Astro Boy

This cartoon show was typical of the many 1960's cartoon shows that came from the time that tried to be appealing to both children and adults.

When I was young, I was amazed by the cool robots and monsters.

When I saw it later, I was surprised by the sophisticated themes that were presented under the science fiction cartoon genre. Some themes were runaway technology; obedience to morality and programming; science can lead to both good and bad.

Time warp: apparently a tv show back in the 1960's only had 30 seconds of commercials per half hour!

I've listened to the theme song many times and can never be sure of the lyrics. One particular line has never sat well with me. Everywhere I look it says "fighting monsters high in the sky" but it doesn't sound like that to me. The closest I've come up with is "fighting monsters flying the skies".

WE recall seeing this ASTRO BOY (Japanese/NBC Distribution, 1963-66)* the first time on our local NBC Station. This was WNBQ, Channel 5 here in Chicago. This station, which would soon change its call letters to WMAQ in order to conform with the flagship & charter member NBC Radio station, aired the ASTROBOY Episodes on Sunday Mornings, at about 10:00 A.M.; which seemed to be an odd hour for a first-run series, animated or not.

THERE CERTAINLY must have been a lot lost in the translation; for we were not certain of this little android's origin nor what was his mission here on earth. The opening montage of scenes depicts the robot-child flying, punching and otherwise seemingly rendering his enemies harmless, helpless and hog-tied. All of these tightly edited highlight scenes were performed without any dialogue with a sound track that played an ASTROBOY Theme Song being rendered energetically by what is obviously a juvenile choral group and a robustly played organ.

AS WE recall little ASTROBOY engaged in some grown-up sized struggles with some nasty, evil and powerful villain-opponents. His actions and demeanor bore a strong resemblance to that of the American Comic Book Super Heroes; who had been doing their thing in the 4 Color printed pages of the Comics Magazines (aka Comic Books or even "Joke Books" in some circles) for well over a Quarter Century by this time. Their style of action & adventure had also been eagerly adapted to the airwaves in Radio and TV Series and Motion Picture Serials & Features.

BUT THIS character still seemed to be very different. Our instincts told our still less experienced and (even) innocent naivety that there was something distinctly alien or foreign about this production. The rather obvious post synchronized dubbing of the English dialogue adds to the highly unique overall look and feel of the adventures. The talk of the characters seems to be somewhat out of synch with their movements; which further adds to giving it a surreal and dream-like appearance.

IN THE EPISODES we recall, the little Android's 'life'** and activities were all played out under the auspices of a brilliant scientist-inventor. (What else didja expect, Schultz?) As his mentor, Professor Elephant provided counsel and guidance; but little in the way of family, love or true understanding. The kindly, but stern professor apparently got his moniker from his physical appearance.

IN MUCH the same manner as that followed so successfully by Chester Gould with his immortal comic strip, DICK TRACY (Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, 1931-Present), the creative team behind young ASTROBOY'S supporting characters endowed them with names highly descriptive of their physical appearances. Ergo, as we might expect, Professor Elephant possessed a magnificent proboscis. His entire design, as were all characters in the series, was most definitely done in a cartoony style. The good Professor's entire look was sort of like a mixture of caricatures of W.C. Fields, veteran character Actor Maurice Cass and the proverbial "Rolly-Polly Policeman".

THIS SERIES was the first example of Japanese Animation that we ever saw. No doubt it was more than likely the same for most of our readers and viewers of the mid 1960's. The term "JAPANIMATION" certainly had not been coined at this point in time and ASTROBOY surely was a most memorable trail blazer for the genre in the U.S., U.K. and the rest of the Western Civilized World. While we don't pretend to have understood it, either then or even now, we had a bizarre attraction for its unique stories and method of rendering same.

IN short, we liked it. Both Schultz and I recommend it; so give it a try if you get the opportunity.

NOTE: * The Japanese name for the little guy was literally ATOM BOY; which was probably considered to be inappropriate for viewing for Americans. (Or some such silly-assed reasoning!)

NOTE: ** An Android is defined as an Automotan (Robot) with a human-like and realistic appearance.

POODLE SCHNITZ!!

I was eight years old when this originally aired in the U. S. It very much resonated with me. Of course, I loved any kind of science fiction at that age, and still have a fondness for it, although I'm of course much more discriminating now. The show was set in the then far off year of 2000. Like many other such depictions, it was quite optimistic about what things would be like. Future society was depicted as full of automation (robots were commonplace), flying cars, space travel, an overall high level of prosperity, etc., which of course instantly appealed to me, but what really captured my imagination was the character of Astro Boy himself. He was immensely powerful and could fly, but he was also smart, heroic, kind, sensitive, and caring. He was my ideal of what a boy should be, and it didn't matter that he was a robot. The show advocated giving robots rights as sentient beings. I remember writing an essay in school about him.

Back then, I paid no attention to the low frame rate or the crudeness of the animation, and in retrospect, they never were what mattered. What mattered was the sense of wonder and thrills and empathy for a character who was superhuman, but wanted love just as any human does.

I'm a little disappointed with the comments here. The negative comments seem to propose that the only quality that's important in a series is that it's well-animated and high-budget. This is not a Disney cartoon. This is, however, groundbreaking for Japan as it was the very first televised anime. The animation is not quality, but the art style is simplistically beautiful. What's honestly great about Mighty Atom AKA Astro Boy is the writing. The style may be outdated, but the messages are timeless and interesting to both kids an adults. Most of the plots of the show come from the original manga written by Tezuka. Tezuka is the god of manga and anime, without him neither would exist as it does today. Astro Boy was one of his best works, and certainly his most popular, but he also wrote fiction for adults and explored every genre imaginable. He even wrote an award-winning manga about Hitler. Personally I would recommend reading both Astro Boy and Phoenix, his other greatest work. Note that I am not speaking from nostalgia, nor am I Japanese. I found the works of Tezuka as an adult and appreciate him for both his adult and children's works.