In today’s world, it’s not all that surprising to think advancements regarding robotics is almost around the corner. There are plenty of examples online of various projects in the making; some, we like, others… we tend to find a little uncanny. But what if these robots were fully realized? What if they became sentient? Would we, the people, learn to live beside them, or make them our subordinates? Thankfully, we have plenty of time to figure it out ourselves, but today I thought we would talk about one piece of media that’s explored this concept already: The 2003 Astro Boy Rendition.

Prerequisite / Disclaimer

For the purposes of this blog post, it would help if we narrowed down our scope of what exactly we are talking about today. So, as far as this post is concerned, we’re going to be focusing on robots with AI, also known in the show as “robots with kokoro” and “feeling” robots. I will be calling them simply “robots,” to make things easier.

Additionally, I will be trying my best to keep this as objective as possible, since this is just an explanatory post on how robot rights were shown. Though it should be noticed, the person writing this post (me), is someone on the far left. I don’t think it’ll matter much at all, but it is something to keep in mind, and it does in a way influence how I see the show, as I am more of a revolutionist as opposed to a reformist.

Finally, I should mention that when I talk about the 2003 series, I am talking about its dubbed version; I have nothing against the subbed version, but I simply do not have the attention span to watch subbed content. It’s also easier for me to get my hands on dubbed content, since I already have all the episodes on my computer.

The Birth of A Hero

To begin, we have to start with, well, where it all started! We open the show to O’shay in his lab at The Ministry of Science, where he is attempting to bring Astro (who’s pronouns are “he/him” canonically) back to life. For the unaware, O’shay is the head of The Ministry, and took said position after its former head, Dr. Tenma, committed arson and fled. His importance in this series (and in this post) is key. By the end of the episode, after Astro saves the day, O’shay proclaims that a bridge between humans and robots was created. This is also where Astro learns not only what a purpose is, but what their purpose is as well.

“Rocketball”, the second episode, is where we start to see rumblings of concern from humans about robots start to crop up. After Astro disrupts a Rocketball game, reporters of all kinds grill O’shay on Astro’s bad behavior. They seem not to understand who Astro is, but some even question if O’shay even knows, either. One of those is Tawashi, a police chief who, in the first episode, made it clear he was against robots, especially Astro. He even misgenders them, calling them “it” instead of “him”. His main thing seems to be that he knows Astro’s backstory– that they were made to replace Dr. Tenma’s (runaway) son, Tobio. He assumes, based on what happened to Tenma, that Astro is, by extension, just as deadly. O’shay contests this, not only because he cares about Astro, but because he’s an advocate for robots, and a robotics engineer, so he does know a thing or two about them. This episode is also where we see the beginning of Tenma’s arc- a grandiose prophecy he has about who Astro is to become.

Afterwards, we’re introduced to 2 new characters: Denkou and Skunk. Denkou (who’s pronouns are “she/her” canonically in the dub), is a robot who has opti-shields, meaning they can essentially become invisible. Skunk, by contrast, is a reoccurring baddie in the show. In this episode “Into Thin Air,” specifically, we learn exactly who he is, and what his motives typically are. This is where we learn the concept of using robots as a means to an end, as Skunk is notorious for using “unsuspecting” robots for his crimes. In this case, he uses Denkou to help him steal precious jewels, but the kicker is that they have no idea that what they’re doing is bad. This is also where Astro goes to school for the first time, as O’shay argues they need to go, so they can learn how to interact with humans. They’re at first met with opposition from some classmates, but one in particular, Abercrombie, seems to come around and respect them mid-episode. Tawashi also starts to see the value in Astro, as he asks O’shay if they’d be willing to join his case in investigating the robberies committed by Denkou.

Bad Robots, And Even Badder Humans

At this point, it becomes increasingly clear that fear among humans towards robots is rising. We start with the 2-part episode “Atlas” and “Astro vs. Atlas” where the story of Atlas is told. Similar to Tobio, Atlas is the son of a rich, workaholic man, Tokugawa. In the dub, it’s claimed that Atlas was a robot from the start, so for the purposes of this post, we will continue to assume so. Atlas gets dismantled by Tokugawa after trying to get on a space shuttle to the moon, and takes him to Dr. Tenma in hopes he can “make him right again”. The biggest takeaway about Atlas, is that he is mostly anti-human. Understandably so, considering his poor treatment and neglect at the hands of Tokugawa. But he takes his anger out by destroying property and striking alarm in humans. Our introduction to another big baddie, Drake (a news anchor), happens here too. We learn he is staunchly anti-robot, and seems to employ every logical fallacy in the book to make his case. Specifically in this episode, he commits a false equivalency, by stating on the news that because of Atlas’ bad behavior, Astro is not to be trusted. This unrest leads to school cancellations, as well as bullying from Astro’s human peers.

On the flip side, we have Tenma, who, again, is on a mission to fulfill Astro’s prophecy. What prophecy, you may ask? Well, according to him, he is of the utmost certainty that robots will rebel and want to take over the world. In his mind, then, he feels Astro is the perfect candidate to lead them towards such “victory”. It should be noted, however, that this is all on Tenma, so to speak. Astro (and pretty much everyone else, for the matter), doesn’t see that as likely, nor do they want such a thing to happen. Regardless, in order for this to be true, Tenma feels he must put Astro to the test to see if they are ready enough to be leader. “Rocketball” was his first foray into such tests, and according to Tenma, Atlas is Astro’s second.

His third, leads us to the second 2-part episodes, “The Rise of Pluto” and “The Fall of Acheron”. Here, we meet 2 robots: Pluto and Shadow. Shadow, is a robot scientist made by Tenma, who theorized that if “robots evolve faster than humans” then a robot scientist would make far more advancements than [Tenma] ever could. Pluto, is a robot made by Shadow, who is programmed to go up against many “powerful” robots, one of which, is Astro. Ironically, we see here that humans aren’t afraid of robots this time, but rather, they see them as entertainment. For example, at the beginning of “The Rise of Pluto,” when Pluto proclaims he wishes to fight Astro, many civilians chat among themselves that they would “pay big money” to see the fight happen. Brunard, another character introduced in these episodes, even has an entire empire akin to the WWE where he makes huge money off of robots fighting. It feels like a stark contrast, but when you remember that many humans (like Skunk) see robots are just a means to an end, it starts to make sense. Sure, they’re not using these robots for crimes like Skunk is, but in a way, they’re still commodifying robots by seeing them as just something to gawk at, as opposed to treating them as an equal.

The biggest takeaway from this portion of the series is that though there are robots who do bad things. Humans are just as, if not more likely, to be badder. Take “Robot Circus,” our final episode of this section, for example. Reno and his family are a traveling robot circus, who are (presumably for the time being), performing in a town called Bella Note. What makes this family interesting, however, is the fact that Reno, their son, is a human! It’s a big deal, though, according to Reno. He tells Astro that “some folks might not like the idea of robots raising a human”. And this does have some weight to it, as “the richest man in town” Gustav, “pretty much runs this city,” according to a robot bell hopper who speaks to Astro and O’shay. As you may have guessed, he too is anti-robot and sees them as tools, and nothing more. He gets upset when the mayor allows Reno’s family to advertise their circus around the city, and tries to dig up dirt on his family to (seemingly) put an end to their circus. After falsely claiming Reno was kidnapped by his family (as opposed to Reno having been abandoned and taken in by his robot parents, which is the truth) and threatening to send Reno to an orphanage, O’shay steps in and claims he has gotten permission to send Reno back to Metro City with him to study robotics, something he showed O’shay he was quite proficient at. Begrudgingly, Gustav has to let up, but that doesn’t stop Reno’s family from getting chased by police. Astro comes to save the day, and the mayor stands up to Gustav, making Reno’s family the official Bella Note circus.

We also can’t forget to quickly touch on “The Venus Robots”. Anguish about robots becoming too powerful is revealed to have been an issue way before Astro’s time. This is also where O’shay (in my opinion, infamously) confesses to Tenma, that human self-centeredness may have played a role in The Venus Robots’ creation, and later disposal. “Reviving Jumbo” also informs us of a robot of yesteryear called “Jumbo,” who is made for a ceremony to commemorate the advancements in robotics happening at the time. Though he was decommissioned, after Skunk’s henchmen use him to bust Skunk out of prison, Jumbo is revitalized as an attraction to plenty of juvenile fan fare.

Pacifism vs. Direct Action

One aspect I’ve been neglecting to touch upon, is Astro’s nonaggression. Specifically, their unyielding desire to not be violent. We started to see this in “Atlas” where Astro professes their opinion that robots and humans will someday get along. Atlas disagrees, but Astro never lets it get in their way throughout the show (for the most part). But, it really doesn’t start to become a running theme until we meet The Blue Knight. In his self-titled episode, Astro gets framed for being associated with an astroturfing terrorist group. After getting (brutally) arrested, The Blue Knight (who I will be calling “TBK” for short) comes to their rescue and busts them out. Not much is known about him, as far as this episode is concerned, but we do find out that unlike Astro, TBK is willing to pull out all the stops needed to achieve his goals. At the very young age of 9, and with the level of fame they have, it’s easy to understand why Astro wouldn’t follow in TBKs footsteps- it’s not a simple concept to understand, nor is it one that can be done without serious recourse. But, even so, it becomes clear to us that what TBK wants for robots, isn’t exactly what Astro wants.

With episodes like “The Secret of The Blue Knight” and “Robot Hunters” Astro has many a moral quarrels with their robot peers. Their need to be helpful, while still keeping things peaceful, puts them in precarious positions where they end up upsetting fellow robots, who are (for all intents and purposes) far more radical than they are. This, to me, illustrates a point I’ve only just recently realized: minorities aren’t a monolith. What Astro wants/thinks, or what TBK wants/thinks, or Delta, Atlas, Denkou, Pluto, ETC, is not indicative of what all robots want or think. This is an important concept for us to grasp because it removes our ability to slip into dichotic thinking. We stop assuming things like “Astro good, TBK bad.” or even thinking the flipside, “Astro is politically dumb, TBK is a political genius”. We understand that there are qualities of Astro’s arguments that are worthwhile, just like TBK, but we aren’t dismissive of where/when they fall short, nor do we fault their shortcomings as meaning all robots are “ill-informed” as a result. This doesn’t stop anyone (including TBK) though, from continuing to quiz Astro about whether they’re team human or team robot. TBK, in particular, even renounces his partnership with them multiple times out of frustration.

Speaking of “The Secrets of The Blue Knight”, at this point in the series, we’re continuing our theme of humans being just as “evil” as some bots. We finally learn about TBKs past, finding out that he was once working under Brunard, fixing bots after their fights. Brunard is seen as being completely unscrupulous, telling TBK to get the robots he fixes to barely alive if need be, just so said bot can make an appearance at a match. He also buys robots off the black market on Mars, further cementing his role as a villain. This is where we start to understand a bit about where TBK is coming from, and perhaps why he is so anti-human. Also, he picks up some new members for his crew, and we find out that he’s working under the guise of Shadow. Shadow, like Tenma, sees TBK as a role model whom Astro should look up to and follow.

As an outlier, but still important to touch upon episode, “Escape From Volcano Island” sees humans showing a more lighthearted, decent side to themselves. In “The Blue Knight”, we see humans completely apprehensive to receiving help from robots, one robot flight attendant even gets pushed down by a civilian out of fear. This time around, however, humans are excited about robots! Reporters go all around everywhere talking to robots that have been nominated for the “Robot of The Year” award. Even Astro’s classmates cheer them on when they find out they’ve been nominated. This is also where we learn more about Drake’s past, where he at one point overcame his opinion that robots were “just tools” through getting stranded on an island with a robot he named “Buddy”. However, once he is rescued, he resumes his old opinion. In fact, he pushes for it harder than ever, despite hallucinating from time to time about Buddy, where in he is asked “why did you abandon me?”

Someone who does fully change their mind, however, is Azra Kane in “Only A Machine”. Here, Astro helps his daughter CJ after her conscience is snatched up by eraserbot, a bot made together with Skunk and Kane’s team. Eraserbot was made to wipe robots of their AI, which is something Kane advocates for at a protest with Drake and fellow “The Organics” members outside The Ministry. When CJ comes to, Kane seemingly changes his stance from thinking robots are tools, to seeing they are truly worthwhile.

My Feelings Overflow / I Had Fun Before

As we get closer to the end of the show, it only makes sense that things would start to ramp up. We begin with “Battle of Steel Island” where TBK is wrongfully accused of “abducting” robots, when in reality, he saves them from being sent to work on a space mine. Humans upon seeing this in the news go into a frenzy, and scurry away when they spot robots nearby. Those robots, however, know what the truth is, and see TBK as a hero because of it. The robots he saves get sent to a place called Steel Island, which many might believe to be the precursor to Robotonia (more on that later). This is also the first episode where Astro goes somewhere by Tenma’s direction. It’s clear he’s still trying to test them, but in the eyes of Astro, they’re still a robot, and thus need to at least try to defend the helpless bots that are set to be caught in a battle against Drake, who is set to appear there. This is also where even Zoran (Astro’s sister) interrogates Astro about which side they’re on. Because from an outsiders’ perspective, their peacefulness can be seen as a bit of indecisiveness, and understandably so. This leaves many to wonder, even to the point of aggravation.

Furthermore, in this, and plenty of the episodes after, we start to see the more “emotional” side of Astro come out. Or rather the “pro-robot but in a radical way” side. In “Battle of Steel Island” specifically, we see them finally get angry at humans and desire to engage in violent acts of harm. But, it is to be noted that they do regret those tendencies, and they even get applauded by O’shay for remaining pacifistic at the end of the episode. Others though, like “Undercover” have Astro going up against people affiliated with the police after they’re essentially the reason Klaus (a robotic undercover policeman meant to resemble a human) jumps into a waterfall to avoid his fate of getting upgraded. This is a big deal because Klaus was a huge fan of all things art and entertainment, and this exact thing was said to be wiped once he got the upgrade. At first, Klaus didn’t mind getting the upgrade, but changed his mind, which prompted his runaway, and later on search. One of the policemen, after Astro tells them “there’s no law against listening to music!” replies “Robots were built to make the lives of humans easier, instead you’re taking everything that’s sacred to us.” Which might explain why they felt Klaus needed to be revised.

The final episodes though are, as you’d suspect, where Astro starts to turn a considerable amount. I hadn’t seen these episodes in ages, and even I was shocked at the things this kid was doing and saying. For starters, it helps to set the scene for these episodes, since they’re all technically in succession, and play out quite like a feature-length film.

Hannah is the daughter of General Red. General Red has a robot servant named Jake, whom he does not like because he keeps interacting with Hannah. In “The Night Before The Revolution,” he tells Jake to pack up his belongings because he is being relocated to a job working in sewage. At night, he attempts to leave, but gets stopped by Hannah, who quickly picks up on what’s going on, and is clearly distraught. Though Jake will do what he’s told, Hannah is quite attached to him, and doesn’t want him to go. However, in her attempt to do so, she brutally falls down the stairs. General Red looking into what the commotion is all about, and quickly blames Jake of possibly pushing her down the stairs, as retaliation for being sent away.

As a result, lots of unrest emerges rather quickly. Drake skips no beat going onto the news and claiming all GP4s (like Jake) are evil and need to be dismantled. And in fact, all GP4s do end up getting sent away, though they aren’t the only ones targeted. Eventually, all AI robots are collected out of obligation by Tawashi and his Anti-Robot-Robot-Squad (a squad we met in “Robot Hunters” that was specifically formed to fight robot related crimes). Among those are Astro and Zoran, but per O’shay’s orders, Astro leaves to Robotonia. But, we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. It’s a lot to take in, I know, so let’s circle back.

When we talk about Astro’s anger, we again have to remember that for most of the show, they’ve been caught in the middle. Never has Astro proclaimed to be a part of either side, however in these crop of episodes, we see them skew ever so slightly to being on the robot’s side. Tawashi gets an earful from them after he tells them he’s going to do whatever it takes to keep the people of Metro City safe. “But what about the feelings of robots?!” is essentially what they cry to him. Additionally, when the GP4s are taken away by truck to a dismantling plant, Astro channels their inner Batman and attempts to sabotage the plan. But of course, in true Astro fashion, they don’t really do anything that disruptive, and it isn’t until TBK shows up that the plans are truly foiled. Again, TBK renounces Astro when they get in the way of him [killing] the humans that are transporting the robots. Sufficed to say, even though Astro gets “a little angry” it isn’t anything too impactful, instead it just shows that the stakes are so high and so tense, that even someone as “innocent” as Astro is starting to lose their cool.

Going back to the plot, just before the GP4s are sent away, humans are seen protesting under the guise that GP4s are going out to protest as well. Drake intervenes, by setting off some detonators that scare the human protesters into thinking the GP4s are out to get them. This is also where Reno gets hurt after he and Astro try to convince the humans to knock it off. The hospital he gets sent to is funnily enough, the same one has Hannah’s, who at this point, is in a coma. Again, we already know what happens to the GP4s afterwards, but once TBK ends the plan, he and presumably his crew, takes the GP4s to what he declares to be Robotonia. One of the robots he takes, is Jake, who, by order of the council, was supposed to be dismantled after undergoing a (arguably corrupt) trial in which he received no representation. His judge, Chairman Lyon, also stated the verdict he wanted for Jake before the trial even began, further cementing this trial as being super corrupt.

But back to Robotonia. In case you didn’t know or forgot, Robotonia is an autonomous society made by robots, for robots, and was created for robots (say that 3 times) to be shielded from the wrath of humanity. As far as robot rights go, when TBK announces Robotonia, and of robot’s independence, Red and his team assume the robots have announced a war, and thus they go to battle TBK and others at Robotonia.

Now, you may be wondering where Tenma is in all of this. And I’m here to say, he’s still… doing Tenma things. At this point, the man is having a bona-fide wet dream. When Astro gets hurt, he fixes them back up, but tells them that now is the time for them to play their part like he always knew they would. He even makes them a new body to help carry out such plan (which of course makes me and probably many others wonder what the point of testing them was if he was just going to put them into a more powerful body anyway). But alas, they decline, and this isn’t the only blow Tenma has. Shadow, beats Tenma to his own game when they reveal to him that they’ve already turned themselves into a replica of Tenma, despite him wanting to be made into a robot first.

Finally, when Reno and Hannah get to General Red, and Hannah tells her dad the truth, Astro goes to talk to TBK and crew into a cease fire. This is because Red claims he won’t stop the attack on Robotonia unless the robots back down. TBK is against this, which makes sense, given that he and his comrades did talk to them about why the direct action they’re doing was necessary at a time like this. But Astro doesn’t let up. A photo of a soldiers’ family makes them choke up, and go into what can only be described as a Steven Universe style speech, that gets aired on all TVs thanks to Shadow. After said speech, some robots take their leave, saying they’d rather return home than go up against humans. The ones that stay behind, however, leave with TBK and his comrades as Robotonia floats away, and they all look for a new place to stay somewhere in space. Humans of all kinds erupt in celebration, presumably invigorated to have robots come back into their life for good, and to see the war essentially over.

A Change In Gears

Now in the home stretch, we take a look at the final episode, “The Final Battle.” Admittedly, not much regarding robot rights happens until the very end, but the big thing we learn is about the story of Astro. We already heard in “Astro vs. Atlas” about the story of Tobio, the human boy Astro replaced. But this time, we’re learning specifically about Astro’s time with Tenma, and we catch a glimpse into why he had the plan that he did. He also asks Astro for one final time if they’d rule the world with him, and again, he gets declined. When all is said and done, Tenma gets carried away by police after threatening to (presumably) commit arson once more and having destroyed part of The Ministry anyway (specifically lab 7). And it’s announced that after many trials and tribulations between humans and robots, that robot civil rights were being added to the constitution.

To conclude, it’s clear that the road for robot rights was not easy, or paved smoothly. Of course, this is a fictional piece of media, and we won’t know what’s exactly to come for us in the real world until it happens. But hopefully this post informs you on what at least was speculated to happen to us at some point. This topic is actually quite interesting, and I think it is something we should be thinking about as tech becomes more robust. Will we be willing to treat robots as comrades, or are they just tools for our benefit?

As a quick, sort of aside, I know this post was quite lengthy, so I thought I would put together a visual road map of all the episodes I saw that helped me put this post together. You’re free to share it around with everyone. All I ask is that you don’t paywall or try to make a quick buck off it because I don’t want to have to deal with the law, and I know you don’t want to have to deal with the law either. I just do this stuff in my spare time, not trying to get a cease + desist in the mail.

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