Differences

Overview:
Despite of all suscess which Astro Boy has, it's good to know the series have several differences with the original story.

When Tetsuwan Atom was imported to USA and dubbed as "Astro Boy", most of the original concept of story was altered and the dubbed version didin't followed a close translation of it's original version.

In reality all versions of Astro Boy are heavilly edited versions of the original considering the missing scenes, script changes, missing episodes and inconsistensy of character names.

1963 series:
Despite that version of the dub making much suscess during it's release, the series was drastically edited.

Most of the cast of characters got their names changed with english puns like Dr. Elefun (for Dr. Ochanomizu), Astor Boynton 1 and 2  (for both Tobio and Dr. Tenma which was a forced pun with the dub own title).

And some of the names were inconsistent like "Astro Girl" for Uran (a rather deceiving name which give the impression that she is either a gender bender of the protagonist, girl friend or have the same abilities as himself which is obviously not true. Tezuka later showed in the 1980 series that Uran would not like to have the same name as her brother. The writters of the dub wanted so bad to follow a super hero comic book trend like "Bat Girl" that they changed Uran's name to Astro Girl regardless if it would be awful for a little sister sharing the same name of her brother, but changing the gender.)

The 1963 series still had changed scripts, missing episodes and as well episodes out of order like episodes which shows "Astro Girl" before her actual debut.

1980 series:
The 1980 series of Astro Boy attempted a more faithful translation of Shin Tetsuwan Atom, but it was still a heavilly edited version of the original.

Taking in consideration that Atlas' backstory as a child like robot was omitted and several plot elements became vague with the re-appearance of Atlas, this time in adult form, later on.

That also made difficult to explain his actions and his intence hatred of humans.

Several episodes also got aired out of order regardless if it would make difficult to understand the plot.

The dub also omitted several scenes and as well Uran's theme song which rather than putting subtitles, they just cutted it off.

2003 series:
This version is heavilly edited and have too many episodes broadcasted out of order after episode 2.

After episode 2, the protagonist already enter in Atlas' saga, making the viewer have the false impression that he/she had missed a episode.

In the dubbed version of episode 3, Astro Boy already shows skills which he never earned before like his finger laser and it also shows a re-scripted story for Atlas which shows Daichi being a robot from the start and merging him with minor characters from 1952 manga, 1963 anime and 1980 series.

Astro even went to school without any explanation and already having friends never introduced before.

That version became pretty vague for even altering Astro Boy's back story as well, in the dub Tobio Tenma just flee from home and his father simply give up of him in order to make a robot replacement.

Something which no father in their clear state of mind would do.

While in the original, Tobio Tenma dies in a car crash a scene of Dr. Tenma holding Tobio's dead body is seem (it appears when Dr. Ochanomizu says what happened to Tobio in episode 7) and Daichi passes away sometime before Mr. Tokugawa looked for Dr. Tenma's help in episode 6.

Is worth of note the original episode 6 shows that was Mr. Tokugawa who contributed with research funds for Dr. Tenma's technology. Making him a new version of the character Taba, who also financed Atom's creation in the Scara ark of the original 1952 manga.

Even the games "Astro Boy: Omega Factor" (it's worth to know that's a deceiving title since "Omega Factor" drive robots into insanity to the point of going into a killing spree) and Astro Boy 2004 shows the dub is actually NON canon.

Tobio's death is seem in Astro Boy: Omega Factor introduction (once a new game is selected) and "Dr. O'shay" mention that Tobio died while trying to run away and the scene of Dr. Tenma mourning his death is shown in Astro Boy 2004.

Atlas admits himself in Astro Boy: Omega Factor that Daichi had passed away and he was his replacement and in a QUIZ game from Astro Boy 2004 for PS2 is mentioned that Atlas is Mr. Tokugawa's dublicated robot son.

Both games original names are "Astro Boy - Tetsuwan Atom: The Secret of Atom's Heart" and "Astro Boy - Tetsuwan Atom".

The Pluto saga was also vague for starting in episode 13 which was meant to be Zoran's (another inconsistent name for Uran, since it's a name exclusive for male characters) introduction.

That episode already showed Zoran getting along with her brother and even showed a bird which was her friend named Houdini (that name is inconsistent, since Zoran was newly born and had no idea of someone like that).

The dub also made vague the reason which Pluto got interest in "Zoran", the original shows that Pluto learned from Uran that life is not all about fighting when she was singing while playing with the animals of the forest.

In the dub, they just showed "Zoran" being surprised by Pluto sudden arrival.

Dark Pluto was renamed as "Acheron" and "Pluto Won't Die" was renamed as "The Fall of Acheron" which doesn't make sense, considering that "Acheron" is just a minor character without feelings and neither personality that only appears in one episode and is destroyed few time after it's debut.

The Pluto saga also had several other characters showed up before their actual introduction which caused a lot of confusion between fans.

Their origins also were show later on without even trying to make them being flashbacks.

The characters got their personalities changed to the point they even deviate from the original version. Astro Boy even use robot like speech in his quotes and is rather bratty and rude if compared to Atom from the original version.

Same can be atributed to Zoran who don't have the same personality as Uran does by comparison.

In the original, Uran always call Atom as "oniisan" (older brother).

The dub doesn't show any kind of respect for their elders.

Atom would be offended if Uran just called him by the name.

A episode called "Eternal Boy" was removed due copyright issues with Peter Pan and was replaced with a episode clipshow featuring Dr. Tenma and Shadow. That episode also showed clips of episodes which both characters never participated (it's impossible that they even had monitored "Astro" during all of these scenes) and as well clips of episodes which still haven't got broadcasted before like "Micro Bear".

It's curious to know the episode still had re-used scenes from the past episodes.

The 2003 dub also had several sound tracks removed (including the introduction and ending themes) and also lacked the episode previews (in "Astro Boy - Tetsuwan Atom" had other characters besides Atom making episode previews.). ==Kid's Friendly Dub == Tetsuwan Atom is a animated japanese series whose had several serious plot elements like these related to death, atomic energy reference and self sacrifice. When Tetsuwan Atom was translated to english, the series was altered to fit the american rule that "everything animated is a cartoon and should be suitable for children." As such, all television series were adapted in "Astro Boy" which despite of all suscess is a "kid's friendly" version of the original(with the exception of the Dark Horse's manga publication). Due to that all dubbed series are inconsistent if compared with the original Tetsuwan Atom and elements which were considered inappropriate for children were edited or removed. Although the dubbed series contributed to Tezuka's work to be better known outside Japan, it's important to know that the dub is not absolute and Tezuka's original and unedited work still have the right to be known world wide. It's important to use both titles to differ the "kid's friendly" version of Tezuka's work from the original and unedited work.

In resume:

The dubbed series, however, is not a replacement for the original Tetsuwan Atom and is just overly popular.
 * Astro Boy is a "kid's friendly" version of Tetsuwan Atom since it was edited to fit the rule "that everything animated is a cartoon and should be suitable for children". So, much of it's content were altered in order to create a dubbed series suitable for "all ages".

Due to that, the original creators have free creative control which allow them to make more serious stories with a more moral message. It's been said that Tezuka had once received critiques stating that he should change his concept of story for being too violent, however as Tezuka is japanese and have his own creative control, he could not follow the same rule which only exists in America. Considering it would be against his right as a author.
 * Tetsuwan Atom is a japanese series and due to that, the american rule which states "that everything animated is a cartoon and should be suitable for children" doesn't affect the quality of Tezuka's work.

DVD Releases
Unfortunatelly, the DVDs of all Astro Boy series didin't had the original japanese series entirelly.

The 1980 series only had the original version of episode 2 and some fragments of the original Shin Tetsuwan Atom.

The 2003 series omitted the original japanese series entirelly, it caused the series to have low dvd sales and as well poor reviews.