Astro Boy

AUTHOR: Tezuka, Osamu

ARTIST: Osamu Tezuka (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Akita Shoten (Japanese); Dark Horse Comics (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Tetsuwan Atom, 1952-1968

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1981 (English translation, 2002-2004)

Publication History

Tetsuwan Atom, the Japanese title for Astro Boy, was first published as Atom Taishi (literally “ambassador atom,” also known as “captain atom”) from April, 1951, to March, 1952, in the weekly magazine Shonen. In this manga, Atom had a supporting role. The story was later retouched and inserted into the Astro Boy series as a prequel and as an episode of the 1963-1966 animated television series. The first version of Atom was inspired by Mitchy, the androgynous robot from another manga by Tezuka (Metropolis), and by Perri, a robot character created by manga author Fukujiro Yokoi.

The Tetsuwan Atom series was first published weekly in Shonen from April, 1952, to March, 1968, and then in other publications until 1981: From 1967 to 1969 the series was published in a newspaper; two other series/reeditions were published in 1972-1973 and in 1980-1981. There have been many reprints and several reeditions of the manga, often with changes, including the 1981 Sun Comics collected edition by Akita Shoten, which is the most renowned in Japan and abroad as it is the version used for foreign editions. The Akita Shoten collection contains, in many stories, newly added pages drawn by Tezuka as introductory commentary. From a philological point of view, these editions have two negative aspects: Tezuka often intervened by retouching and redrawing several details of the pages, therefore even the so-called ultimate edition is different from the original, which is hard to find even in Japan, and the order of publication that Tezuka and Akita Shoten wanted was not the original order (stories from the 1960’s are mixed with stories from the 1950’s).

In the United States, the first version of Astro Boy was not Tezuka’s original manga but an apocryphal version published by Gold Key in 1965, licensed by NBC (which had been broadcasting the Astro Boy animated series since 1963), and based on the television version, but which was severely criticized by Tezuka. Whether or not Tezuka legally authorized this version is unknown. In 1987-1988, the twenty-issue color comic book The Original Astro Boy was published by NOW Comics. In 2002, Dark Horse Comics began translating, directly into trade-paperback volumes, the Akita Shoten collection, recognized by Tezuka as definitive. The American edition consists of twenty-three books published from March, 2002, to January, 2004. Volumes 1 and 2 were later republished as one trade paperback in September, 2008. All the volumes follow the Japanese order of publication of the Akita Shoten edition, and the pages are turned in order to make reading the manga more natural for Western readers. The American edition is translated by renowned manga scholar Frederik L. Schodt, who offers a contextualizing introduction in the first volume.

Plot

Tetsuwan Atom is a “story manga” (a concept introduced in Japan by Tezuka) consisting of weekly episodes that form various story arcs. It is a seventy-three-episode series, formed by adventures of various lengths in which Atom (Astro in the American version) fights evil robots, solves crimes, and helps humans. The manga was created by Tezuka for children, and it is a prototype of the manga category known as “shonen.” It is also one of the first examples of science-fiction manga in the post-World War II period and offers an optimistic vision of the future.

The narrative structure is based on a prior event, which readers may rely on to understand Atom’s psychology and behavior as well as those of his partners. Atom is born from a tragedy. In the early twenty-first century, Dr. Umataro Tenma (Dr. Astor Boynton II), director general of the Japanese Ministry of Science, has a beloved son Tobio (Toby) who dies in a car accident; overwhelmed by grief, Tenma decides to build a powerful and clever robot whose appearance is identical to Tobio’s and who is activated on April 7, 2003. When the scientist realizes that this robot, however sophisticated, is not Tobio and cannot grow as a normal child, he sells him to a circus. After some time, Atom is rescued by the new director general, Dr. Ochanomizu (Dr. Packadermus J. Elefun), a defender of robots’ civil rights. Atom begins a new life: Ochanomizu creates two robot parents and two siblings for Atom. Among Atom’s best friends are Higeoyaji (Mr. Mustachio), a detective, and young Ken’ichi, a classmate. Atom attends school and plays with other children like a normal child, but he also fights crime and injustice around the world so that robots can live in harmony with humans.

In the American edition of Tetsuwan Atom, identifying a coherent sequence among the story arcs is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, the story manga structure allows readers to enjoy extensive and independent self-contained narratives. Some specific stories can be pinpointed that constitute relevant plot turns. “Atlas” (Volume 18 in the Dark Horse edition) marks the introduction of the eponymous robot, which contains the “Omega Factor,” a device that makes him evil; Atlas is one of the most powerful robots in the world, and the Omega Factor, which makes robots capable of hurting or killing humans, is an important element of Tetsuwan Atom’s mythology. “Mad Machine” (Volume 3) deals with the concept of a “day off” for robots and the subsequent problems among humans; the story is an important allegory about slavery and workers’ rights. In The Greatest Robot on Earth (Volume 3) a powerful robot named Pluto, programmed to destroy the seven strongest robots on Earth, faces Atom after having destroyed the other robots. “The Blue Knight” (Volume 19) introduces a robot that is a hero among other mechanical men because it defends them against humans who treat them badly; the story is a significant parable about racism and discrimination.

Characters

• Atom, a.k.a. Astro (English edition), is sustained with nuclear power and has a 100,000 horsepower reactor. He understands sixty languages and has rockets coming out of his limbs, machine guns in his backside, lasers inside the fingers, and other powers and functions. He is a mechanical copy of Tobio Tenma (Astor Boynton). He tries to be as human as possible and has delicate feelings and a deep sense of justice.

• Dr. Ochanomizu, a.k.a. Dr. Packadermus J. Elefun and Mr. Pompous, director general of the Ministry of Science, is a stout, middle-aged man with white hair and a big nose; he is an assumed father for Atom and helps him in his adventures.

• Higeoyaji, a.k.a. Old Man Moustache, Dr. Walrus, and Mr. Mustachio, is a stout, bald, middle-aged man who declares himself a private detective. He is Tezuka’s representation of the Japanese Everyman, full of common sense. Like Ochanomizu, he is like a father to Atom and often helps the little robot in his missions for peace and justice.

• Dr Umataro Tenma, a.k.a. Dr. Astor Boynton II, is Atom’s inventor and the father of late Tobio Tenma. He is a brilliant man of science and was a good soul before losing his nerve after his son’s death. He has become a sort of evil scientist.

• Uran, a.k.a. Zoran or Astro Girl, is a robot girl created by Ochanomizu as Atom’s sister.

• Cobalt, a.k.a. Jet, is Astro’s brother; like Uran, he is similar to Atom but less advanced.

• Atlas, a somewhat dark version of Atom, was created either by Tenma or, in other versions of the manga, by other villains. He first appears in 1956. He is equipped with a program called Omega Factor, which allows robots to ignore the basic rules of not hurting or killing humans.

• Osamu Tezuka is a metacharacter who often appears in stories and comments on them.

Artistic Style

Tezuka’s style in Astro Boy is most representative of manga for children in the 1950’s and 1960’s. From the illustrative point of view, figures are round and soft. Tezuka was inspired by American commercial animation from the 1930’s and 1940’s (especially Walt Disney’s and Max Fleischer’s); features such as eyes, faces, bodies, and hands derive directly from those styles. These kinds of figures are visually enjoyable for children, easily readable as images, and create a sense of affection. Tezuka’s innovation with these types of characters is that, despite being visually cartoonish, they are mortal; people and robots in Tezuka’s works can actually die, and sometimes do).

Tezuka’s mise-en-scène is innovative. The composition of the panels within the page is dynamic; panels have various shapes and sizes, giving readers an impression of movement and suggesting a reading pace. In Astro Boy, synthesis is fundamental: Backgrounds are drawn only when necessary to the narrative, and figures are always neatly drawn at the center of the scene.

Tezuka’s drawings naturally evolved from 1951 to 1968 (and in subsequent versions of Astro Boy), but this evolution is hardly recognizable in the American edition for two reasons: Tezuka revised most of his stories for the Akita Shoten edition, trying to homogenize the drawing style, and his preferred order of publication inhibits readers from noticing significant changes in Atom.

Themes

In Astro Boy, there are three main levels of interpretation. On the first level, the manga is basically a science-fiction/adventure serial for children, in which each adventure contains a hidden moral, meaning that, thanks to Tezuka’s ability to avoid pedantic storytelling, young readers will learn without even noticing.

On another level, the series offers an antiracist, propacifist, and optimistic view of Japan: Many of the characters demonstrate a self-evident otherness and struggle to be accepted by so-called normal people, whether they be humans, Japanese, or earthlings. This kind of moral message is central to Atom Taishi.

The third level of interpretation adds both historical and political dimensions related to the international role of postwar Japan, as seen by Tezuka in the early 1950’s. Because Atom was “a boy of twelve,” one can interpret Astro Boy as a parable of Japan’s emergence from the terrible defeat (and exposure to atomic weaponry) of World War II. Atom is a child-robot born from collapsed Japan and looks toward a future of peace and dialogue with the world’s political powers. In this sense, Astro Boy is a long-running series of moral apologues for both Tezuka’s generation and, above all, the generation of children born after the war who learned to live by a new set of pacifist values.

Impact

Atom/Astro is one of the most famous fictional characters in the world. In Japan, Tetsuwan Atom has had a deep and lasting effect on Japanese popular culture. Its general plot and symbols stimulated reflection among young readers, and its sales have been impressively constant for decades (it is one of the most reprinted and reedited manga of all time). Japanese culture and society have so deeply absorbed Astro Boy’s values and content that the manga is considered a national treasure.

Tetsuwan Atom was the first Japanese animated series to be broadcast in the United States, and Astro is one of the most-remembered non-American cartoon characters. Though American audiences did not initially recognize the story as a Japanese narrative, Astro Boy was celebrated in later years as a genuine Japanese masterwork. The Astro Boy franchise has remained lively in the United States, although mainly among those who watched the 1960’s series.

Finally, from a narrative and graphical point of view, Astro Boy is an important chapter in Tezuka’s long and busy career. Its impact as a series is considerable, but its innovations in style and theme are key to Tezuka’s overall canon. Storytelling elements such as the “star system” (characters that recur from one manga to another), and the use of panels with dynamic shapes and visual storytelling, along with Tezuka’s courageous sensibility in dealing with important values, have had strong influences on generations of readers and comics creators.

Films

Tetsuwan Atom: Uchu no yusha (Astro Boy). Directed by Rintaro, Yoshitake Suzuki, Eiichi Yamamoto. Fuji TV, 1964. Features episodes 46, 56, and 71 from the original series.

Astro Boy. Directed by David Bowers. Imagi Animation Studios/Imagi Crystal/Tezuka Production, 2009. Features the voices of Nicolas Cage, Charlize Theron, and Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy.

Television Series

Tetsuwan Atom. MBS, 1959-1960. Also known as “Mighty Atom.” This live-action, black-and-white series of sixty-five episodes aired in Japan on Fuji TV and starred Masato Segawa as Atom.

Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy). Directed by Osamu Tezuka, et al. Mushi Production, 1963-1966. This animated series aired in Japan on Fuji TV and NHK from January, 1963, to December, 1966. Adapted and reedited by producer Fred Ladd, 104 of the original 193 episodes aired in the United States on NBC from September, 1963, to August, 1965.

Shin Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy). Directed by Noboru Ishiguro and Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka Production, 1980-1981. This animated series (fifty-two episodes) aired in Japan from October, 1980, to December, 1981. It also aired in the United States; its title translates literally to “the new iron-arm atom.” It is more modern than its predecessors thematically but full of the manga’s spirit. In nine episodes, Astro fights against Atlas. The overall tone is more tragic than that of previous versions.

Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy). Directed by Kazuya Konaka. Tezuka Production, et al, 2003-2004. Fifty 25-minute episodes. This series aired in Japan from April, 2003, to March, 2004. It aired in the United States in 2004. This remake balances dark themes and playful subjects, making it more akin to the 1963-1966 series than to the 1980-1981 version.

Further Reading

Tezuka, Osamu. Adolf (1995-1996).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Black Jack (2008-2011).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Phoenix (2002-2008).

Bibliography

Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. New York: Collins Design, 2004.

McCarthy, Helen. The Art of Osamu Tezuka, God of Manga. New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2009.

Onoda Power, Natsu. God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.

Otsuka, Eiji. “Disarming Atom: Tezuka Osamu’s Manga at War and Peace.” Translated by Thomas LaMarre. In Mechademia 3, edited by Frenchie Lunning. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Pellitteri, Marco. The Dragon and the Dazzle: Models, Strategies, and Identities of Japanese Imagination. London: John Libbey, 2010.

Schodt, Frederik L. The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy, and the Manga/Anime Revolution. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 2006.