Table of Contents
Little Astro Boy
Little Astro Boy, known as Robot Atom (ロボットアトム or ろぼっとアトム)1) in Japan, is a series that debuted in Nigeria with 8 episodes that aired from March 22, 2014 to April 26, 2014. It is a joint project between Tezuka Productions, Yomiuri, and Channels TV.2)
The target audience is intended for preschool children. The series has a lighter tone than previous versions of Astro Boy, which is likely due to its target audience. The 12-minute episodes focus on the adventures of Astro and his friends, as they learn new things or make mistakes.
A Region 2 DVD of the entire series was released in Japan on November 3, 2015 via Happinet. It features both an English and Japanese audio track with only Japanese subtitles.3)4)
Episodes
Number | English Title | Japanese Title | Air Date | Rerun |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Astro Becomes a Racer | アトム、レーサーになる!? | March 22, 2014 | April 5, 2014 |
2 | Recycling Gone Wild | 暴走リサイクル | March 22, 2014 | April 5, 2014 |
3 | Astro Goes to Space | アトム、宇宙へ行 | March 29, 2014 | April 19, 2014 |
4 | We Love Cleaning | おそうじ大好き | March 29, 2014 | April 19, 2014 |
5 | Fly! Mitchy | 飛べ!ミッチー | April 12, 2014 | n/a |
6 | Heart on Fire | ハートに火がついた | April 12, 2014 | n/a |
7 | I'm Moler, You See? | オ、オイラはモーグラーなんだな | April 26, 2014 | n/a |
8 | Astro and The 5 Adventures | 時間を盗んだ男VSアトムと5人と冒険隊 | April 26, 2014 | n/a |
Trivia
Little Astro Boy had several technical difficulties during its 2014 run on Channels TV in Nigeria. While Episodes 1, 2, 5, and 6 aired without major problems, Episodes 3, 4, 7, and 8 had the following issues:
- Episode 3 froze just before the credits and had to be ended by Channels TV sooner than planned. In addition, the audio skipped throughout half of the episode. This occurred during both its debut on March 29, 2014 and during its rerun on April 19, 2014.
- Episode 4 froze five minutes into its debut on March 29, 2014 and froze three minutes into its rerun on April 19, 2014, both times having to be ended by Channels TV sooner than planned.
- Episodes 7 and 8 were zoomed in so much that the full episode titles could not be read during their broadcast on April 26, 2014.
The ending song is entitled “Robot Boy, Beyond the Stars”. The words and music were written by Benjah and the artist for the song is Moon.s.
The color palette for most of the characters in the promotional artwork at the top of this page are different from how they are colored in the series itself. Atom, Hamegg, Gora, Dr. Flau, and Pikko are the only characters who retain the same color palette.
The characters in the promotional artwork, counter-clockwise from left to right, are Dr. Flau, Gora, Hamegg, Mitchy, Tac, Astro, Reggie (the tall, lanky robot), Pikko (the small, round robot), Kinako, Ken, Paul (Tamao), Dr. O'Shay, and Mustachio.