Shark Bytes
My mother used to watch this show when she was a little girl.
She misses the anime from her childhood, which was fun and understandable, instead of the action-driven nosense that is modern anime.
She says that the only good anime right now is the one by Hayao Miyazaki.
She misses the anime from her childhood, which was fun and understandable, instead of the action-driven nosense that is modern anime.
She says that the only good anime right now is the one by Hayao Miyazaki.
I remember in '63 when Astro Boy came on TV. I watched it religiously, and I remember thinking, watching this show must be like what doing drugs feels like. It was beyond strange.
This show may be before my time, but I caught it on Adult Swim and I was subconsciously hooked to it.
It's just so entertaining to watch.
It's just so entertaining to watch.
The Grandfather of all Anime. This show is a much bigger influence than many people realize. The original manga by Osamu Tezuka has finally, in the past few years, been translated into English after over 50 years. Chek it out sometime if you like Japanese cartoons, it is the gold-standard. Many of the original TV shows were taken directly from the original comics, but the comics were far more funnie & sophisticated. Tezuka was the Walt Disney of Japan, he really was, & his comics were so clever. If you are a comics fan today you will notice influences from Astro Boy on every major artist, from Carl Barks to Frank Miller. Tezukas influences were the original Seegar-Popeye strip, Krazy Kat, Early Disney, etc, but he made it funny too. Many Artists who didnt understand Japanese were buying them just to chek out his art before the translations
Original show never jumped. I was captivated by the atmosphere and storylines that were different from any other cartoon.
Asto boy jumped the shark the very moment that freak Tezuka decided to put him in only a pair of tight arse shiny underwear and red hooker boots! I've seen the third and hopefully final season and it sucks arse! But it is like watching citizen cain compared with the 1960s original! Not only did astro boy (or should I say astro girl) have the buthuggers and hooker boots but he actually had machine guns coming out of his arse! I mean how gay can you get really?!! Had astro had some clothes on and perhapse a better hairdo then we might just have gotten something there. But just becuase of the nakedness alone, astro boy killed the shark with his gayness!!
The original 1963 Astro Boy series never jumped. I've purchased the recently released DVD set (2006) of the first 50 episodes. I'm 46 now and stand firm in this opinion. I've seen some of the 2003 Astroboy episodes and think they are very good. But not as good as the original. There's one thing that really annoys me about animated shows these days - the voices. All of the male voices in action oriented animated shows (at least in the english soundtracks) have this generic "tough kid" sound and demeanor. They even used this for the 2003 Astroboy, which is disappointing. The original Astroboy series used a more innocent and introspective voice for Astroboy. In fact it was a woman that contributed the voice track. But from another perspective - my 12 year old likes the 2003 Astroboy better than the original. To him, the original Astroboy seems old fashioned, particularly the theme song.
When I was a kid, I loved this show. I used to watch it everyday after school. Back then, I thought it was fun story about a robot having adventures. I was totally innocent of any hidden implications that the show presented. But then I watched Steven Speilberg's A.I. about the boy robot adopted and abandoned by a family. First of all, it bothered me that instead of the family adopting a real flesh and blood human boy, they adopt a robot that they knew was not going to grow and stay a little kid. Also the scene that bothered me then most is when the adopted mother left the boy robot in the woods. It gave me nightmares. Then I remembered Astro Boy had the same theme. A man whose son was killed in a car crash created Astro Boy. His adopted father also abandoned Astro Boy because he would not grow or eat. I know he is a robot and not a real boy but it still bother me to see someone abandoned a child-like figure because he/she did not live up to the adopted parents expectations. I tried to watch the New Astro Boy cartoon that was on the air about a couple of years ago but I could not because of the psychological damage of "A.I".
The original Astro Boy cartoon from way in the 1960's never jumped. I love it. He was my very first crush. A few months ago I saw one episode of an updated Astro Boy on the Cartoon Network. Didn't like it mainly because they kept referring to him as "Astro" instead of "Astro Boy". Astro is the name of the pet dog in the Jetsons, so I had a problem with it. Would it kill them to just call him by the full name "Astro Boy"?
Never jumped. I've seen all but 10 of the original 104 episodes over the last decade & a half (not an easy feat) and even when they start out totally normal, someone suddenly throws in a monkey wrench and they become a mountain of weird.
Astro Boy was my first crush--even before Gigantor and Mike Nesmith. I still have the vinyl record of the AB theme song my mom once bought from the Helms Bakery man. And I still have the lyrics memorized. . . .sigh. . . .
Astro Boy was always a very intriguing show. I loved the storylines in it and how it continued from week to week. I remember being transfixed to the TV when there was a robot going around killing other robots, trying to find the right head. You know, the one that had the eyes on his chest. Plus the storyline with A-B's brother (whose name I could never remember) was always good.
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