Meeva (chapter)

Meeva ("Miba" ミーバ) - originally titled "A Boy from the Fourth Dimension" - is a chapter of the Astro Boy manga which originally ran in Shonen magazine in September 1966.

Plot Summary
While traveling home across the desert, Astro Boy and the others come across an oasis. Professor Ochanomizu is about to drink when he is attacked by a snake. Astro saves him only just in time killing the snake, but then the oasis disintegrates into dust. Dr. Tenma insists upon staying to solve the mystery, though he says Ochanomizu and Uran may leave as long as Astro stays behind to help him investigate. They agree, then Astro notices that even the snake's corpse has turned to dust and all the water evaporates. Then they see a strange green-skinned man crawling over the horizon, Astro flies over and brings him to Tenma. The man begs for water and practically drinks an entire large bottlefull that Tenma gives him.

Then some men appear in a flying car and take the man they call Meeva prisoner, but Tenma and Astro insist upon knowing why they've been tracking him down. So they take them to meet their boss, Mr. Damocles. He immediately recognizes Tenma and is pleased to explain that they found Meeva orphaned in the desert and raised him to be a slave. They later discovered that he has a special super power to summon the past when he is suffering terribly. Through torture, they force Meeva to make a fifteen-hundred year old temple appear, Astro and Tenma go inside and even see some ancient people. But then, the temple and its people disintegrates into dust around them.

Afterwards, Astro visits Meeva in his cell where he mourns how his own mother abandoned him in the desert three years ago and he was captured by Damocles. Astro feels sorry for Meeva and digs a tunnel to help him escape. Meanwhile Tenma gives Damocles his opinion about Meeva and his powers. He believes that Meeva is a fourth-dimension life form masquerading as a human in their three-dimensional world. Damocles shows Tenma all the jewels and treasure that Meeva has brought from the past in his storage basement. Damocles intends to buy the whole world with all the wealth. when he hears of Meeva's latest escape he sends his men out to bring him back.

Meeva asks Astro to strangle him a couple of times to use his power to protect them. But then Tenma himself appears, blasts Astro, and takes his inactive body and Meeva tied up back to Japan. When Damocles realizes that Tenma has stolen Meeva he is enraged and sends his men to kill Tenma and retrieve Meeva. On the way to Japan, Tenma is accosted by Meeva's mother in her metamorphic form. Meeva asks her why she abandoned him and tells her he wants to go home. She explains that he was sick and she had no choice but to leave him on Earth lest he die. She pleads with Tenma not to allow Meeva to use his special powers anymore, if he does then he will become so weak that he could die.

After she depart,s Tenma takes Meeva back to his home in Japan. But he is determined to use his powers for his own end, so they go to the Ministry of Science where he explains to Meeva that he wants him to summon Astro from the past at the precise moment when he first created him. He bitterly regrets selling Astro to that circus and he wants a brand new Astro to raise as his own son. Threatening Meeva with laser beam blasts he gets him to bring a new Astro forth. However, Meeva has also brought Tenma's past self to the future. The past Tenma thinks the present Tenma is a thief disguised as him trying to steal Astro and shoots him dead. But when he realizes he really has shot himself, he is aghast and then confused to see his dead body crumble into dust. At the same time, the future Astro's body back at Tenma's home also disintegrates. Then something clicks inside Tenma and both Astro and Tenma realizes that when their older bodies disappeared they ended up with their present age minds planted inside their past younger bodies. Tenma tries to force Meeva to summon the past again to put it right but Astro defies him and flies off with Meeva to his own home and family.

He begs his family to help him hide Meeva upstairs. and later when Tenma turns up on the door demanding to be given Astro back his parents refuse saying that in the robot registry Astro is listed as their child now. At first, Tenma pulls out a gun to threaten them, but his conscience tells him he is in the wrong and he bows his head in submission. He tells them all he wanted was a brand new chance to have Astro for a son again. That's why he tried to use Meeva to bring him a new Astro from the past. He realizes how stupid his plans and hopes were now and acknowledges that they are indeed his rightful parents now. He promises to leave them alone in peace after all this. Just as he leaves their house, Damocles catches up with him and is about to destroy him. Astro swoops down and picks up his creator while lasers fire in the air around them. Meeva comes to the rescue as Damocles corners him using his power to summon up ancient Japan from ten-thousand years ago. Ancient Japan was underwater so the sea completely engulfs the country. Astro lifts up his house protecting his family and presumably Tenma until the water turns into dust revealing the corpse of Mr. Damocles. Astro searches for Meeva calling his name and is met by his mother cradling his dead body in her arms. Mournfully ,she tells Astro that poor Meeva finally died of exhaustion. She passes on his final message thanking to Astro for everything he did for him. Then she takes his body back to the fourth dimension leaving Astro grieving.

Trivia
This chapter is the conclusion to the arc running through the Shonen chapters, Blue Knight, Astro Boy Reborn, and The Melanin Tribe.

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


 * Astro Boy, Volume 16 (Kodansha)
 * Astro Boy, Volume 20 (Dark Horse)