Atom: The Beginning

A forgotten, severely underrated piece. This anime was supposed to promote the manga, but it seemed to do quite the opposite.

I don't usually watch sci-fi anime, though I really like sci-fi as a genre, but Atom: The Beginning just had a certain mood or something that peaked my interest, even so that I can totally rewatch and reread this series. It's unique, though an Astro Boy prequel.

Unfortunately, for some reason the story of this anime is much slower-paced than the manga, making it more boring than it actually is. A very good thing I have to say about the anime is the opening! It's one ... of my all-time favorites. The characters are also about the same, usually, though a little more well-written in the manga.

HOWEVER!

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading the manga!!! I remember watching the anime and thinking: "Hmm, this could've been so much more..." and when I a few years later decided to read the manga, it was EVERYTHING I had hoped for!! No filler- just straight into the action.

In general, I love the characters and story of this series. Give it a chance! I don't understand why nobody knows of a series this good.

Story: 7/10 (in manga 10/10)
Art: 8/10 (in manga 10/10)
Character: 10/10 (in manga 10/10)
Enjoyment: 7/10 (in manga 10/10)
Music: 10/10

Overall: 9/10 (manga 10/10) (I would give the anime 7 or 8 out of ten, but this series's rating is unfairly low so that I'm trying to promote it a bit :,) )

Sorry that I was now one of those: "THE MANGA IS BETTER!!" - people ... but it's really the truth this time xdd

ATOM= is a Robot

Japan in the near future suffers an unexplained major disaster. Five years later, reconstruction is well underway. Two young researchers at a university are pinning all their hopes on robot development. Now their new interpretation of the eternal hero Astro Boy up until his birth is just about to start!
-from my anime List-

So Im a big fan of this anime. The Story and art is really nice. But the Soundtrack was a lidle bit bad, but ok. I give the show 8 from 10.

I liked the main charakters and the girls are cute to hehe.


...
How did you like it?

A wasted potential.

Atom: The Beginning had a great premise. Tell the story of Doctor Tenma and Doctor Ochanomizu as they create Bewusstsein, the AI system which will revolutionize robotics and will lead to creation of one of the greatest anime/manga icons of all time, Atom.

And we get that, but we also get a lot of useless filler. First 7 or 8 episodes work in repetitive episodic format. X Slice of life situation happens. Everything goes well, until something goes wrong. A106 saves the day. The end. This would've been fine if it built the characters of the show, or the world of the ... show. But sadly it doesn't happen. After the first half of the series we enter the second half which has continuous plot up until the very end. Aaaaaaand...it's not very good either. There is some action but it's bland. Characters are mostly uninteresting, the world itself is uninteresting. The show itself is uninteresting. We don't get to see how Robots deal with gained humanity. We don't get to see early stages of AI exploration. We get a fighting tournament.

Only episode which somewhat saves this anime from being completely mediocre, is the finale which at last brings some retrospective and contemplation.


As I said, the characters are uninteresting. All of them lack depth. All of them lack originality. Only Tenma occasionally shows deeper characteristics. But these moments are rare. Usually he's just a male tsundere/genius that doesn't act as genius. Hiroshi is the good guy, Motoko is the smug girl and Ran is the shy loli.


From the production standpoint it's fine. Music is good but forgetable, animation is fine (I am glad they kept the Tezuka's trademark noses) and CGI is actually pretty good.


I was looking forward to this anime the most in the last season. Sadly it disappointed me, but the final episode gave me a little hope for the future. If the series returns for another season, I hope this will be the path it'll take. Anime about beginnings of Atom deserves something better than episode about making udon.