Astro Boy (2003 TV series)

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Astro Boy

Astro Boy
鉄腕アトム
(Astro Boy: Tetsuwan Atomu)
Genre Action, Adventure, Science fiction
TV anime
Director Kazuya Konaka
Studio Tezuka Productions
Network Flag of Japan Animax, Fuji TV
Flag of Singapore Flag of India Flag of Thailand Flag of Hong Kong Flag of the Republic of China Animax
Flag of Canada YTV
Flag of the United States Kids' WB, Cartoon Network
Flag of Portugal TVI
Flag of Bulgaria Nova TV
Flag of the United Kingdom BBC2, CBBC
Flag of Malaysia TV3
Flag of Brazil Cartoon Network
Flag of the Philippines ABS-CBN, Hero TV
Original run 6 April 2003 – 21 March 2004
Episodes 50[1]
Related works

Astro Boy (アストロボーイ・鉄腕アトム Asutoro Bōi Tetsuwan Atomu?, lit. "Astro Boy: Mighty Atom") is a remake of the 1960s anime series of the same name created by Osamu Tezuka, which was produced by his company, Tezuka Productions, and the anime television network, Animax, who have broadcast the series across its respective networks worldwide, including Japan, Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and other regions.

In 2003, a new Astro Boy anime series was created to celebrate the birth date of Astro Boy (as well as the 40th anniversary of the 1963 series). Under the original English name (instead of Tetsuwan Atom), it kept the same classic art style as the original Astro Boy manga and anime, but was revisioned and modernized with more lush, high-quality, near-theatrical animation and visuals. It combined the playfulness of the early anime with the darker, more serious and dramatic Science Fiction themes of the manga and the '80s anime. The anime broadcasted in Japan (on the same date as Astro's birth in the manga, April 7, 2003) across Animax and Fuji Television, with lots of fanfare. It was directed by Kazuya Konaka and written by Chiaki J. Konaka.

Though many episodes of the series can be regarded as "free-standing" in as much as they don't have anything to do with the series major story arcs, the 2003 series can be regarded as having a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. Although the series appears to initially have two main plotlines (Dr. Tenma's eventual plans for Astro to evolve and another plotline about robot rights), these two story arcs dovetail toward the end of the series.

The show was eventually picked up by Sony Pictures Entertainment. However, Kids' WB picked up the broadcasting rights and began airing the show in the U.S. in early 2004. Fans balked at the dub, as the original music score, composed by Takashi Yoshimatsu, was changed and the show was given an uneven scheduling. It was bounced back and forth between Kids WB and Cartoon Network until it was eventually cancelled. TOM, the host of Toonami, the block that aired the show on the Cartoon Network even made a joke during his review of the video game tie in, Astro Boy: Omega Factor that "Astro has no love here in the States." This could easily be viewed as Williams Street's view of the situation as anime fans with their hands tied by red tape in regards to the situation of being allowed to air the show.

The entire series is currently available on DVD in one single boxset. However, the US set is not fully complete, with one episode in the set being omitted called "Eternal Boy" and replaced with a clip show episode. This is believed to be because the episode features a character very much akin to Disney's version of Peter Pan, which if it had been included, may have caused copyright issues with Disney. [Although this has not been substantiated by anyone actually involved with the program.] The order of episodes on the set is the syndication-released order, which is different from the Japanese order, evidenced by characters such as Astro's sister, Zoran, showing up in episodes before they were introduced. This DVD set also has a short feature about the show's development that heavily hints at pressure put on the anime developers by Sony to make Astro more of a hero than a boy. This is reflected in the dub as scenes where Astro has emotional moments or where he is acting childlike are cut or the script is changed to Astro acting with a more "cooler" or heroic attitude. That said, the later episodes of the dub do follow along the same lines of the Japanese script.

The series, however, had more success in the UK where it was picked up by the BBC for its children's block and digital only Children's channel from 2003 to 2006. The show's first run lasted about as long as the US one (up to the 2-part episode featuring Pluto) after which the BBC stopped airing new episodes. This may be because (as one presenter commented after an episode) Astro was a darker show compared to the other cartoons CBBC aired (even in its edited state). The western dub has never been aired fully on TV in the US. Despite how well Astro may have fared in the UK airing and DVDs being advertised, the series has not been released on DVD in the UK. Interestingly enough, CBBC finished airing recently unaired episodes of Astro Boy, thus completing the entire series in the UK, making Astro Boy one of the rare Anime that airs in the UK in its entirety while not being so in the United States.

The series was also a success with Arabic speaking viewers when it aired on MBC 3 several times along another anime remake that faced the same fate in America, Cyborg 009.

A trailer from 2001 made for this series when it was in development presented several major differences from the final series: different designs for characters such as Atlas, the characters speaking in English (with voices completely different from the voices that would eventually end up in the US dub) and animation not found in the final series.

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] English dub cast

[edit] Theme songs

[edit] (Japan)

Openings

  1. "True Blue" by Zone
  2. "Now or Never" by Chemistry meets M-flo

Ending

  1. "Boy's Heart" by Fujii Fumiya
  2. "Tetsuwan Atomu" (A remixed version of the 60's series' theme song.)

[edit] (U.S.)

Opening

  • "Astro Boy Theme" by William Anderson

[edit] (Taiwan)

Opening

  • "True Blue" by Rainie Yang, cover version of the Japanese one

[edit] (Hong Kong)

  • "満天飛" by Candy Lo, Cantonese cover version of "True Blue"

[edit] 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."[2] The series has been received with mix reviews by most of the large fan-base community of Tezuka. despite of the larger darker tones in the second arc and the overall changes made to the Western dub it has been criticized for not having the same optimistic tone of the color 80's version of the series and eliminating several or changing the personalities of several major characters.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Astro Boy (2003 TV series) (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed on 2007-06-25.
  2. ^ Bertschy, Zac (2003-06-06). Astro Boy (2003) review. Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links