First Impressions – Atom: The Beginning

Meet Six the ultimate LOLi defender.

 It’s time for awesome rockem sockem kicking ass robots or is this going to be more of a superhero evil robot battle of the week? Maybe a bit of both? My mind keeps thinking this series is going to be like Mega Man?! I guess Mega Man and Astro Boy are sorta similar in a few ways.

One Punch Bot

Hiroshi is the nude scientist!

To start off this silly adventure we need a bit of backstory in the universe of Atom which is obviously set in the distant future, but there was a terrible disaster five years ago and nobody really knows why; however thanks to that disaster it kinda got the ball rolling towards several technological advances like creating robots that work side by side with humans. Which I know we’re all thinking is probably setting up for that classic scifi trope of an eventual robot uprising, evil Ai corruption or just generally evil robots destroying things! I certainly hope those kinds of things don’t actually happen, but I’m fairly certain those elements are found in most of the Astro Boy anime series oh and the whole concept of creating robots with emotions.

Quite possibly the cutest anime cat of the season.

If there was ever a theme park I wish was real I would easily say Mecha City! Because it’s a theme park dedicated to all things giant robots and near this park lives two scientists Hiroshi Ochanomizu and Umatarō Tenma who attend a local robotics college and are both responsible for creating six, a super advanced robot that comes with an AI giving Six a “heart” which causes him to protect the lives of others above himself in any dangerous situation or in the words of Umataro being a superhero! I am a bit disappointed this series didn’t pick two unknown scientists instead of going with Hiroshi and Umataro who are previously established characters from the old Astro Boy series, because with a little bit of digging you can easily figure out the future of these two characters. Then again this is technically the start of their lives so they could turn out completely different than their previous incarnations; however I don’t think the creators will re-write everything instead they might alter or add some things from the original series to keep the die-hard fans happy? I mean are there really die-hard fans of the old Astro Boy? Who knows.

Moriya is quite the cool dude, but he might be a bad guy!

Aside from those two we have a crazy scientist named Moriya Tsutsumi who has the most amazing spider robot wheelchair! I kinda want one, but I’m not sure about his character? At first glance he appears to be a nice guy and all; however he kinda looks down on Hiroshi and Umataro because of the research they are doing at the college? I did laugh when I learned Takahiro Sakurai voices Moriya and my mind was all “Well that voice actor plays a lot of characters that could be heroes or villains so what are the chances of Moriya being secretly evil?” Hell even his younger sister Motoko Tsutsumi mocks Hiroshi and Umataro?! What? And at the same time she gets a bit curious about Umataro to the point that she might try and date him? I assume she would do only go that far for her own personal amusement but who knows? Speaking of Umataro he also has a younger sister named Ran who looks and sounds like China from Gundam Build Fighters even down to that fact that both girls wear glasses and developing interests in building things, but I think Ran generally likes to build things because she was seen looking for spare parts outside of lab seven in the second episode.

ONE PUNCCCHHHHH!

So lets talk about six who is the star of the series! While he doesn’t talk much I enjoyed seeing him in action like how he foresaw the disaster about to take place at the mecha park and saved the people from an exploding robot. That scene apparently included a JOJO refrence? The overly excited kid in the crowd said “Whoa they used Emerald Splash!” Which is an attack Hierophant Green can do? Yeah that was a bit random, but it kinda gave you an idea of the real bad guys? I think it’s safe to say Dr. Lolo is the real threat because she was spying on Hiroshi and Umataro’s lab with her drone and sent her attack robot to take out Ran; however Six was there to save the LOLi! Good job six.

Extra Robots

Real bros touch noses.

Sneaky Ran is da best <3

Motoko is quite the girl! I’ve already fallen for her.

Ran thinking “My bro is so out of Motoko’s league.”

Yo is that Dr. Eggman  before he grew his giant orange mustache?!

Sorry no fanservice shots for you!

End Thoughts

Wow for a series I wasn’t really expecting to be much I loved these two episodes of Atom! I love the 80’s old school style of the character designs even though my god the nose on Hiroshi distracts me, but I know that nose is part of his iconic design. Umataro on the other hand comes off as the LOL comedic relief which isn’t a bad thing he’s a great character and sorta reminds me of a Tony Stark type in terms of genus scientist minus the fact that he isn’t a billionaire playboy with a drinking problem? Yet? We shall see? Aside from the nose touching bros I like both sister characters and I wanna see what kinds of cool things Ran can build if she even builds robots? And I almost forgot the opening showed Six in some robot battle arena! I wonder when that story arc will take place? Anyway are you watching this reboot to the classic Astro Boy or is this series not your kind of thing?