Anime of the Childhood #17: Astro Boy (2003 anime series)
アストロボーイ・鉄腕アトム / Asutoro Bōi: Tetsuwan Atomu
Today (or tomorrow, since most of us live in North America as Medium is not headquartered in Japan) is the birthday of the late Osamu Tezuka, the creator of the Astro Boy (“Tetsuwan Atomu” — 鉄腕アトム — lit. “Mighty Atom”) manga series. Back by popular demand, we’re talking about the 2003 remake of Astro Boy! The anime was first aired on Kids’ WB in the United States and on Cartoon Network’s Toonami, including YTV in Canada and CBBC in the United Kingdom.
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.
Synopsis/Characters
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 (2003 version: O’Shay; original and 2009 film: Dr. Packidermus J. Elefun) 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, 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 is 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 primary antagonist of the series. In the final episodes, the Blue Knight declares a new nation for robots, Robotania, located in Antarctica. Lamp deceives the public into believing a house robot pushed a young girl down a flight of stairs (when he did not), 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 spaceship 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 after the series.
The anime series’ characters are:
- Astro (Atom in Japan) is a robot with the world’s best artificial brain and human-like mind. He was developed by the combined efforts of the Ministry of Science, with a huge budget and all the latest technology, and is modeled after Tobio Tenma, the deceased son of Dr. Tenma, his birth father. He lives with Dr. Ochanomizu in his house. Pure, kind-hearted, and with a great sense of justice, he aims to create a world where robots and humans can be friends. He is voiced by Makoto Tsumura (Japanese) and Candi Milo (Mona Marshall in the pilot, Freddie Highmore in the 2009 film adaption) (English).
- Dr. O’Shay (Professor Ochanomizu in Japan) is a robot scientist and director of the Ministry of Science. He is the first to sense the “budding of the mind” in the evolving robots and begins to think that robots need human rights and be friends with humans. He is portrayed as being a bit clumsy and quick to anger, but he is very intelligent and compassionate. He is voiced by Hisashi Katsuta (Japanese) and Wally Wingert (Tony Pope in the pilot, Bill Nighy in the 2009 film adaption) (English).
- Zoran (Uran in Japan) is Astro’s younger sister robot created by Dr. Ochanomizu. She has 50K horsepower strength but cannot fly or use weapons like Astro. She is spoiled and selfish, which sometimes annoys Astro, but she also has a kind heart. She loves Astro as her older brother and is proud of him, but she hates being compared to him. In this series, she can communicate with animals. She does not appear in the 2009 film. She is voiced by Miki Maruyama (Japanese) and Susan Blu (English).
- Alejo (Tamao in Japan) is Astro’s classmate at elementary school who first appears in episode 4. He is a mechanical enthusiast who has converted his air pedalo into a sailing ship. He also loves robots and is proud to have a friend like Astro. He is a hasty and good-natured person. In this series, he wears modern fashion but keeps his trademark round glasses. He is voiced by Motoko Kumai (Japanese) and Lara Jill Miller (English).
- Kennedy (Kenichi in Japan) is Astro’s classmate at elementary school who first appears in episode 4. He is small in stature, but is very clever and is often the leader of the group. He is not prejudiced against Astro as a robot and treats him like a human being. He is considerate of Astro’s loneliness due to his being a robot and tries to let him participate in competitions such as sports day, in which Astro is not allowed to take part. His dream is to become a soccer player. In this series, his skin has been updated to be darker, reminiscent of Latin or African descent. He is voiced by Yūko Satō (Japanese) and Candi Milo (English).
- Abercrombie (Shibugaki in Japan) is Astro’s classmate at elementary school who first appears in episode 4. Because of his father’s influence, he thinks of robots as machines that work for humans and is harsh towards Astro at first, but when Astro tries to help him, he changes his mind and they become close. He is a large man, but surprisingly timid, straightforward, and likable. In this series, his face has been drastically redesigned to look white, with blond hair, blue eyes, freckles, and buck teeth. Except for the first time, he doesn’t treat Astro badly like in the original work. He is voiced by Susumu Chiba (Japanese) and Sandy Martin (English).
- Dr. Tenma is a genius robot scientist and former director of the Ministry of Science. He is also the creator of Astro and the main antagonist of this series. He is arrogant, self-centered, and extremely misanthropic, and is described as “loving no one” not only by Astro but also by his late son, Tobio. When he was the Director General of the Ministry of Science, he started to develop an intelligent robot to replace Tobio, who died in an accident and created Astro, but as Astro’s mind gradually grew, he began to rebel against him. As a result, he dares to take Astro to Plant 7, which processes discarded robots, to test him. As a result, Astro gets angry at the sight of discarded robots and destroys the plant. He is voiced by Shinya Owada (Yugo Takahashi for young Dr. Tenma) (Japanese) and Dorian Harewood (Peter Lurie in the pilot) (English).
- Cora is a teenage girl (pictured below) who is the leader of the orphans, and Astro’s love interest who only appears in the 2009 film adaption. She is voiced by Kristin Bell (English) and Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese) and was specifically made for the 2009 film adaption and has not made any other appearances since.
I didn’t watch much of the anime series back then (though it won the award for best work in the Television Category at the 2004 (now-defunct) Tokyo International Anime Fair), but I did watch the film on Netflix, but not in the theaters originally. Makoto Tezuka, the partial owner of Tezuka Productions (and the son of Osamu Tezuka), helped in releasing the posthumous works of his father.
The 2009 film adaption received generally mixed reviews from film critics, but was a financial failure, earning US$42 million worldwide against its US$65 million budget. As a result of the film’s poor performance, Imagi Animation Studios, the film’s producer located in Hong Kong, was shut down on February 5, 2010, and as a result, it became the final film produced by the studio. The film was a flop in Japan, appearing at the bottom of the opening week’s Top 10 rankings and earning only US$328,457. Conversely, the film was very successful in China, breaking a box-office record for a CGI animated film. The film’s website, formerly located at http://www.astroboy-themovie.com/ (North America), is no longer available and can only be accessed through the Wayback Machine (Warning: Flash Player is not working anymore, so don’t forget to download Ruffle if you have Chrome or Firefox).
That wraps up the Anime of the Childhood, and also, happy heavenly birthday to Osamu Tezuka.
