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?
About Foshizzel
Is huge anime fan from Florida! who loves to watch anime and also enjoys drawing and collecting pictures, my favorite genre of anime has to be Mecha, there is just something awesome about giant robots beating the crap out of each other! Other than that type of show, I love a good comedy or action series :D
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
I wonder what the old generation who grew up watching Astro Boy would think of this series…
It’s time for awesome kickass robots!
Fosh, you may want to look out for next season’s Knights and Magic. Its the usual “reincarnated in isekai fantasy world” theme but for mecha fans. Basically the fantasy world has magitech mecha, mecha fights and discussions of mecha R&D.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I’m looking forward to the robot wrestling.
I just took a look at Knights and Magic which instantly reminded me of Break Blade which is also set in a fantasy world, but add in some magic elements! Sounds like my kind of thing ill have to check it out.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Not bad. A good, decent start and it’s giving off a mixture of vibes. I already knew from news articles that Atom is the story that predates Astro Boy. I mean, our our cocky protagonist Tenma is his destined creator. Also, the explanation of their “Bewusstsein” program is more or less saying they mean to replicate human emotions for machines, so that’s almost like a throwback to the Will Smith starred movie I.Robot. Lastly, though I’ve only seen it through movie trailers, the whole punching business, not to mention the OP sequences, has Real Steel vibes all over it.
Not a series creating hype or drawing much attention. I went in with little expectation and it turned out alright so I don’t mind continuing to see how it goes. But this definitely looks like a series to quell a mecha-addict like you, Fosh. 😉
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah it had a good start and I like all of the characters so far. Yeah Tenma is responsible for eventually creating Astro Boy, but no idea if they will touch on that or not? I could see a bonus end credits scene with the finale episode or something? Yeah it does have elements of I Robot with the AI giving robots emotions and agreed on Real Steel thanks to the mention of robot wrestling and the OP.
Yeah sadly its flown under the radar I think? Not a lot of people are tweeting or commenting about it just like ID-0? It’s sad but eh what can you do? I can’t blame people who follow rules to watch it legally on Amazon or NetFlix vs people that torrent/DL these series myself included LOL
I’ll have to make due with ID-0 and Atom to get my much needed mecha fix hahah
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I prefer downloads myself as well. Good internet speed or not, I can’t stand site streaming because of buffering issues. I can watch them with or without internet and I can always jump to or replay my favorite scenes without hassle. There was a download site I used to frequent since 2010 but it went down about a year ago now.
Before it closed completely, its successors continued its encoding traditions in a Facebook group. Which unfortunately forced me to create an account just to follow it and I absolutely refuse to settle for lesser videos that are oversized in memory and have horrible quality.
Tsk! At least one of us is getting a fix. I’m not so lucky. 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I assume you mean lack of vampires? Lol
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Exactly!! It can’t be anything else but that.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
A decent robot show with likeable characters. I’m probably in for the entire run. My biggest quibble is giving F14 such a giant head, but if that’s my only complaint so far, well that’s not much of a one is it? I do like his personality.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
What I find awkward is his name in the first place. Not to mention the reason it was given to him. Naming him after a date… Were they even trying?
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Clearly not. Even A106 isn’t much of a name and calling him Six is only a little better. Apparently naming isn’t their strong suite.