Week 10: Astro Boy

Astro Boy

      Astro Boy was one of the most popular anime’s when it first aired in 1963. The anime was adapted from a manga, based on the same name about 10 years earlier (Known as the “God of Manga”). Astro Boy was also the first anime to be broadcasted overseas and became a smashing success! In Japans alone it was watched by more than 40% of the population of people with TV’s.

      In the first episode of Astro Boy, a scientist loses his son in a car crash. He is devastated by this and as a result decides to make a robot in his son’s likeness. Realizing that he could never get his son back, and that this thing he created is not his son, it is a robot that could never age. The scientist, filled with anger sells the robot to the circus. The robot (Astro Boy) has to fight other robots in this circus.

      “Astro Boy” had a very clean-cut animation style to it. The show seemed to be heavily inspired by other, American animations at the time. This show would eventually set the standards for Japanese anime for years to come. This style of animation (anime) was used to caricature the American people. Anime heavily exaggerated the big, round eyes of Americans. At the same time the anime style is much more adult-oriented and realistically detailed than American animation.

      I was very pleased with Astro Boy. It was way ahead of it’s time, no wonder why it was such a smash hit when it first aired back in 1963. I was actually first exposed to “Astro Boy” when the 3D animated movie from 2009 was released. The movie itself seemed to be heavily based on the first episode of the original “Astro Boy” tv series. Of course in the movie, the robot runs away and the scientist spends the whole movie worrying about the robot instead of casting it away to the circus. It was interesting to see how true to the show the film was and how the differences to the characters from the show to the movie really change the feeling of the franchise.