A.T.O.M. (an acronym of Alpha Teens On Machines, 2005-2006) is a French animated television series, which chronicles the adventures of five teenagers (the eponymous Alpha Teens), set in the fictional Landmark City. The Alpha Teens test prototype vehicles and weapons for Lee Industries, and use these prototypes to combat criminals, particularly the sadistic Big Bad Alexander Paine.
There has been a second season aired in Europe, but it has not been aired in the US as yet. This season contains an interesting plot twist: Mr. Lee, the industrialist who was the team's mentor in the first season, turns out to have been Evil All Along. Even worse, he's created the Mu-Team, a group of mutated Psycho Rangers with super powers, from the heroes' DNA through Lego Genetics.)
- Ace Pilot: Hawk and Bogey.
- Action Girl: Lioness.
- Animesque
- Bald of Awesome: King.
- Big Bad: Alexander Payne.
- Blond Guys Are Evil: Subverted with Shark. Played straight with Mr. Lee.
- Brains and Brawn: Those Two Bad Guys Spydah and Flesh.
- Break the Haughty: Hawk. Every episode the rest of the cast and the extras are dicks to him, but it's not like he doesn't deserve it, most of the time.
- Catch Phrase:
- Axel: "Gear it up!"
- King: "Outta my grill!"
- Lioness: "¡Vamanos!"
- Shark: "Shake the sand out of your shorts(, dude)."
- Hawk: "Hawk flies in, he saves the day" and "Oh yeah, who rocks?!"
- City of Adventure: Landmark City, where most of the series takes place.
- Cloning Blues
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: In season 2, Mr. Lee turns out to have been one of these all along.
- Dumb Muscle: Flesh and Mass.
- Evil Minions
- Evilutionary Biologist: Mr. Lee in season 2.
- Executive Suite Fight: Once: the scuffle between Dragon and Mr. Lee on the top floor of Lee Industries. Or three times, if you count the two fights in San Solomon as well.
- Finishing Move
- Flanderization: While Hawk is supposed to be egotistical, some episodes ignore his good points and turn him into a complete Jerkass.
- Five Man Band
- Fun with Acronyms
- Genius Bruiser: King.
- Genius Ditz: Shark, who pulls off the same sort of close calls and general dumb luck as Mihoshi from Tenchi Muyo!.
- Goggles Do Nothing
- Hard Light: The tech that Lee's armor in Season 2 is based on is actually called this.
- Ho Yay: Fans tend to like pairing up Hawk and Shark.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Hawk, usually.
- Lock and Load Montage
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Dragon is revealed to be Axel's father, only to later be revealed to be a clone of Axel's father.
- Mad Scientist: Spydah, Recombo, Mr. Lee, Eel; there are no shortage of them in this show.
- Male Gaze: The Lock and Load Montage goes like this: The guys put on helmets and gloves and fasten their seatbelts. Lioness? The viewer gets to see her zip her suit over her boobs, and we get a worm's eye view from the rear of her sitting on her motorcycle.
- Merchandise-Driven
- Mismatched Eyes: Mr. Lee, though it's not apparent initially.
- Not So Different
- Parental Abandonment
- The Psycho Rangers/Five-Bad Band: The Mu-Team, evil, superpowered clones of the A.T.O.M. team, are major villians in the second season. They were created through genetic engineering by Mr. Lee.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Mass.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Hawk.
- The Smurfette Principle
- Thick Line Animation
- Toyless Toyline Character: Lioness
- Worthy Opponent: Dragon.