Graphic of Astro Boy.
Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム) (Tetsuwan Atomu) or known as Atom in Japan. He is the eponymous protagonist in the series of "Astro Boy". Astro is a robot. Astro is very friendly and kind robot.
Astro strives to be as human-like as possible by going to school, making friends, and obtaining a robotic family for himself. In the 2003 version Dr. O'shay and Zoran is his family instead. However, Astro is almost always pulled away from his happy emulation of human life by Ochanomizu (or of his own accord) to deal with dangers to Earth.
History
Background
Originally created by Doctor Tenma, Astro was meant to be a replacement for his son: Toby: In the 1980's version he had died in a car crash. In the 2003 serise he had ran away and died in a car crash. In the 2009's version,Toby was recently killed by the Peacekeeper, a robot that has the power to absorb and contol anything.
When Astro was made, Dr Tenma was angry that Astro was not able to grow and age like a normal human child. In the manga, Doctor Tenma abandoned him to a Robot Circus led by the cruel Ham Egg (In the 1980's anime version, Astro joined the circus himself. In the 2003 series, the circus appears in a different story. Instead in the 2003 serise, Dr Tenma shut down Astro and leaves him in storage at the Ministry of Science were later Professsor Ochanomizu will find him.) At the circus, Astro was found by Professor Ochanomizu and adopted.
Professor Ochanomizu gave Astro a family with a robotic mother, father, sister (Uran) or (Zoran as called in the 2003 version), and brother (Cobalt). As head of the Ministry of Science, Professor Ochanomizu often calls on Astro to help resolve situations involving humans, robots, and on occasion, extraterrestrials.
Powers
- Flight: Astro's most commonly used power is his flight ability. He achieves this by retracting his feet into his legs and blowing exhaust out.
- Super Stength: Another famous ability is his oft quoted 100,000 (in some versions boosted to 1,000,000) horsepower. he can also lift 65 tons at least.
- Digit beams: In later manga and the 1980 and 2003 series he has lasers in his fingers.
- Machine intellect: He also has useful tools such as a brain that can speak more than 100 languages and solve tough math problems in seconds, searchlights in his eyes, and in earlier versions, the power to look into a humans heart to decipher if their intentions are good or evil.
- Laser cannon arm: In the 2003 anime he gains a powerful new weapon, a cannon in his arm which he uses in escape from volcano island to create a huge tornado of laser to save a ship from a exploding volcano. This was likely added to give Astro a big appeal to viewers of a new generation.
- Posterior mounted machine guns: The new Astro Boy movie coming added machine guns in Astro's bottom. In the 1980's series, Astro had his machine guns in his hips, but the way it was animated made it look like it was coming out of his bottom.
2009
In the 2009 CGI-based movie, we see several dramatic changes to Astro. First of all, part of the initial construction is seen, like how he came together. The way he got his appearance is completly different from previous manga: his appearance is projected on to him, similar to a hologram. Second, he has the ability to lie in this movie. Unlike 1980's manga, he is able to tell lies and half-truths. This is proven when he is captured by Cora and her family. When they are trying to help him up, Cora says "That's not a robot, that's a kid", with Astro responding "That's right, I'm a kid, like you." He also claims to be an orphan in Hamegg's house. It is also seen that the lasers in his bottom have been switched to machine guns and his finger lasers from the manga series have been changed to full arm blasters. Yet another difference, he has no arm rockets, as far as the audience can tell.Plus,instead of 9 years of age,he is 13.
Appearences
- Comics
- 1960 TV series
- 1980 TV series
- 2003 TV series
- 2009 CG Movie