VIDEO REVIEW:  ‘Astroboy’ TV series  reviewed by Adrian Gaetano Astroboy's home page is at  http://www.zipworld.com.au/~astroboy/

These videos were copyrighted in the early 1980s, which made me wonder whether the original ‘Astroboy’ series (1960s?) was re-released in the 1980s for video sales, or whether the series was remade and updated for the 1980s (‘The New Adventures of Astroboy”?) Either way, the scripts contained a surprising amount of maturity and social conscience for a children’s series. (For example, one episode featured a robot safari park and contained a pointed environmental message - was this really a pre-“Westworld” series which pre-dated today’s environmentally aware society?)

‘Astroboy’ is obviously a children’s series, with stereotypical cartoon characters such as the anatomically impossible Dr. Elefun and a simplistic vocabulary. However, ‘Astroboy’ should also be recognised as a classic science fiction animated series.  It presents a future world where robots have become commonplace, and the main characters seek happiness as robots in a human world. As such, many episodes could be viewed through the eyes of gay, lesbian and queer viewers as displaying an empathy with those who are deemed to be alien or “out of place” in their world.  Astroboy is a robot boy with robot parents (and a human mentor, creator Dr. Elefun). He is shown as an individual within an “unconventional” family, where his birth was not caused by heterosexual procreation but by the wonders of modern technology – robotics rather than IVF. The subliminal gay connections do not end there.

One episode concerns Astroboy’s rescue of his newly-made sister robot, Urane, after she is kidnapped by robot-nappers and slavers. Her exploits cause her to be labelled a ‘tomboy’. Another episode features Astroboy’s developing friendship with a girl alien, who is feared and rejected by humans – and who turns out to be hiding a secret.

Most pointedly, the episode “Frankenstein” should be of particular interest to queer viewers. In a modern retelling of the original story, a robot named Frankenstein causes havoc and destruction after being controlled by human criminals. The episode tackles the issue of prejudice – most humans see Frankenstein as evil, and assign similarly evil attributes to all his kind. The call goes out to turn off all robots. Subsequent scenes include the deactivation of robot firemen and servants, particularly the chef robots who plead for life and acceptance. Astroboy’s human colleagues soon realise that they cannot live without their robots and turn them all back on – having learnt an important lesson. Robots – like queer people or other victims of prejudice – make a valuable contribution to every strata of society.

Astroboy – a children’s TV show, a classic series of anime science fiction, and a non-threatening way to introduce children to the ideas of tolerance and friendship.