Marukabi Boon

Marukabi Boon is a reoccurring character in the Osamu Tezuka Star System, a bulky man who usually plays villains or politicians. His first appearance in a Tezuka work was in 1956, where he appeared in the Astro Boy chapter "Robot Bombs."

Appearance
Boon's design is very iconic, with his big eyes and noticeable bags underneath them. He most often has thick eyebrows and sideburns. He is a bulky, slightly chubby man of medium height.

Boon was also modelled after Franco-Italian actor Lino Ventura. While Acetylene Lamp's design was retroactively inspired by Ventura, Boon was entirely modelled after the actor. Boon's first appearance in Tezuka's mangas happened not long after Lino Ventura's film Touchez Pas au Grisbi was released in Japan.

Personality
Boon is a very common player in Tezuka's works. He almost always appears as a mobster, thug, or bureaucratic figure. Boon quite frequently plays antagonists, but in series like Black Jack, he has played stern but caring older figures. He is usually a secondary antagonist or a supporting character.

Boon first appeared in Astro Boy in 1956, and he had 14 separate appearances throughout the Black Jack manga. He is often seen alongside major Tezuka antagonists like Skunk, Lamp, or Hamegg; he usually works under them, and his criminal style is generally violent and less calculated.

One of Boon's more recent big roles is as President Boon in the 2001 film Metropolis.

2003 series
Boon appears as a benevolent character in the 2003 series, where he is a junker living among a village of performers and travelers. He appears exclusively in the episode "Lost in Outland."

Years before, Boon was an inventor who created the Boon Unit, a device said to be capable of automatically repairing any issue with a robot. To promote it, Boon traveled in a floating repair shop, and even gave out free installations. However, the device turned out to be faulty, and his repair shop crashed in the ocean. People began to believe Boon was a con artist, and he served jail time for fraud. Boon swore that his device had could truly work, claiming he had been the victim of corporate sabotage. He broke out of jail and escaped to the junk village. Boon is an off-the-grid inventor and respected member of the junk village. When Boon finds a crashed Astro, he repairs him, and begins to look after the boy when he turns out to have amnesia. Boon is initially cold and very formal around Astro, but begins to take pity on him for being alone, and treats him like a parental figure. When Astro discovers an in-tact Boon Unit, Boon is inspired to research it again and see if there really was a fatal flaw.

Despite being a now-caught wanted fugitive, Boon works with Professor Ochanomizu and the authorities to fix Astro and stop a crashing satellite. When the Boon Unit successfully stops the satellite, the group discovers that the Boon Units were never faulty after all.