Hoshie Tenma

Hoshie Tenma is Toby's mother and the wife of Umataro Tenma. Hoshie was a caring mother and a very independent woman. She appears as a child in Atom: The Beginning, and as an adult in the limited manga series Once Upon a Time Astroboy Tales, which spans volumes 6-8. An altered version of Hoshie appears in the 1987 American comic series as Jean Boynton.

Personality
In Atom: The Beginning, Hoshie is the granddaughter of Dr. Saruta, and the daughter of scientist Tsukie Saruta. She was extremely shy, especially around the young Tenma, to the point of Saruta having to help introduce her to others. Hoshie was also shown to be an intelligent, dutiful student just like her mother and grandfather.

As an adult, Hoshie is much more self-spoken. She is one of the few characters who can stand up to Tenma and contrast his opinions. She is loyal to her son; initially she is horrified by the robot Toby, but soon comes to love him just as much as the human Tobio. When Tenma's behaviour gets increasingly erratic, Hoshie becomes disgusted with him. She makes the decision to divorce Tenma and hopes to get Toby away from him.

Appearance
Hoshie has long black hair that she usually ties back. As a child, she would keep it in braids, but as an adult she keeps it pinned high on the back of her head. She has always dressed in modest clothing, like long dresses and skirts, and aprons when at home.

Hoshie is also the model for Astro's robot mother in some continuities. Particularly in the manga and the 1963 anime, Astro's robot mother dresses and wears her hair just like Hoshie. This is said to be because in Once Upon a Time Astroboy Tales, Tenma stole Ochanomizu's planned robot mother, and programmed her to behave just like Hoshie.

Story
In Atom: The Beginning, Hoshie is the shy granddaughter of Umataro Tenma's mentor, Dr. Saruta. After a few chance encounters with Tenma and even being caught by him after a fall, Hoshie comes to develop a huge crush on Tenma. However, Tenma is completely oblivious and assumes it is merely Hoshie's general shyness. It is implied that the two of them eventually part ways, and then meet again when Hoshie has grown up and become a scientist. In many continuities, Hoshie is never formally seen on screen. In Astro Boy Mighty Atom: The Secret of Atom's Birth, Toby references her in passing as having died from "an illness". In Once Upon a Time Astroboy Tales, Hoshie is a housewife who has taken her husband's surname. Her part of the story opens with her mourning the death of her son. When Umataro presents her with the robotic version of Toby, she immediately rejects him. However, after a few days, she comes to love and embrace him just like her human son. Hoshie teaches him the mannerisms of her departed son, and as he adopts these ways, she loves him all the more. However, the meantime, Umataro becomes increasingly abusive with and repulsed by the robot Toby. Umataro snaps, rejecting the robot Toby and decides to sell him to Hamegg's circus. Hoshie decides she can take his rage no longer and divorces Umataro. She begins to regularly attend the circus in hopes of getting any glimpse of Toby. Unfortunately, she suffers a heart attack, and passes away while deleriously calling out for her son.

In the chapter "A Declaration of Robot Rights" (volume 8), robot Toby goes to live with Dr. Ochanomizu, he is renamed Astro, and new robot parents are put into production. A masked Dr. Tenma steals the robot mother and takes her to a secret training facility. He teaches the robot mother all of Hoshie’s mannerisms and attitudes, so that she will behave towards Astro just as Hoshie herself did.