Astro Boy

This fall a 3D animated movie will be released in America about Osamu Tezuka’s iconic creation, the boy robot who feels human emotions and fights for good. It will be interesting to see how he’s changed to fit 21st century American sensibilities, as he always struck me as so mid-century Japanese.

In many ways Astro Boy’s story overlaps that of other characters, like Pinocchio created by kindly Geppeto to be the son he never had. Here it’s the preeminent robotocist Dr. Tenma who builds Astro Boy to replace the 10 year old son he lost in a car accident. Unfortunately, like the robot boy in Stanley Kubrick’s A.I., Astro Boy is rejected by the parent he loves for his apparent inability to be truly human. Redeemed by another scientist who appreciates his unique humanity, Astro Boy is able to lead a happy and for us humans, useful life protecting people and robots from each other.

As mentioned previously, one of the characteristics of Japanese culture I find fascinating is the recursiveness in its art forms. As perhaps the first modern manga, many of the characters in Astro Boy (including Tezuka himself) appear in other manga and anime, playing different roles while keeping their outward appearance and individual personality. In Tezuka’s manga about the life of the Buddha for instance, the ill fated child named Assaji is from another of Tezuka's manga, playing an indefatigable if villainous character called Hosuke Sharaku, wearing his trademark bandage on his head.

Tezuka even humorously created his own star system much like the Hollywood studios of the 1930s reporting how much each character was paid for appearances in his works.

For Tezuka’s 80th birthday. Google created this very nice Astro Boy theme for its iGoogle portal. If you'd like to watch the old shows in English, you can find the Astro Boy videos on You Tube.