Astro Boy
Absolute Anime; ANN; IMDb; TV.com; Wikipedia

This was based on the original anime Astro Boy, which was made in the 1960s. The new series, made in 2003, aired for awhile on Kids' WB in 2004. I don't suppose I saw all of it, and I don't remember it that well, but I think it was probably sort of okay, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again someday. I guess some of the names in the series stuck to the Japanese even in the English dub, but then again, some names were changed, but not to the same things they'd been changed to in the English dub of the old series, oddly enough....

Anyway, Dr. Tenma (Boynton, in the dub of the old series) was the director of Metro City's Ministry of Science. He created a robot which was modeled after his dead son Tobio. The robot was very powerful, and possessed kokoro (human intelligence, emotions, free will), along with Tobio's memories. But Tenma went mad, deactivated the robot, and burned the Ministry of Science. The new director, Dr. O'Shay (Elefun, in the old dub), reactivated the robot, who he renamed Astro; O'Shay acts as a father to Astro. Astro now had no memories of Tobio (though they would soon start to resurface).

Meanwhile, Tenma is now this evil, independent roboticist who creates powerful robots to fight and test Astro, who he hopes to rule the world with someday, because he likes robots more than humans. And many humans seem to be scared of robots, particularly the few who have kokoro... including Astro. Many such robots attack people, but Astro fights to protect humans. He also wants a normal childhood. He wants to go to school, where he's made a few human friends.

I can't think what else to say right now, except that the retro look and the central theme of the show remind me of Cyborg 009 and Kikaider.