Umataro Tenma

Doctor Umataro Tenma (天馬博士, Tenma-hakase) is a brilliant roboticist, ex-minister of science, husband to Hoshie Tenma, and father of the late Tobio Tenma. In the 2009 animated movie "Astro Boy", he tells his robot servant Orrin to call him Bill, which is supposedly his first name, disagreeing with all previous manga.

Tenma plays integral roles in all version especially the '03 anime and manga. He created Astro Boy to replace Toby his son after he died in an accident. Tenma's personality in some versions includes: lurking in the shadows to keep an eye on the last thing he cares about in the world, Astro, but never revealing himself because he is too ashamed of his past behavior (manga), selling him to the circus and forgetting him (original anime), disowning Astro and later dying of a heart attack (1980s anime), or maniacally forcing Astro to become the overlord of a world ruled by robots against his will by making him evolve (2003 anime).

Tenma's role in the 2003 series is pulled mainly from the manga chapters "Astro Reborn" and "Melanin Tribe" where it is revealed to the readers that he is not just a mean man, but rather a wicked one bent on controlling Atom. He does redeem himself however in "Meeva".

He was voiced by Nicholas Cage in the '09 movie, with an entirely different character.

Manga
In the Mangá, Dr. Tenma loses his son Tobio in accident and attempt to replicate the boy by creating a robot based in his image. However, he soons realize that "robot Tobio" is not perfect as he can't grow up and is neither share Tobio's own personality and behavior.

Fed up with his 'failed project', Dr. Tenma sells the robot to Ham Egg who is the ring master of a circus. The time pass and Dr. Tenma starts stalking his robot creation, feeling guilty for his actions and even attempt to make him into a robot overlord. But, later he finaly reconciliates with his robot son and help him in several difficult situations.

1960 Television Series

 * In the 1960 version, Dr. Tenma lost his only son Tobio in an accident.
 * He then desperatelly create a robot based in his late son.
 * Though he was happy with his 'revived' son he realize that his souless creation cannot grow up, neither fully replace his son.
 * With this, he sell Atom to a robot circus and decide to forget about him.

1980 Television Series
In the 1980 series, Dr. Tenma was called Dr. Boyton in the English dub. Aftering failing to take Toby to the park like he promised, Toby tried driving there himself, but got himself killed. Dr. Tenma secretly finished the robot designed like a boy (Toby suggested it to him) and activated him and treated him like his son. He planned to take his robot son to America on a ship. Unlike the manga, rather than abandon him, he angrily dismissed Astro after he made a mess at a dinner. Dr. Boyton was last seen calling out to Astro, who unkowingly joined Hamegg.

Although not seen, Dr. Tenma died after trying to find Astro,

2003 Television Series
Prior to the 2003 television series' main story line, Dr. Tenma was the head of the Ministry of Science. He spended most of his time working there, and as a result tended to overlook spending time with his son Tobio. Tobio becomes attached to his robot caretaker Norma, and while visiting Lab Seven, Tobio becomes outraged when Tenma mentions he wants to deactivate her in order to replace her with a more advanced model. In spite of his son's pleas to not deactive his friend, Tenma doesn't listen, responding by saying that robots are just machines. Tobio runs away back to the car, where his new rocket bike is sitting outside next to it. He starts to bike away from the lab, but gets hit by a car while going down the road. Tenma is then devastated by his son's death, feeling that it was his fault he died in the first place. He rebuilds his son in the form of a robot - thus leading to the creation of Astro - in hopes of redeeming himself as a father. When his robot son also shows signs of rebellion, Tenma deactivates him.

For the majority of the series, Tenma often acts as the hinden instigator behind many of the battles Astro faces. His obsession of Astro becoming the leader of all robots probably originated from Tobio's original mindset that robots shouldn't be treated like machines, as well as Tenma possibly wanting to make it up to Astro for thinking less of robots prior to his deactivation. He is mainly a very confused man who in reality only wants the best for his son, but driven insane by his past failures.

His English voice actor is Dorian Harewood

2009 Feature film
In the 2009 CG-animated feature film adaptation, Tenma, who is voiced by actor Nicolas Cage,[1] creates Astro Boy after his son Toby is killed in a robot testing accident. (Tenma accidentally locks Toby in the chamber with an experimental war machine called Peacekeeper.)

Tenma, with the assistance of Doctor Elefun, creates a robotic duplicate of Toby called Astro Boy. He outfits the robot with advanced defence capabilities so that he can't be harmed. Then, he copies Toby's memories into the robot, hoping that Astro will be just like his real son. Tenma begins to feel that Astro is acting strangely. When he realizes that Astro is not really Toby, he rejects him.

After Astro Boy runs away, he is captured for the power source that Tenma used on him. It is to be extracted from him and put into the Peacekeeper. Astro encourages this decision, accepting that he could never live up to Tenma's expectations. Tenma, however, refuses to have Astro deactivated, saying "You're not Toby, but you're still my son!"[cite this quote]

Tenma is less villainous and less mad in the film. Instead, his personality is similar to that of the original manga. In the film, he reacts similarly as in the manga, realizing that Astro is not his son and rejecting him. However, he does not sell him to Hamegg. The major difference between the character of Tenma in the film and in other versions of Astro Boy is that Tenma comes to accept Astro. His first name is Bill.

Robots created by Dr. Tenma.
Astro Boy

Shadow

Blue Knight

Atlas(2003, under request of Mr. Tokugawa)

Orrin

Trivia

 * The literal translation for Tenma is " Heaven Horse"
 * Tenma was born into a long line of horseradish farmers.
 * His first name "Umataro" is a combonation the Japanese word "uma"-horse and taro, a suffix for Japanese male names.
 * Tenma first appearance was in the Astro Boy prototype Captain Atom where he was more or less the main villain.