Cybot Robotchi

A little clarification here: the film released on video as "Robby the Rascal" in the U.S. and elsewhere actually began life in Japan as a TV series called "Cybot Robotchi." ("Robotchi" was Robby's original name.) "Cybot Robotchi" was produced by the Knack studio and originally aired in Japan in 1982-83 (if you have a copy of the U.S. video and look at the box, you'll see a production credit for "Knack Kikaku"). Knack was the same Japanese animation studio that produced the "Little Prince" anime broadcast on Nickelodeon in the early '80s, as well as the later volleyball-themed hit TV series "Attacker You!" (1984), which used some of the same staff including director Kazuyuki Okaseko and writer Hideki Sonoda. The original creators of the series were Ken Ishikawa (of "Getter Robo" fame) and Tomohiro Ando (known for his work on several classic series for Toei Animation, including 1969's "Himitsu no Akko-chan" and 1974's "Majokko Megu-chan"). With all that said, it seems to me that "Robby the Rascal" was actually a compilation of several TV episodes of "Cybot Robotchi," which would explain why the story seemed sort of disjointed to me when I watched the English-dubbed version I rented from my video store. I still have the theme song in my head all these years later... cheesy but catchy. The dubbing, as I recall, was done by Harmony Gold and was quite bad, as was typical in the early/mid-'80s. And keep in mind the show is over two decades old, so the animation hasn't aged well. Still, younger kids should get a kick out of it, and you might try picking up a copy for them if you can find one. It would seem the Taiwanese release referred to on this page was based on the U.S. edit, as I remember characters in the English dub named Upper Decker (Dr. Deco in the original) and Tiffany (who would seem to be the same character as "Tiffah" perhaps?).