Astro Boy

If anime is going to have a starting point, then it's most certainly "Astro Boy," or "Tetsuwan Atom," based on the manga that debuted ten years prior by Osamu Tezuka. For the sake of historical purposes of being the first anime series to be on television, I say this is a must-see. As the first of its kind, it is certainly "experimental." The episode begins with a tragedy with Tobio Tenma dying in a car accident, but after the birth of the titular Astro Boy, there is a mix of comedy (okay, there is some comedy with how mad Prof. Tenma gets), action, and adventure, so it doesn't exactly establish a consistent tone. As the episode progresses, when Atom is sold to the circus, you do see how robots are marginalized in society, especially with how the ringleader treats the robots. Even after saving him and the audience after a fire, the ringleader only sees his robots as his property and were just doing their job. However, Prof. Ochanomizu takes custody of Atom by showing the ringleader that robots have gathered in fighting for their rights. Though the animation quality may not be the best (how it got funded is an entirely separate post of its own), by the time you finish the first episode, you will realize that "Astro Boy" is still relevant to this day as AI advances and prejudice is still prevalent in the world. Granted you get a bizarre mix of comedy and tragedy, but I still feel to get an understanding of both the future and the present, it is best to not just look at the past, but the very beginning.

good job