n the year 2030, robots are common fixtures in society as servants, fighters, tools and entertainers. But the ambitious Dr. Boynton is determined to surpass the science of his time by creating a robot with a soul—a robot that's essentially human. His efforts seem doomed to failure—the latest
experiment simultaneously explodes, catches fire and runs wild in his lab—until his young son Toby suggests "a boy robot." Boynton seizes on the idea so strongly that he later brushes Toby off, determined to work on his new project even if it means breaking a promise to spend time with his son. Dejected, Toby heads home alone in a robot car he doesn't know how to drive, and is promptly killed in a crash.
Outwardly, Boynton shows relatively little emotion over his son's death. But he becomes obsessed with his boy robot, which he inexplicably grants a machine-gun backside, laser-gun fingers and a super-powered, 100,000-horsepower engine capable of flight. The government he works for, understandably disturbed by the destructive potential of his creation, orders him to disassemble it and abort the project. But Boynton has constructed the robot in the image of his son, and he refuses to lose a second child. He sneaks into the lab, secretly completes the robot, names it Toby, takes it home and teaches it to call him "Dad."
Briefly, Boynton and the new Toby are happy together. But the robot's incredible strength, profound inexperience and infant-like naïveté make for a poor combination. After it makes one too many awkward blunders in public, the furious Dr. Boynton breaks down and disowns it. The rejected robot ends up in the hands of an unscrupulous circus owner, who beats and exploits it. Eventually, it finds a
friend, a little success and a new name: Astro Boy. It also makes its way back into friendlier hands, and ultimately gets the chance to go to school like a real kid. It also eventually gets to travel around the world and into space, making friends, rescuing them and fighting everything from aliens to mad scientists to run-amuck robots to wildlife poachers.
The king of the plucky young heroes
Newer anime fans who discovered anime through titles like Trigun or Cowboy Bebop, and who follow the genre for its flashy visuals or hip attitudes, may not find a lot to like in this 1980s incarnation of Astro Boy. The animation is stiff, basic and dated, with minimal lip-synch; the dubbed voices are harsh and unnuanced; most of the characters are broadly drawn stereotypes. The good guys ache with earnestness and the bad guys drip with simplistic evil. This is not modern anime by any stretch of the imagination. (Though a very modern anime, Rintaro's recent movie Metropolis, was also adapted from a manga by Astro Boy creator Osama Tezuka, and the visual similarities are unmistakable. In particular, Boynton looks like a black-haired version of Metropolis star Duke Red, another tortured man looking to a robot as
a replacement for his dead child.)
What Astro Boy is instead is old-fashioned fun that centers on creative, colorful scripts, relatively involved episodic adventure and sweet heart-on-its-sleeve sincerity. Oddly enough, the youngest anime fans and the oldest ones may come together as a natural fan base for Astro Boy.
It's aimed at kids, but it's just as likely to hit home with the nostalgic fans who cut their teeth on Star Blazers—or even on the original black-and-white Astro Boy, back in the 1960s. Those older fans may be surprised and pleased at the complexity of the series' stories. As Astro comes to terms with his new schoolmates, or repeatedly rescues a baby elephant from greedy hunters who
aren't content with the tame entertainment of shooting robot animals, the basic outlines of his plot arcs seem as simplistic as the series' animation. But running themes like his society's prejudice against robots, and a wealth of tiny, intriguing details and unexpected developments, keep things fresh and lively.
And, of course, Astro himself—relentlessly cheerful, optimistic and helpful, even when faced with violence, ignorance and contempt—is an endlessly charming and compelling hero. His popularity and universal appeal had a great deal of influence over the development of anime and manga alike in Japan, and it's high time he earned a little more recognition here.
Manga's planning to release the entire 1980s Astro Boy series on VHS, packing five or six episodes on each tape in order to fit all 51 episodes onto nine volumes. But the corresponding DVDs aren't due out until 2004, so the purists have quite a wait ahead of them.
— Tasha
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