Awesome / Astro Boy

Astro Boy (original manga)

• Volume 15: Astro smashes through a triple layered safe to get to criminal Skunk.
  Skunk: Get out of here, you monster!
  Astro: Who're you calling a monster?
  • In the same volume, Mustachio tosses a robot bigot through a bus the long way. "Idiot! You're dealing with a judo expert!"
• When Pluto and Astro first fight, Professor Ochanomizu intervenes by telling Pluto, a two-story tall metal behemoth, that if he wants to fight Astro, he has to go through him first. When Pluto rises to Astro's taunt, the professor headbutts his leg to get his attention, and tells him very firmly that he's not allowed to fight Astro. Pluto listens.

1960s series

• Originally the anime's opening had only music and no singing. It was actually the American English dub that add lyrics to the opening theme. The fact that one of Tezuka's producers liked it enough they decided to quickly retrofit a Japanese cover for the original dub is purely awesome.
• At one point during the show's title sequence, Astro Boy is seen taking down a group of KKK members (at least people resembling them◊). Considering the series was made during the height of Civil Rights Movement, this made many African-Americans extremely happy back when it was airing on American television in the early 60s. Especially knowing Osamu Tezuka strongly supported the Civil Rights Movement and hated segregation.

1980 series

• Astro befriending Pluto and defeating Bora, proving himself the world's greatest robot by any definition of the term.
• The German theme song. It rocks.

2003 series

• Astro is getting his butt badly kicked by a mind-controlled Atlas. Pavlos, creator of the mind-control chip, is closing in for the kill, when suddenly Atlas is no longer responding to his commands...
  Pavlos: I don't understand. I must have tested that chip a hundred times.
  Tenma: (taking over his screen) Then you should be happy to know it's still functional. But I am blocking its signal.
  • Then he destroys all of the chips with a long range wave. Effortlessly.
• Dr Ochanomizu's secretary Yoko gets one when she disregards his orders to evacuate, and returns to save him from Tenma's robot dog. With a laser gun.
  Yoko: Put a muzzle on it, Tenma.
• Astro managing to temporarily hold back an erupting volcano in "Geo-Raider."
• Rainbow Parakeet has planted bombs all over the robot revolutionary Blue Knight's sanctuary and is about to press the button on the detonator, taunting Astro that the only way to stop him is to kill him and prove he's just as ruthless as Blue Knight. Astro opens fire on him and apparently misses. Cue maniacal laughter as the villain presses the button. Click, click, click. Turns out Astro decided to Take a Third Option and was actually firing at the communications antenna that would relay the remote detonator's signal.
• Don't forget the episode where a robot train was remotely hijacked and Astro had to get rid of the bomb. That kid can fly pretty damn fast when he needs to.
• "Battle Bot" The entire attack on the space station.
• "Escape From Volcano Island" When Astro spins with his Arm Cannon and generates a giant shield to protect the boat from the erupting volcano.
• After spending almost the entire show as a Karma Houdini, in the second-to-last episode, Acetylene Lamp (Mr. Drake in the dub) makes one last attempt to destroy Astro by stealing a Humongous Mecha and then crosses the Moral Event Horizon (for the umpteenth time) by trying to shoot Astro's friends out of the sky. This manages to jog enough of Astro's memory to reactivate his powers and dish out an effortless Curb-Stomp Battle to Lamp in a matter of seconds. Followed by Lamp finally being arrested for his crimes.

Astro Boy (2009 film)

• After Astro is captured and deactivated, Dr. Tenma suddenly turns on Stone and, with Dr. Elefun's help, snatches the Blue Core so he can reactivate Astro, assure him that despite not being Toby Astro is still Tenma's son, and send Astro off to escape while Tenma and Elefun face the military. The interaction between Astro and Tenma makes this the Heartwarming Moment too.
• Astro defeats a coliseum full of robots, slows a falling island enough to minimize damage and casualties, and flips a skyscraper-sized baddie that has absorbed most of the air force's weaponry over his head. Astro is Badass Adorable, plain and simple.
• Zog, the giant robot Astro revived, is about to crush Hammegg who wronged them underneath his foot. Hammegg protests that he can't, due to the laws of robotics, which have apparently been in use for 50 years. Zog, who was built far earlier than that (100 years), simply says:
  Zog: I'm Old School.
  • The fact that he's voiced by Samuel L. Jackson probably made it far more badass than it would be if it were anyone else.
• The reveal that Cora came from Metro City like Astro/Toby becomes pretty awesome when you realize Cora must be pretty stalwart to go from a pampered, run-away kid rebelling her parents to this street-smart, street-wise surface-dweller. And no one was the wiser.
• The scene where Astro learns to fly and then spends a few minutes playing in the clouds, with the scene culminating in his iconic tunnel-through-the-mountain. Whatever your overall opinion of the movie is, if you didn't find this sequence thrilling something is wrong.
• The final shot of the film.