TV sets in the early '60s were ruled by shows like "The Flintstones" and "Rocky and Bullwinkle," with their slapstick humor keeping kids entertained for hours. But across the Pacific, there was something revolutionary getting ready to crash land on U.S. screens. Which anime series first showed American viewers that cartoons could be more than just talking animals and cavemen?
▼
"Astro Boy," created by the legendary "god of manga" Osamu Tezuka, blasted onto American TV in 1963 as the first anime series to cross the Pacific. Unlike U.S. animation at the time, anime followed a stricter serialized format, so no groundhog daying at the end of the episode. NBC aired 104 episodes of Tezuka's atomic-powered kid before ratings slipped, but the show's mix of robot heroics and surprisingly deep storytelling had already planted the seeds for America's incoming anime obsession.
Share This Trivia
Want More Nostalgia?
Check out our other quizzes and random trivia questions!
More Trivia
- What was Gloria Estefan's first #1 song?
- Which singer is known as the "Queen of Funk"?
- How many times has a Grammy been taken away?
- What was Nintendo's first product?
- What was Pixar's first feature film?
- What's the first dinosaur seen in "Jurassic Park"?
- Who mentors the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
- Name the movie: "I'm walking here!"