Tonto

Tonto is the younger brother of the Blue Knight. He and his siblings were created by Austrian scientist Dr. Ross and raised as his own children. Tonto begins to attend Astro's school in Metro City, but it immediately becomes clear how much Tonto hates humans.

Tonto's namesake is Tonto, a Comanche cowboy and scout in the American franchise Lone Ranger. However, the word "tonto" means "crazy" or "stupid" in Spanish and Italian dialects. The name was adapted from a Western Apache word ,"koun'nde", meaning "wild rough person".

Appearance
Tonto is an average-looking humanoid around the age of 9-10. He has glossy black hair with one central spike, leading from his forehead widow's peak to the back of his head. This spike also functions as a radio antennae. Instead of ears, Tonto has dial-like receivers on either side of his face. Tonto usually wears slick but modest clothing, such as dark jackets and turtleneck sweaters.

In the 1966 adaptation of the Blue Knight arc, Tonto has three buttons along the top of his head instead of the spike.

Personality
Tonto Ross is confident but very stubborn. When Astro first meets him, Tonto is very shy, but he soon opens up to his classmates...after they begin mocking him for being a robot. He will not take anti-robot sentiment lightly, believing strongly in his older brother's plans for advanced robot rights. Tonto admires Astro and considers him a friend, but is frustrated by how much Astro cares about humans.

In reality, Tonto is traumatized by his near death experience at the hands of a human. Before his brother-in-law, Count Burg, met the Ross family, Tonto was an ordinary young boy. His older siblings studied music and the arts, and likewise, Tonto was quite interested in nature. He was the baby of the family and idolized his older siblings. When Tonto overhears that Maria is being abused by her husband, he sneaks out of his father's home to go and break out Maria. Burg catches the siblings and beats them so badly that it deactivates their systems.

Manga
Tonto appears exclusively in the Astro Boy franchise, having never reappeared via the Osamu Tezuka Star System. He is a major player in the first act of the Blue Knight manga arc.

The story begins as Higeoyaji introduces Tonto to Astro's homeroom classmates. Tonto is shy, but immediately befriends Astro, being glad to see another robot in his class. Things take a turn during Tonto's first week of public school, as Shibugaki forces Tonto to do all the classroom chores. His human classmates, in the meantime, read a news report about a robot called the Blue Knight that has been rampaging in the area. While the Blue Knight is openly fighting to protect robots, he is staunchly anti-human, which frightens Tonto's classmates. Shibugaki begins to make derogatory statements about robots, which finally makes Tonto snap at him. Shibugaki taunts Tonto by daring the robot to hit him, which Tonto does.

The school is shocked to hear a child robot has attacked a human. Professor Ochanomizu and Higeoyaji go to visit Tonto's guardian, Maria, to ask if something happened to cause Tonto to break one of the laws of robotics. The visit is cut short when Higeoyaji accidentally discovers the Blue Knight's horse powered down in Maria's basement. Later on, it is revealed the Maria and Tonto that Astro's group met are not individual people, at least, not anymore: some years prior, a European scientist named Dr. Ross built three robot children to raise as his own. Tonto was delighted to see his sister be the first robot to marry a human, but that human was Count Burg, a staunch robot hater. He would demean and physically abuse the robots around his castle, even in front of Maria, and Maria attempts to call Dr. Ross for help. However, Burg catches her on the phone, and the call ends with a loud struggle. Tonto overhears this and breaks into the castle in an attempt to break Maria out, but the two are unfortunately killed. Burg then drives by Dr. Ross's home and throws the siblings' remains through his front window. The horrified Ross secretly amalgamates Tonto and Maria's faces and CPU into Blue Bon's body, which allows all three of them to take turns operating once again, thanks to Dr. Ross's advanced transforming mechanisms in their host body. However, the siblings awake horrified by their new operating system. Blue Bon demands Ross build him a set of blue armour that can hide his body, denounces him as his father, and flees. While Blue Bon primarily uses the body to operate as the Blue Knight, Tonto and Maria have taken turns so they can live as civilians. It is also implied the siblings have been in control while acting as the Blue Knight. Astro catches a glimpse of Tonto's face under the Blue Knight helmet during their two fight, which makes Astro assume Tonto has been the Blue Knight all along. However, Tonto has no memory of the incident, implying Astro actually saw Maria shifting into Blue Bon or vice versa during the fight.

Anime
The Blue Knight arc was adapted into episodes 179 and 180 of the 1960s Astro Boy anime series. These were not dubbed into English due to the more mature themes presented in the story. The anime adaptation closely follows the story of the original manga, but gives slightly more screen time to Blue Bon's family.

Tonto also appears in the 1999 short film Tetsuwan Atom: Tome of the Blue Knight. In this version, Maria and Tonto were gravely wounded by a gang of robot-fearing humans. This initiates Blue Bon's transformation into the Blue Knight, though Maria and Tonto's machinery is not incorporated into his own.