Astro Boy (3/5)
So this is the 1980 series I'm talking about. And regardless of whatever else I say, just remember this - the series isn't good. If you're looking to enjoy this unironically, look elsewhere. Even if you have kids, there's far better options out there. That said, in a way, I kind of actually reccomend this, because it's a TV series made in the 80s, imagining the world of the 2030s, and it's kind of fascinating to see what the writers imagined that world would be like.
Anyway, so, scientist guy is building a robot, and his son Toby dies in a car crash. Yes, dies. Something t note with this series is that it's unambigous when it comes to death and violence. As in, the action itself isn't particuarly violent, but the consequences are. Helicopters are blown out of the sky, fighers are shot down, people are shot, etc. Even if there's no blood or gore, I'm surprised that the writers can get away with as much as they do, and still have this rated for children. I suppose standards are different in Japan, but this is still an English dub. And when it comes to dubbing anime, well, 4Kids, anyone?
Anyway, so, Toby dies, and scientist guy makes Astro in his son's likeness. Only he casts him aside while on a cruise. Fun fact, Astro's creator/father never makes an appearance beyond the first two episodes, and beyond that, I think is only mentioned once. Astro never reunites with his creator, or anything like that, and I really don't get why. It's character development that's begging to be explored, but nup, never happens. He ends up getting a robot mum, a robot dad, and a robot sister, but his actual creator? Nup.
Anyway, Astro ends up in a robot carnival, before being brought back home (which I'm assuming is Japan), and is put in school, and is kept in school when he isn't doing high stakes missions. Yeah, the show's kind of weird on that, in that this is a kid who goes to primary school in one episode, and is captaining missions to Mars in another. What follows on from then is a series of stand-alone episodes. There's some continuity via Atlas, Astro's main nemesis who's an upgraded robot who wields a sword, flies around in a crystal spaceship, and rides a robotic horse through the sky (yes, really), but aside from that, pretty stand-alone.
So, yeah. Characters aren't that deep, storytelling isn't that deep, and the voice acting. Oh dear God, the voice acting. It's...well, it's terrible. Absolutely terrible. So terrible that a few times, I couldn't stop myself from laughing. There's also the question of themes/moralizing. I've read that Astro Boy was/is praised for tackling prejudice, and while that's true to a point (this is a society where robots are common, but often discriminated against, such discrimination enshrined in law), it doesn't go beyond your garden variety "be nice, and don't be prejudiced, because prejudice is bad." Problem with that is that these are still robots, and robots are built to serve humans, and a lot of things are vague as to the global situation, or even national one. For instance, one villain wants to take out a robot due to him losing his jobs to robots. He's a villain, sure, but if people are losing jobs to robots, then maybe you want to look at that as well?
So, yeah. There's a number of flaws in this series, and I can't say I'm a fan. Even if you're a Mega Man fan, which is clearly influenced by Astro, I doubt you'll get much out of it. Yes, Astro has a few beat-downs, but nothing too special. So why then do I say that this series might be of interest?
Well, as I said earlier, it's the worldbuilding, or, rather, an insight as to how people imagined the future. The series starts in the year 2030, then skips to 2031, and then kind of has a floating timeline (in that Astro seems to constantly be in the same year at school). So in the 2030s, here's a few facts of life:
-The Soviet Union still exists, or at least is implied to exist
-People drive around in hover-cars.
-Space travel is routine. There's numerous space ports around Earth, a moon base, and a Mars base. People go into space for everything from holidays to mining.
-Robots are pretty much everywhere, but rights appear to vary by country. E.g. in the series, one country celebrates its first robot president, whereas in Astro's, robots need permission to leave the country, and if they leave without permission, they'll be dismantled.
-The Internet apparently doesn't exist, VHS tapes are still used, as are film reels.
-Animals are in a state of near-extinction, but hunting is still a thing. Robot animals are used to satiate hunters in place of the real thing, kept in game parks.
Overall, that doesn't sound like much, and okay, fair enough. But it's still an interesting insight to see how the writers thought we'd act in the 2030s, yet completely failed to account for the technological advances we have made, and the ecological suceess stories we've had.
Still, there's cases where worldbuilding just doesn't work, and that includes alien invasion. Over the course of the series, Mars is invaded once, Earth twice, and a rogue alien weapon crashes on Earth in another episode. There's a lot of aliens in a series that's meant to be about robots, and no-one really seems to care that alien life exists beyond Earth.
So, yeah. I can't really outright reccomend this. But still, it was interesting to watch in some areas, but it's not something I have any desire to watch again.
