Tetsuwan Atom series (2024)

Tetsuwan Atom is a manga created by Osamu Tezuka in 1952 who got a black&white anime in 1963 which was adapted overseas as "Astro Boy".

Manga series:[]

The series talk about an atom powered robot who was built to replace Tobio, who is the deceased son of Dr. Tenma. However, as the robot Tobio could not grow up as a real child and neither fully replace his son, Dr. Tenma sold him to a cruel ring master called Ham Egg. Later the poor boy robot suffered a lot of abuse till he got rescued by the good Dr. Ochanomizu and later got renamed as Atom.

After that, Atom started to live a life of adventures fighting for peace between humans and robots, no matter how many humans looked down at him for being a robot.

During his adventures in the mangá Atom even got a little sister called Uran and a prototype brother named Cobalt. In these stories, Dr. Tenma stalks Atom and attempt to try make him join him side, something which was not quite explored in the 1963 and 1983 series.

1963 Anime[]

The anime drawn a similar concept to the mangá with a set of changes here and there... There, the plot is like the original manga with Tobio dying in an accident and Dr. Tenma creating a replica of his to later sell him to a circus. The robot is badly treated by the ring master Ham Egg and is again saved by Dr. Ochanomizu like the mangá. However, Dr. Tenma just abandons Atom and disappear from the story at certain moments and his sinister father figure was not explored as the original mangá did. In that first animated series Atom still got his little sister Uran, his brother Cobalt (who was completely redesigned to look different than Atom) and he even got a new brother in the shape of a baby called Chi-tan.

1980 anime[]

The 1983 anime was completely made in color and made some time after the end of Jetter Mars. The new series have a slightly similar concept of the original series. Here Dr. Tenma planned to create a robot fully capable of emotions, however he failed four times and was visited by the criminal Skunk who suggested him to use the Omega Factor circuit which was developed by Count Walpurgis. Displeased with Skunk's offer, Dr. Tenma ordered him to leave. Despite his failures, Tobio encouraged Dr. Tenma to create a new robot model with the shape of a child.

Some days after planning the creation of a robot with full human emotions, Dr. Tenma ended up forgetting the promise of going to the park with Tobio who recklessly tried to return home with a car robot. However, that attitude led the little boy to be mortally wounded in a car crash.

In the hospital, Tobio begged his father to make a robot based in his image and also wished him to love the robot as much he loved his own son, with this Tobio dies. Later Dr. Tenma started to work in his robot model based in Tobio's image, however the Prime Minister ordered him to cancel the project as it could be too dangerous.

Nevertless, Dr. Tenma concluded the Tobio robot and later took him as his own son secretly, without knowing that his robot son's blueprints got stolen by Skunk and Count Walpurgis who created his own robot model called Atlas. Few time after learning his abilities, the robot Tobio started to act strange and his eyes started to blink in a red fashion. Dr. Honda thought the robot Tobio had become insane and tried to destroy him, however the vehicle used to disassemble the robot boy went insane and the robot boy saved them anyway.

Dr. Tenma realizing that he could not live in Japan anymore after his robot son was discovered attempted to flee to America, however he ended up disowning the robot Tobio after he caused a mess in a banket in the ship. Later, the robot boy was tricked by the ring master ham egg into signing a lifetime contract as a robot slave for his circus. And then the ship was attacked by Atlas who was ordered by Skunk to steal the money and all the goods from the sunken ship, however the robot Tobio ruined their plan and saved everyone. Unfortunately, the robot boy went off energy and then kidnapped by Ham Egg.

Dr. Tenma later dies off-screen due heart attack believing that his robot son was lost in the ocean, and Ham Egg brings the robot Tobio to his circus where he is abused pretty much like the 1963 series, but with less violence as Ham Egg was not that evil as he was in the two previous shows.

Again, Dr. Ochanomizu saves the robot from the abuse and renames him as Atom who start helping the Science Ministry against several menaces like Atlas (who is mainly based in the Blue Knight than the original Atlas) and criminals like Skunk and Kin Sankaku.

2003 anime[]

The 2003 anime is another remake of Tetsuwan Atom series and was made several years after the death of Osamu Tezuka who passed away in 1989.

That new version also shows Dr. Ochanomizu taking the credit for Atom's creation, something which was never seem in the original series. The 2003 series also got modern designs and high quality animations, near theatrical with new plot twists. There we see Dr. Tenma as the main antagonist as he wishes Atom to become a robot overlord who'll overthrow the humans who were

The new series shows the titular, yet unnamed at time, being awoke up by Dr. Ochanomizu who used all the means possible to revive the robot. He even caused a major power outage in the city for that action and renamed him as "Atom". Unknown to him, Atom is a perfect copy of Tobio (Dr. Tenma's son who died in accident after fleeing his father laboratory after seeing robots being cruelly discarded), perhaps beyond perfect as he have his memories and personality and as well super powers.
Under shock upon seeing robots being discarded, the Tobio robot snapped and scared Dr. Tenma who had to shut him down, believing the robot could become a threat to humanity.
With this, he also destroyed several robot models and the robot Tobio was abandoned to later be found by Dr. Ochanomizu.

Atom, who had no memories of his past, because they got erased by Dr. Tenma started a new life of adventures and dealing with robot haters and criminals like Skunk and Dr. Minimini.

He also got his sister Uran who was based in studies of his design and personality, though Uran have only half of his strength and as well don't have his powers like lasers, arm cannons and as well the ability to fly.

The 2003 series also gave new backgrounds for Atlas (who was based in a young man called Daichi who died in accident), Denkou (who is this time represented as a kid).

Trivia:[]

• Atom has first appeared in the story "Ambassador (capitain) Atom" in 1951, however he was actually a minor character. The story was about the arrival of spaceships belonged by people from a diferent version of Earth which was destroyed and the humans of that devasted planet had slightly large ears. At first everything was well, till a food shortage started which caused the humans of Earth start a war against the space people. Tezuka after receiving constructive suggestions about his character Atom, who don't had personality in the original version, redrew the story ark making him the new main character and then Tetsuwan Atom series was later published in 1952.
• "Astro Boy" is mainly the dubbed name of the series "Tetsuwan Atom" outside Asia, although Japan does use the english title at times, it doesn't fully replace the series original name. Which means that all new publications related to the series still dons the title "Tetsuwan Atom" or "Mighty Atom".
• In the original series published by Tezuka Pro., the character is never referenced as "Astro Boy" and only his original title. A minor character of the 2003 series used the name "Astro Boy" while seeing Atom flying through the skies of Metrocity while sparkling as result of expelling the excess of energy from "Core" (the robot which was renamed as "Magnamite"). However, she keept calling the character as Atom later on.
• All dubbed versions of "Tetsuwan Atom" who are called as "Astro Boy" are non faithful translations of the original series.

Which means that most of the original stories was re-scripted or even omitted entirelly. The 1980 dubbed version of "Shin Tetsuwan Atom" was called as "Astro Boy" and omitted the story arks featuring the child version of the character Atlas, however it made impossible to explain his violence against humans later on. The 2003 animated series "Astro Boy - Tetsuwan Atom" was released in english under the title of "Astro Boy" and had a heavily edited story ark. Tobio Tenma dies in the original story while in the dubbed version he just runs away and Dr. Tenma creates a robot to replace him even though his son could be still alive. Daichi who was the son of Mr. Tokugawa, which served as basis for the creation of Atlas, died in the original version. However, the dub made him a robot from the start. Also, Mr. Tokugawa was the one who provided the research funds for the creation of Atom and future robots with Kokoro, however the dub omitted his actual involviment with Dr. Tenma. Due to that is safe to claim that "Astro Boy" is a non canon dubbed version of "Tetsuwan Atom" series.