Originally Reviewed on Serializd Anyone who is a big fan of anime can point out and recognize some of the most famous characters and franchises in the entire genre ones that would become influential and important to so many people for many different years. Goku from Dragon Ball Sailor Moon from... well Sailor Moon Luffy from One Piece and so on and so forth all having been around for an ungodly amount of time and winning the hearts of millions with all of the adventures that they go on which would also go onto inspiring many other shows films and whatever all over the world even all the way to this day. However when it comes specifically to the world of anime none of this would even be a thing if it wasnt for the creation and mass merchandising of one character one character that would go onto basically define what anime would become for over half a century all the way to now and that character in question is that of Astro Boy. The series was a very simple one being about a robot boy being made that learns to live the life of an average person while also going on many adventures in the process with family and friends right alongside him but for the time that the series came out that being in the early 50s it was pretty revolutionary not just for a manga but also for the anime series that would spawn from it shortly after. This has made it so that not only has Astro Boy somehow stuck around all the way to this day despite being a franchise that is over 70 years old but one that has gone onto inspiring and forming what we now know as anime so its safe to say that without this guy right here the world wouldve been a lot different compared to what its like now. So I figured with a series quite as revolutionary and held in high regard as this one I figured I might as well finally go ahead and check out one of the entries in this franchise for myself just to see what it is all truly about and if it really is as great as its reputation would lead you to believe and I decided to figure that out by checking out the 2003 anime adaptation known simply as Astro Boy. In terms of my personal history with Astro Boy I havent read or seen much of anything from the franchise for most of my life before I started watching this series. The only thing that I had seen from Astro Boy in all that time was with the 2009 CG animated movie which was..... certainly a movie alright and it is one that is probably not the most faithful adaptation of the original story out there so clearly I wasnt getting the full proper vision of Astro Boy just from that film alone. Aside from that though I hadnt seen or read anything else from the Astro Boy series in its entirety which is a shame not only because of the long history that the series has had and how influential and important it is to anime as a whole but also because of how much shit has been made for the franchise. Not only has there been many different manga based on the series over the years but there have also been multiple different anime TV shows films spinoff cartoons and even different adaptations of the series that takes things in a more dark direction with those even getting their own anime spinoffs at some point. So yeah needless to say there have been a lot of things made for Astro Boy over the years and it is a franchise that I have always wanted to give a proper chance at some point because of that. I mean after all I am a huge fan of robots and my absolute favorite franchise of all time Mega Man is definitely one that was heavily inspired by Astro Boy in one way or another so I feel like it would be a disservice of me as a Mega Man fan to go on any longer properly checking out one of the many different products that this robot boy has gotten over the years. So with all of that in mind I went ahead and watched the entire 2003 anime from start to finish over the course of a month or so and I actually really did enjoy it quite a bit. I wouldnt say it was anything too spectacular with it having the usual amount of problems holding a show like this back along with having some bad episodes that do hold it back from being anything too great but what we do get here for the most part from what I can tell is a pretty great adaptation of Astro Boy one that brings him into the atthetime modern age while bringing along all of the morals that the series has always stood by while giving fans plenty of the robot action that they would want from it all in the process. The stories are mostly what you would expect mostly being about some robotic or human threat coming along and endangering the lives/relationships between robots and humans and Astro has to sort all of that shit out before it gets out of control with there being some bigger and much more serious arcs thrown in there as well to mix things up from time to time and all of it works relatively well and can be very entertaining even if a lot of it does come off as being pretty basic at times the characters are pretty good where Astro is a very solid protagonist being about as good hearted and heroic as you would expect him to be and having many of the best moments throughout the entire show and plenty of the other characters like Dr. OShay Dr. Tenma Zoran and so on are also really good characters that are great to watch in action throughout the series even if all of their personalities are pretty simple the voice acting is..... uh..... a bit of a mixed bag where sometimes it can be pretty decent or serviceable and fit the characters well enough to where some of the stuff they say can be believable but MY GOD this show has a severe case of dubitis where a lot of the English dub VAs that they got are just plain bad not being able to give off the proper emotion that a lot of scenes need while also sounding like they phone in their performances half the time which is understandable given the kind of show this is but it is something still worth complaining about either way the animation is good with the art style working very well as a modernized look for the classic Astro Boy art style and the animation itself does look pretty nice a lot of the time and has plenty of moments that can also look pretty great but there is also no denying that the animation is cheap and that cheapness can definitely show a lot of the time despite not looking quite as cheap as some other shows like it and the themes and emotions that it tackles are done incredibly well as well having one solid theme throughout the whole show that is explored in plenty of detail in numerous instances having plenty of emotion to it and a clear message that it wants to push while also not talking down to its target audience which is something that I always gotta respect when a show like this can do that. Really makes what they are saying feel more important compared to the alternative where they could instead be treating you like a baby that doesnt know any better. With all of that being said though this show definitely isnt perfect by any means as it does have several glaring flaws that do hold it back from being anything too special both in terms of what I have already mentioned and other things too. Aside from the pretty bad English voice acting somewhat cheap animation and the generic storylines the show in general really isnt anything all that special when you look at it from an outsiders perspective. The show is pretty much a robot of the week show if you will where each episode will present some kind of problem usually involving robots and humans not being able to get along and Astro will come in and save the day by the end which is a formula that has been used SO many times in SO many other shows with some elements of said formula usually being Mad Libbed across plenty of other things to fit with the show in question and while this show definitely does have some more standout episodes that break away from this pattern and can actually be pretty great most of it is about as standard as you could get. Not to mention there is one episode in this show that is undeniably the worst one of them all with the episode in question being Dawn of the TechnoRevolution but its not bad for all of the typical reasons that you would think it is. See originally back when this episode aired in Japan it was originally titled Eternal Boy and it was about a bunch of children going missing after seeing a play of Peter Pan and it turns out that the one behind these disappearances is Darling a robot that hates humans and wanted to create its own version of Neverland where it can have a collection of eternal children all to itself who it can play and have fun with for all of eternity. Kind of an oddball premise that doesnt fit in quite as well with the show as other episodes but it is a premise that seemed like it wouldve been decent enough to watch nonetheless............ too bad though that isnt what we Americans got. Instead of having that episode air in the US we instead got Dawn of the TechoRevolution which is nothing more then one giant clip show showing off a bunch of different episodes that had happened previous while Dr. Tenma narrates over them all and discusses where his grand master plan is at at that very moment and as you would expect it is incredibly boring and draining to watch. Thats not to say that immediately against the idea of there being a clip show episode in this show but the problem is that if you want to do a clip show episode you have to do it right with there being an actual plot going on alongside all of the clips that the audience can actually give a shit about rather then just being a bunch of clips for the sake of it. Unfortunately though this show doesnt go that route and we have what is undeniably the worst episode of the entire show. And see the thing is too is that I can completely understand why the original episode this one replaced was never broadcast in the US because at the time there was a lot of buzz surrounding Michael Jackson and the possibility that he was a pedophile and all that but like........ who gives a shit? Im sure most of the kids growing up in 2003 had no idea who Michael Jackson even was let alone if they had ever even heard of him at any point in their lives so Im pretty sure if you just broadcast the episode normally nobody was going to get upset at that except for one or two Karen parents that have ABSOLUTELY nothing better to do with their lives. Overall despite being as generic as you would expect from a show like this its awful English voice acting cheap animation and a terrible episode found floating around in there the 2003 adaptation of Astro Boy is one that is a pretty good time and a lot of fun from start to finish giving fans and newcomers alike everything they could want and see from an atthetimemodern adaptation of this series and character and it was one that I had a good time watching all around what with its simple yet very competent and fun stories a set of really good characters paired with voice actors that.......... try their absolute best animation that may be cheap but looks pretty good and fits the general aesthetic and world of Astro Boy really well and plenty of emotional moments and themes that are presented throughout the whole show that it explores in a very solid manner that makes the show great for any fan of any age. I would recommend it for those that are huge fans of previous Astro Boy shows as well as those who are big fans of shows like this in general as while this show isnt perfect by any means and Im sure somebody could point out something they dont like about this adaptation either it is still a version of this characters story that is very enjoyable to watch has plenty of great episodes to enjoy mixed in with all the good ones and it is also a pretty good starting point for someone like me who isnt too familiar with the franchise in the first place which is more then I could ask from it at the end of the day. But anyways with all of that being said before we go there is one thing that I am pretty much obligated to talk about when it comes to this show and that is with the film that it got sometime after it came out. For those of you who dont know this series got itself a film in 2005 called Astro Boy: Mighty Atom Visitor of 100000 Light Years IGZA which I would love to go over and review in great detail but unfortunately I cant do that because I cant watch it. Yeah for some reason after it was shown several times in 2005 and over the years it has never gotten itself any kind of physical media release or been distributed online anywhere which has essentially made the film lost media so...... that sucks. Kind of wish I could actually watch it for myself but hey thats just the curse of lost media man. Not really anything I can do about it other then get REALLY upset and to go hunt down the one person who does actually have this movie and threaten to kill them until they actually release it.