate!
4. Atlas Lives Again
5. Robot Land
6. Frankenstein
7. The Red Cat
8. The Crystal of the Desert
9. The White Planet
10. The Robot President
11. Goliath's Head
12. The Light-Ray Robot
13. Uran the Tomboy
14. Robio and Robiette
15. Astro Fights Aliens
16. Save the Carolina 3!
17. The Rainbow Comet
18. The Death Balloon
19. The Transformation Robot
20. The Wreck of the Titan
21. The Liar Robot
22. The Girl from Alsoar
23. The Greatest Robot in the World: Part 1
24. The Greatest Robot in the World: Part 2
25. The Robot Vikings
26. The Time Machine
27. The Robot Stuntman
28. The Great Meltdown
29. Uran's Twin#
30. Speeding Through the Storm!
31. The Return of Cleopatra
32. The Runaway Subway Train
33. The Baby Elephant Pook
34. The Secret of Bee City
35. The Monster of Clarken
36. Lilly On Peligro Island
37. The Anti-Proton Gun
38. The Man Made Solar Sphere
39. Blackie Young
40. The Genie from Outer Space
41. The Robots Nobody Wanted
42. Atlas Forever
43. The Snow Leopard
44. Uran's Quest
45. Outer Space Port R-45
46. The Hijacked Airship!
47. The Human-Faced Rock
48. Uran Falls In Love
49. The World of Odin
50. The Secret of the Mayas
51. Astro's First Love

[edit] Music

[edit] Astro Boy opening theme (English version)

Soaring high in the sky

He may be small, but only in size.

Astro Boy, Astro Boy

He is brave and gentle and wise.

Stronger than all the rest

This mighty robot will pass the test

Oh we'll endear him, oh we'll cheer him

The amazing Astro Boy.

When you need someone strong

Our robot friend is there before long.

Astro Boy, Astro Boy

He will try to right any wrong.

When there's danger nearby

No matter who, what, where, when or why

He will defend us. He'll befriend us

The amazing Astro Boy.

[edit] Uran's theme (Insert)

A tomboy, maybe

More Fresh than wind

Your smiles are so innocent

Uran

Uran

Everybody's calling you

Prettier than a flower

More fresh than wind

Uran when you're around

Everything is fun

You love your Brother Astro

Love to sing

Love to dream

Just like an angel, you are Uran

Everyone's calling you

[edit] Uran's theme ("Uran and Uran" version; Insert)

A tomboy I may be

My smile is so innocent

(Humph!)

Uran

Uran

I'm the real one

(Humph.)

Prettier then a flower

More fresh then the wind

Uran you're...

My fake.

Even Brother Astro

Can't tell us apart

But to me

It's so obvious

Just like two angels, Uran

But I'm definitely the real Uran

[edit] Astro Boy closing theme (English version)

Come and join us in our melody

A song of happiness for you and me

Dream of joys, sing about a boy

Name of hero Astro Boy.

Come and join us in our fantasy

We can all be heroes you and me

Dream of joys, sing about a boy

Name of hero Astro Boy.

Trying not to wait so long

So tune in for a fight for life

Strong as steel and with a heart of gold

Dream of love and all your heartfelt voices will be heard

Sharing dreams and bringing joy for all.

[edit] External links

(English) http://www.astro-boy.net/

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Astro Boy: The Greatest Robot in the World - Part 1
2. ^ Astro Boy: The Birth of Astro Boy