A 1982 gag anime created by Ken Ishikawa and produced by Knack Productions. It ran for 39 episodes on TV Tokyo from October 1982 to June 1983.
It focuses on a mischievous "cybot" named Robotchi who lives in Yamakawa Village. The village is home to Dr. Deco, the inventor of Robotchi and many othercybots, Sachiko Yukino, a smart and hot female cop, and Kurumi Yukino, Sachiko's younger sister who's friends with Robotchi. For the first 20 episodes, the main antagonists are the Industrial Espionage Trio, a group of 3 spies who try to steal Robotchi's blueprints, but are constantly foiled by Robotchi and Sachiko. For the last 19 episodes, the villain role goes to High Brow and his henchmen, Nancy and Silvia.
In 1985, it was dubbed into English and turned into an hour and a half long direct-to-video movie called Robby the Rascal by Kidpix Productions, which can be viewed here
. This movie was dubbed into Korean as ''개구장이 로비의 모험'' (roughly translates to The Adventures of Mischievous Robby) in 1989. The entire series was also aired in Italy and became very popular there under the title Robottino.
The show was made at a time when Go Nagai and his company, Dynamic Planning, had severed ties with Toei Animation and were looking for another studio to partner with. Nagai himself would make one more series with Knack, Psycho Armor Govarian, later in 1983, before moving on to TMS Entertainment for 1984's God Mazinger.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Sachiko (Sally) may be beautiful, but a Shrinking Violet she isn't. She's the village's one-woman police departmentnote , drives a motorcycle, and knows martial arts. There's also Tobigiri-Baasan ("Flying Kick Grandma"), who, as her name suggests, packs a mean flying kick.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The English dub features a new original theme song (and indeed an entirely different musical score from the original). Averted in Italy, where the original Japanese themes were used.
- Disproportionate Retribution: In episode one, when Robotchi ends up inadvertently peeping at Sachiko while she showers, Sachiko's reaction is to angrily chase him away while clad in a Modesty Towel. Not unusual for an anime of this type, but the fact that she fires her gun at him - knowing she's dealing with the robot equivalent of a little kid - is a bit over the top.
- Dub Name Change: The English dub changes virtually all of the characters' names. For starters: Robotchi is Robby, Kurumi is Tiffany, Sachiko is Sergeant Sally, Uzura is Terri, High Brow is Horatio Percival Thorton III, Nancy and Sylvia are Tracy and Yvette, etc. Dr. Deco retains his name but is given the punny first name Art. The dub also makes no mention of Sally and Tiffany being sisters.
- The English dub VHS box refers to Dr. Deco as Dr. Rumplechips and High Brow as Mr. Bullion, suggesting that those were the original planned dub names for those characters. Interestingly it also uses the word "cybot" to refer to Robby, which comes directly from the Japanese.
- Expy: With its character archetypes and large cast, the anime overall plays out like Doctor Slump with elements of Doraemon and Urusei Yatsura, though some characters are especially noteworthy:
- Robotchi is one of Arale, being a mischievous but kind-hearted Robot Kid who often gets into trouble.
- Dr. Deco is one of Senbei, as they're both fat, somewhat perverted scientists who are responsible for designing the main character.
- Sachiko is one for Midori, being the busty blonde who is lusted after by said fat, somewhat perverted scientist.
- Love Triangle: Uzura loves Robotchi, who loves Kurumi. Uzura thus sees Kurumi as The Rival, although she is considerably younger than Kurumi. Meanwhile, Matsuo (Butch in the English dub) - who happens to be Uzura's older brother - also fancies Kurumi and considers himself Robotchi's rival.
- Ms. Fanservice: Sachiko has a rather shapely figure, and she's never onscreen for more than 5 seconds without her cleavage or panties - or more - being shown at least once. In episode one alone, her bikini bottom is accidentally pulled down, exposing her rear end, and Robotchi gets an eyeful (including nipples) when he accidentally walks in on her in the shower. Not surprisingly, the English dub cuts virtually all the ecchi humor.
- Kurumi, being younger (stated to be in about the fifth grade), doesn't get it as bad as her older sister, but she's not immune. Her normal casual outfit includes hot pants, and her panties do get exposed on occasion.
- Panty Shot: This show has a character, Uzura (Terri in the English dub), who developed eyes for Robotchi after he flipped up her skirt. She's a little kid, though, so it really isn't intended to titillate.
- Robot Kid: Robotchi.
- Rollerblade Good: When Kurumi is first introduced, she arrives at the bus stop Robotchi was supposed to pick her up at by roller skate instead of taking the bus.
- She's a Man in Japan: Silvia, one of High Brow's henchwomen, is what would now be considered transgender, assigned male anatomy at birth but identifying as female. In the English dub she's renamed Yvette and rewritten as a cisgender woman, similar to Fish Eye in Sailor Moon.
