Astro Boy: Manga for Boomers

Boomers remember Astro Boy! WPIX in New York debuted the cartoon in September 1963, the first Japanese animated show broadcast in the US. Of the 193 episodes produced in Japan, about half made it to US TV stations, courtesy of NBC.

Astro Boy had atomic jet engines in his feet, his eyes were searchlights, a nuclear fission generator pulsed where his heart would be, and his arms could crush steel.

A new, color Astro Boy series in 1980 was not popular in Japan or the US.

Astro Boy debuted on American TV in 1963, but creator Osamu Tezuka began working on his story in the early 50s. In Japan, Astro Boy is Tetsuwam Atom, (Iron-Arm Atom), but he started life as Atom Taishi (Ambassador Atom) in a 1951 comic book. His own comic book ran from 1952 to 1969.

Setting the story at the Institute of Science in 2003, where robots are commonplace, Tezuka's manga tale relates how chief scientist Dr. Boyton loses his own son, Astor, and creates a robot replacement. The trick doesn't work--the grieving father finds no real relief in his nucear son. The half-mad Boyton sells his robot boy to a robot circus. Poor Astro Boy has to fight killer androids every night to entertain the crowds!

Dr. Packadermus J. Elephun takes over the Institute of Science, brings Astro Boy back, and the saga continues. There are plenty of evil robots for the heroic, good, and adorable Astro Boy to battle. A bit of Pinocchio is in the story, as Astro Boy always wishes to be a real boy.

Osamu Tezuka, born in 1928, is considered the father of Japanese anime. Some call him the "god of manga." Tezuka was born in Osaka and witnessed the firebombing of that city during World War II. He was also once beaten by US soldiers because he couldn't speak enough English to answer their questions.

Not surprisingly, Tezuka became a pacifist. He studied medicine. Astro Boy, as boomers remember, managed to squeeze themes about prejudice and unfair stereotypes into stories about saving the planet. Tezuka's other work (and it makes a massive catalog) told intricate stories that promoted environmentalism and celebrated heroism and self-sacrifice.

In Japan, he is famous not just for Astro Boy, but for other anime series, such as his long biography on Buddha, and Black Jack, a story about a surgeon who operates outside the law (for good, of course), using supernatural techniques.

Wikipedia has lots of material on his work; here's a good starting place. There's also a great hub on Tezuka's influence on anime.

Tezuka was a huge fan of Walt Disney (he saw Bambi 80 times!) and the two giants of animation actually met at the New York World's Fair in 1964. The two men gushed over each other's work.

The following year, Tezuka's series Kimba, the White Lion (based on a long-running comic he'd written) debuted. The Disney production company was accused by many of copying (intentionally or not) many Kimba elements into the popular movie, The Lion King. In the 1990s, 40 top manga artists petition Disney to admit the connection, but get no response.

Tezuka died in 1989 of stomach cancer.