AstroBoy Online Forums

Hi!
New to this fantastic site!
I was wondering who were the singers of the opening-closing themes in the usa version, and all the other credits of the themes (year, composer, and so on)

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Jay Rath (who did Skunk's voice) visited us here. A few of your questions are answered in the last paragraph of the third post in this thread and in the 5th post here.

As for the music itself, maybe it's written somewhere in the credits? The opening theme however had similarities with the theme of the 1963 version. Somebody else might have more information.

Welcome to the forum, my friend.

The 1963 theme was by Tatsuo Takei, and the English lyrics were written by Don Rockwell for the dub.

The 1980 opening theme was the same tune, but re-done by Seiji Suzuki (who did the music for a ton of other anime including some of the Black Jack and Lupin 3 works) and Nariaki Saegusa. They also wrote a new closing theme.
When it was dubbed into English, the music was kept the same and English lyrics were written by Jay Rath (voice of Skunk) and Becke Wilenski (voice of Uran) for the opening and closing themes. It was sung by the entire voice cast for the recording.

The 2003 opening theme is called True Blue by Zone. The closing theme I think is called A Boy's Heart, but I might need correcting on this.
The second half of the series uses different themes. The opening is Now Or Never by Chemistry & M-Flo. The closing theme is another remake of Tatsuo Takei's original 1963 theme but I don't know who sings it.
All these themes were scrapped for the 2003 English dub, and a new score (without lyrics) was written by William Kevin Anderson (who has also made a few appearances on this forum).

I wonder what happened to Jay Rath? I never heard back from him. Maybe I'm too fanatical and scared him off!

Anyway Tatox, welcome to the forum!

Woah! Jay Rath wrote the lyrics for the '80's english theme? Someone should ask him about that one confusing line in the second verse... what was it... "when you need someone strong, our robot friend uh something for long..."

I was also suprised to find out that the tune from the above theme was written in the 60's and was the original Japanese theme. Beforehand I only knew the english 60's theme and it's pretty different. "There you go Astroboy, on your flight into space..." I had downloaded a 5 minute 60's japanese intro expecting it to sound like that but in sounded like the '80's theme (which was written in the 60's, but without the spacey guitar riffs in the middle and end).

Darn it, there was more I wanted to ask but I forget now!

J

The confusing lyrics you refer to are actually:

"When you need someone strong, our robot friend is there before long...."

It sounds a little odd because of the way it's paced. It goes something like:

"our robot friend is there be-.....(pause)......-fore long...."

Hey Boodies, good to have you back.

Originally posted by boodies@Aug 28 2005, 09:31 PM
"our robot friend is there be-.....(pause)......-fore long...."

"Our robot friend is there be-" (casually pauses to take a drink) "-fore long..."

The full lyrics are included in the booklet with the Madman DVD boxset, along with some other cool stuff.

Soaring high in the sky
He may be small, but only in size.
Astro Boy, Astro Boy.
He is brave and gentle and wise.
Stronger than all the rest
This mighty robot will pass the test
Oh we'll endear him, Oh we'll cheer him
The amazing Astro Boy.
When you need someone strong
Our robot friend is there before long
Astro Boy, Astro Boy
He will try to right any wrong.
When there's danger nearby
No matter, who, what, where, when or why
He will defend us. He'll befriend us
The amazing Astro Boy.

I had a few bits wrong, I thought he was "soaring high in the skies", and "All villains fear him" instead of "Oh we'll endear him".
It's the closing theme that's shockingly hard to understand though. Until Madman's release, no one was even close to getting it right.

Come and join us in our melody
A song of happiness for you and me
Dream of joys, sing about a boy
Name of hero Astro Boy.
Come and join us in our fantasy
We can all be heroes you and me
Dream of joys, sing about a boy
Name of hero Astro Boy.
Trying not to wait so long
So tune in for a fight for life
Strong as steel and with a heart of gold
Dream of love and all your heartfelt voices will be heard
Sharing dreams and bringing joy for all.

Now that I listen to it again, I'm not even sure Madman have it right. "Dream of joys" sounds decidedly like "Sing of joy". "Name of hero Astro Boy" still sounds like "Little hero Astro Boy" to me, "Trying not to wait so long" sounds like "Trying not to wait for long", "a fight for life" definately sounds like "the fight for life" but I'm not sure about what comes before it, "Dream of love and all your heartfelt voices will be heard" sounds like "Sing of love with all your heart, your voices will be heard", and the last line doesn't quite fit to my ears.

Interestingly, everytime I tried to figure out the closing theme in French, I gave up after a few sentences! Astro is really universal!

Originally posted by DrFrag+Aug 29 2005, 03:43 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (DrFrag @ Aug 29 2005, 03:43 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Hey Boodies, good to have you back.

<!--QuoteBegin--boodies@Aug 28 2005, 09:31 PM
"our robot friend is there be-.....(pause)......-fore long...."

"Our robot friend is there be-" (casually pauses to take a drink) "-fore long..."

The full lyrics are included in the booklet with the Madman DVD boxset, along with some other cool stuff.

Soaring high in the sky
He may be small, but only in size.
Astro Boy, Astro Boy.
He is brave and gentle and wise.
Stronger than all the rest
This mighty robot will pass the test
Oh we'll endear him, Oh we'll cheer him
The amazing Astro Boy.
When you need someone strong
Our robot friend is there before long
Astro Boy, Astro Boy
He will try to right any wrong.
When there's danger nearby
No matter, who, what, where, when or why
He will defend us. He'll befriend us
The amazing Astro Boy.

I had a few bits wrong, I thought he was "soaring high in the skies", and "All villains fear him" instead of "Oh we'll endear him".
It's the closing theme that's shockingly hard to understand though. Until Madman's release, no one was even close to getting it right.
[/b][/quote]
Hmm, i'm not so sure about some parts of it either.

"Oh we'll endear him" doesn't sound right.

I always thought it to be "Oh villains jeer him"

Subsequent listens have failed to dispel my doubts. Interesting....

Originally posted by Astro forever@Aug 28 2005, 02:06 PM
Interestingly, everytime I tried to figure out the closing theme in French, I gave up after a few sentences! Astro is really universal!

The opening to the 60s was changed in the midst of the series. The latter version had Atom & Uranium flying all over the world, past famous landmarks, such as the Eiffel tower, the leaning Tower of Yummy, etc.