Astro Boy (1980 TV series)

Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan Atomu, lit. "Mighty Atom"), sometimes referred to as New Mighty Atom (新・鉄腕アトム, Shin Tetsuwan Atomu), is a color remake of the 1960s anime black-and-white series of the same name(s); both series are adapted from the manga series by Osamu Tezuka.
This series places more focus on Astro's robotic abilities and has a darker story line than previous incarnations of the series. Although this series places much more emphasis on action scenes than the first one, the theme of "robots with hearts" is still prevalent in this anime. It is also the last Astro Boy work that Tezuka himself wrote and directed, and the humor of the story and direction that is typical of Tezuka can be seen throughout. The English dubs cut out some of the series' more violent moments, such as Astro being beheaded in the episode "Lilly on Peligro Island" and Blackie Young and his crew destroying the robot guard and factory owner in the episode "Blackie Young."
The original Japanese version of the series ran for 52 color episodes while the English dubs (American and Canadian) ran for 51 episodes as the first two were combined into one, omitting the entirety of the backstory of the main antagonist Atlas. Because of this, episode four's title "Atlas Lives Again" does not make sense. As well as that, during the episode when Astro meets Atlas in the latter's underwater base, Astro recognizes him, refers to him by name and remembers their fight on the iceberg from episode two. This indicates that everything that was cut out to make the first two episodes into one still happened despite not being shown.
Category:TV Shows