Katari

Katari is a violent anti-robot extremist and an associate of Acetylene Lamp. He is determined to drive AI robots out of Metro City, no matter the extremes he must go to. Katari exclusively appears in the 2003 anime series and the Akira Himekawa manga series.

Appearance
Katari is a tall, well-built human man, aged 28. He has sandy blonde hair, tan skin, and grey eyes. He is tall and strong in stature, which he utilizes in hand-to-hand combat. He is not to be confused with Rock or Ambassador Magma, whom are separate characters.

Personality
On the surface, Katari is an average, conventionally-attractive young man, but he is actually very manipulative and ruthless. His hatred of AI robots is so strong that he will lie, kill, or cause other acts of destruction. Katari's outspoken hatred is even how Astro first learns that humans can hate robots.

Katari is also particularly brutal. His strategies involve taking advantage of the trust or weakness of children and the elderly. He even attempts to kill Astro, Mimi, and her grandfather in order to keep his story straight. As devious as he is, Katari is equally impulsive. He has had some of his plots turn awry due to his own hot-headedness.

Anime
In the start of the 2003 Astro Boy anime, Katari poses as an upstanding young labourer who begins working in Rainbow Canyon. A week later, after earning Mimi's trust, he has Mimi show him the farm's weather control tower. He then causes it to overload and cause chaos on the farm. Katari causes the weather tower to malfunction, in hopes of causing a massive environmental disaster that could be blamed on AI robots. This set-up is later stopped by the robot farm workers, and Katari is arrested. Somehow, likely through bail paid by Lamp, Katari is released.

In "Little Sister, Big Trouble", Katari sets up Gigant Bird to malfunction in the middle of Metro City. He locks Uran inside Gigant Bird, with the intent for her to either be crushed by its machinery or for Astro to accidentally kill her. All the while, he stands dressed as a civilian in a crowd of onlookers, trying to rile up anti-robot sentiment. He begins to work for Acetylene Lamp as an instigator and terrorist.

Episode appearances

 * Rainbow Canyon
 * Little Sister, Big Trouble
 * The Blue Knight
 * Battle-Bot

Manga
Katari appears in the Akira Himekawa manga series with more of backstory. He is a former cook who lost his job to an AI robot, which ingrained him with a hatred for robots. During the events in Rainbow Canyon, he falls into floodwaters but is still saved by Astro.

Later on, Lamp, Kato, and Katari attempt to blow up the Tokugawa Moon Plant. Atlas and Astro intervene, while Lamp fires Katari for rash behaviour. Katari has a breakdown and declares that he was "just a tool" for the anti-AI robot movement, and triggers the detonator, blowing up himself.