Little Astro Boy

Little Astro Boy (ろぼっとアトム) is a 2014 anime series produced by Tezuka Productions, aimed at a preschool audience. The series focuses on a 5-year-old Astro and his adventures with friends.

Series
Little Astro Boy ran for eight episodes, and was initially broadcast during the children's block of Nigerian station Channels TV. A simulcast ran on the channel's official Youtube. The episodes were originally broadcast from March 22 to April 26, 2014. Astro Boy is a 5 year old robot boy, learning about the world around him from his robot parents, his mentor Dr. O'Shay, and his older human friends. He is an upbeat and positive child, but his abilities are envied by the mansion-dwelling criminal Hamegg. Hamegg enlists the help of his friends, the scientist Dr. Flau and the purple gorilla Gora, in schemes to outsmart, outdo, or even impress Astro and friends. In the end, Astro either succeeds against Hamegg or winds up working together with him.

The series subject matter was more jovial than previous Astro Boy series, and each episode contained a positive message for children. As well, the antics of Hamegg and his cohorts are far more silly and lighthearted than the villains of previous Astro Boy series. The show received positive feedback in Nigeria, but was not aired anywhere else.

Over a year after its initial broadcast, Little Astro Boy was released on a bilingual Region 2 DVD by Tezuka Productions. The ending theme for the series, "Robot Boy, Beyond the Stars" by Moon.s, was released separately on Soundcloud.

Characters
The only Osamu Tezuka characters to appear in the series are Astro, Tamao (renamed as Paul), Higeoyaji, Dr. Ochanomizu (renamed as Dr. O'Shay), Hamegg, and Astro's robot parents. An early promotional image shows Kenichi, but he was replaced with a new character named Ken, an athletic leader type boy. As well, Mitchy's original character design in the image shows her looking more like her Tezuka Star System design, but in the series, she was changed to have long purple hair in a side ponytail.

New characters were added to the series, mostly robots. These include Reggie the repairman robot, Pikko the floating teacher robot, Tack the overeating car robot, and Gora the gorilla robot. The series takes place in a small hillside town where humans and robots live together. The setting is very colourful, with the habitual tea-drinking Dr. O'Shay living in a teapot-shaped house, and Hamegg living in a pig-shaped castle. Settings or machinery related to Hamegg are also pig-themed, relating to his name.

Episodes

 * 1) Astro Becomes a Racer! (アトム、レーサーになる！？) Aired March 22, 2014
 * 2) Recycling Gone Wild (暴走リサイクル) Aired March 22, 2014
 * 3) Astro Goes to Space (アトム、宇宙へ行) Aired March 29, 2014
 * 4) We Love Cleaning (おそうじ大好き) Aired March 29, 2014
 * 5) Fly! Mitchy (飛べ！ミッチー) Aired April 12, 2014
 * 6) Heart on Fire (ハートに火がついた) Aired April 12, 2014
 * 7) I’m Moler, You See? (オ、オイラはモーグラーなんだな) Aired April 26, 2014
 * 8) Astro and The 5 Adventurers (時間を盗んだ男ＶＳアトムと5人と冒険隊) Aired April 26, 2014