Plant People

Plant People ("Shokubutsu ningen" 植物人間) - originally titled "Aliens from the Planet Alsore 12" - is a chapter of the Astro Boy manga which originally ran in the expanded New Year's edition of Shonen magazine in January 1961.

Plot Summary
Astro Boy and his friends are having fun on a skiing adventure, when they come across a most unusual flower growing out of the snow. His friends want to pick it, but Astro stops them and tells them a very extraordinary story.

Awhile back, Astro had been on holiday in that area during the snowy season and he met a strange boy crawling in the snow who claimed to be a visitor from Alsoa 12. He warned him of an invading spaceship from there with an "X" marked on it. Suddenly, the boy was taken prisoner by the invaders he had escaped from and they vanished. Astro learned from Professor Ochanomizu that Alsoa 12 is the name of a star, however, recently it was wiped out in an explosion.

It was revealed that the invaders were all robots except for the young boy. He had already learned of his home's destruction, but the robots had been programmed to bring back water to Alsoa 12, and when he tried to call them off they put him in chains and started sucking up Earth's water into spaceships led by the one marked "X". Astro rescues the boy and froze all the water in the spaceships, causing them to explode and destroy the robots. The boy asked Astro to let him live on Earth and revealed himself to be a plant inside a human-like disguise. So Astro planted the boy in the snow where he turned into that blooming flower.

When Astro's friends hear this story finished, they all agree to leave the flower alone in respect.

Collected Volumes
This story has been collected in the following volumes:


 * Astro Boy, Volume 9 (Kodansha)
 * Astro Boy, Volume 1 (Dark Horse)