Thoughts on the Japanese 2003 Astro Boy series?

[GreenDarthVader]

I'm about half way through, and I feel pretty meh. A lot of the earlier episodes just didn't feel like Astro Boy episodes to me, but by the time you get to the middle, they get better. Some even feel like they could have been good Astro Boy stories but then had a happy ending tacked on or some filler in the middle that wasn't nesssiary (Best example of this: the episode with the Robot who could turn invisible)
As to the treatment of characters, Atlas... WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH YOU!? NOW U JUST SOME PUNK NOSED KID! The "real" Atlus in here is the blue knight who takes up a similar antagonist with Astro while working with him. I thought they did well with Skunk (Even if his laugh is still nowhere near as good as the 80s ).
Favorite episode so far: The one with the kid raised by robots. THAT sounded like an Astro Boy story, and the ending is... kinda depressing... but not really.
Least Favorite: The giant tomato farm episode. Filled with characters making stupid decisions. Also not a fan of the retelling of Pluto, especially (though I admit this might be the dubs fault) the changing of the moral from "Fighting is bad" to "you must have something WORTH FIGHTING FOOOOOOOR" (Sorry, megaman zero flashback )
The voice acting is ok, but some repeat voice acting gets on my nerves... which is weird because I love the 80s Astro and that had a TON of repeat voice acting.
I really should finish it though... Thanks for reminding me.

[Toshio]

Actually, we are talking about the japanese series Tetsuwan Atom and not the american version^^'

But, I have to disagree with you.

Atlas from 1980s was merged with Blue Knight, so he don't had his own personality.
In note, the Blue Knight himself also appeared in the 1963 series several episodes after Atla's demise.

So, it was necessary to revamp Atlas' backstory who turned the same as Atom:
Originally a lonely boy whose father mainly cared about the work than his own son.
Following the lack of love and bad company, Daichi also died in an accident and a robot under his image was created.

As for Pluto, I also need to disagree with you...
The issue was not that "fighting is bad", but Pluto don't knew the true meaning of living and thought that just fighting for the sake of fighting and obeying orders was a way of life.

But as side result, he was not able to know the true benefits of living like enjoying happiness, having friends and following his own ideals.

Nobody should bindly follow orders and specially injust orders like hurting others for a stupid goal like becoming the greatest of all.

If a man struggle just to be the best of everything and cast everything aside including, friendship, compassion and kindness, then he'll lose focus.

The Japanese version had a much wider cast of voices than the Astro Boy 2003 version.

For example, Katari and Skunk were not voiced by the same voice actor.

[racoonangel]

well I know I enjoyed the english dub because that was the first serin I saw of astro boy, but I sure that the original japanese one has some advantages over the dub

[Toshio]

well I know I enjoyed the english dub because that was the first serin I saw of astro boy, but I sure that the original japanese one has some advantages over the dub

It's sad that few know the original japanese series.

Several episodes have a much stronger emotional value in their real format.
Specially episode 14 "Great Micro Adventure"^^
The way which Uran express her true feeling can make anyone break in tears.

I was thinking about the episode robot boy, there is a scene of the japanese episode which the boy who liked to pretend to be a robot was showing cards of powerful robot models including Pluto.

It was cut-off from the dub, sadly...

Also, the mother of that boy was much more expressive in Tetsuwan Atom 2003 if compared to the brazilian dub of Astro Boy 2003 series.

It was like the actress was not even trying to play the role in the brazilian dub.

Here, she had the same voice of Epsilon, but don't made real effort to play that character.

Also, the scene which Dr. Tenma cries over Tobio's dead body was seem in Astro Boy 2004 for PS2.

Which enforce the fact the dub can not taken seriously as a canon, regardless if the PS2 game had a deconstruction story if compared to the original japanese series.

It was quite troublesome omitting the truth about Daichi's real background in the american dub.

After all in the real story, we learned that both him and Atom had the same fate of being replacement for boys who had died and their parents could not quite accept their demise.

Though, Dr. Tenma took advantage to use Atlas against Atom to make him evolve further.

Also it's ironic how Dr. Tenma got displeased with Mr. Tokugawa attitude when himself was also paying more attention in his work than his own son who died.

[GreenDarthVader]

Actually, we are talking about the japanese series Tetsuwan Atom and not the american version^^'

But, I have to disagree with you.

Atlas from 1980s was merged with Blue Knight, so he don't had his own personality.
In note, the Blue Knight himself also appeared in the 1963 series several episodes after Atla's demise.

So, it was necessary to revamp Atlas' backstory who turned the same as Atom:
Originally a lonely boy whose father mainly cared about the work than his own son.
Following the lack of love and bad company, Daichi also died in an accident and a robot under his image was created.

As for Pluto, I also need to disagree with you...
The issue was not that "fighting is bad", but Pluto don't knew the true meaning of living and thought that just fighting for the sake of fighting and obeying orders was a way of life.

But as side result, he was not able to know the true benefits of living like enjoying happiness, having friends and following his own ideals.

Nobody should bindly follow orders and specially injust orders like hurting others for a stupid goal like becoming the greatest of all.

If a man struggle just to be the best of everything and cast everything aside including, friendship, compassion and kindness, then he'll lose focus.

The Japanese version had a much wider cast of voices than the Astro Boy 2003 version.

For example, Katari and Skunk were not voiced by the same voice actor.

That's interesting that the Atlas I knew was based on the blue knight from the older series. But... that doesn't make this Atlas a good one. The "boy with a distant father" trope is very common, and I didn't feel this series had anything new to add to it. Also, his constant complaining about how powerful he was got on my nerves.

As for the Pluto episode, I'm afraid I still disagree. My biggest problem is how inferior it feels to other versions (Specifically, the Astro boy manga, the 80s cartoon, and the Pluto manga. I have only seen clips from 60s, so I can't fairly judge that. I assume it sticks closer to the Astro Boy manga though).
However, in all of the Tezuka versions of the story, the moral was fighting was bad, and Pluto's lesson was-temporarly-"even though I am a fighting robot, I don't need to fight, Astro Boy is my friend" which becomes tragic when he still feels the need to fight Bora. And to make the lesson more clear, his fighting against Bora does absolutely nothing. In the new version, Pluto changes from "bad fighting" to "good fighting" by fighting for something. And I just prefer the earlier moral. I feel it's more daring, even if it is slightly hypocritical.
And personally, I like the dubs voice for Skunk. It's the voice of Astro's classmate with the glasses that keeps popping up I don't like.

At the end of the day, it's ok that we disagree. I hated the Astro Boy movie, but I've seen others here that find something special in it. On the flip side, I'm sure there are many people who despise the 80s Astro Boy I adore. What's important is that overall we enjoy a similar character, and respect each others different views.

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

Glad to see that the reaction is mostly positive. Makes me feel more confident that it'll be a worthy pick-up.

[F-Man]

^Those are Korean sites. I could find the series by looking at one of them, but the user who uploaded them is not an official company in any way.

[Earthshine]

I liked how it focused on the battle for robot rights whereas all the other version of Astro Boy it skimmed over that issue (with exception of the manga). My major is sociology, focusing on sociological problems and xenophobia so I often see elements in their fight (the robots) with other fights of equality which have occurred all over the world.

I also am fond of the 2003 version of Atlas, I have a weakness for dreadlocks.