History Anime / AstroBoy

* IAmNotMyFather: Tefe, Mr. Kane's daughter, not only doesn't hate robots unlike her father, she also wants to foil her father and Skunk's plans to kill the AIs of robots.

* RedEyesTakeWarning: The sunglasses Tenma used to brainwash Harley and his Team Omega teammates glowed red each time they pushed them to go against their principles of fair play and made them threaten and attack others.

* ThreeLawsCompliant: Judging by what several characters said, the robots in this anime's setting are programmed not to harm humans (unless [[MadScientist mad scientists]] like Dr. Tenma have their finger in the pie, of course).

* ThreeLawsCompliant: Judging by what several characters said, the robots in this anime's setting are programmed not to harm humans (unless mad scientists like Dr. Tenma have their finger in the pie, of course).

* FalseFlagOperation: Katari, a member of an anti-robot terrorist organisation, wanted to sabotage the Rainbow Valley robot farm and blame it on the robots (not giving a damn [[WouldHarmASenior that Dr. Toneriko]] and [[WouldHurtAChild his young granddaughter]] would die), but was thwarted through the combined afforts of said scientist's daughter, their robots and Astro Boy.

* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: [[spoiler: Goku ([[NamesTheSame not]] ''[[Manga/DragonBall that]]'' [[NamesTheSame one]]) appears at the very end of the final episode, [[spoiler: to introduce the new anime ''Goku's Great Adventures'', another work by Tezuka]] which would be taking over Astro Boy's slot.

* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: [[spoiler: Goku]] appears at the very end of the final episode, [[spoiler: to introduce the new anime ''Goku's Great Adventures'', another work by Tezuka]] which would be taking over Astro Boy's slot.

First airing in 1963, 193 episodes were created, although only 104 were exported and dubbed for viewing outside of Japan. It's historically significant, as the first full-length anime series to be broadcast in Japan, and the first to be distributed in the USA. Along with ''Anime/EighthMan'', ''Manga/KimbaTheWhiteLion'', ''{{Anime/Gigantor}}'' and ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', it introduced anime to American audiences and paved the way for more sophisticated works on both sides of the Pacific.

* BigBrotherBully: Atlas was built as Astro was by Tenma, so they are technically siblings, as Atlas admits. When Tenma gives Atlas the means to go off-script and attack Astro, the robot is only happy to comply.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: One episode involved an astronaut discovering he was really a robot, and his father would rebuild him every few months to give him the appearance of aging like a human. When asked why, his father explained that he heard the story when Dr. Tenma made Astro to replace his deceased Tobio, but after discovering he couldn't grow, he rejected him and sold him to the circus. This was a call back to Astro's origin story from the manga and the 60's anime, but the 80's version of the story played out differently. Astro had unintentionally embarrassed Dr. Tenma on a cruise, he scolded him out of anger (and got separated from him due to the ship crashing into the iceberg), and the ringmaster of the Robot Circus found Astro and led him astray, rather than being sold to the circus by his dad. It's rather strange that the 80's adaptation made mention of this story when it didn't happen like that this time.

* NoEnding: Unlike the 1963 adaptation or the 2003 adaptation that followed, the 1980s show doesn't end on any big note of finality or outstanding plot, it simply stops. The longrunning Atlas plot is resolved 10 episodes before the end, with the final episode being presented as some kind of big revelation of Astro Boy's never-before-mentioned secret, that [[spoiler:his legs actually belong to a girl robot, whom he had fallen in love with just before her death.]]

** Or, in the case of Dr. Tenma, a cruise. Dr. Tenma takes Tobio on a cruise to America to start a new life there after the whole runaway tank ordeal, because the fact that Tobio is a robot can no longer be hidden. However, Dr. Tenma [[IHaveNoSon appeared to ditch him]] after their dinner goes horribly wrong. In remorse, Dr. Tenma later searches for him during Tobio's first confrontation with Atlas, but Hamegg (who had earlier forced Tobio to sign a lifetime contract to work at a robot circus) abducts Tobio, leaving Dr. Tenma searching for him. The second episode was the final time Dr. Tenma appeared, and he is nowhere to be seen anywhere else.
** Despite being established as one of the [[BigBad Big Bad]]s, Skunk appeared up to "The Devil Balloon" (episode 19) and nowhere thereafter.

* MarketBasedTitle: This series' full title in Japanese is "'''''Astro Boy''': Tetsuwan Atom''" ('''アストロボーイ'''・鉄腕アトム), acknowledging the western title as a prefix.