The Melanin Tribe

The Melanin Tribe ("Meranin ichizoku" メラニン一族) is a chapter of the Astro Boy manga which originally ran in Shonen magazine in June 1966.

Plot Summary
Astro Boy infiltrates the Robot Warehouse with his huge ally and finds his family in storage waiting to be scrapped. The giant robot awakens them with some of his energy and does the same to all the other robots setting them free. Even the robots who are legitimately defective and useless are released. The police want to arrest Astro for his insubordinate actions after the reject robots go crazy and begin to cause problems in the streets but Professor Ochanomizu implores them to allow him to take full responsibility so he can tend to Astro himself.

Astro's family discover their house has been sold while they were in storage. Astro sees the new owners are also robots so he lets them be and looks for a new house. He throws Higeoyaji out of his own home and picks it up off its foundations. Astro does many more things to defy humans and even though his parents are getting upset about his behaviour, Uran thinks he's great. After an argument with their father about a robot's role in a predominantly human society, Astro Boy and Uran depart to Africa. When Ochanomizu hears that Astro plans to build a robot nation in Africa, he catches a plane to follow him. Dr. Tenma insists on accompanying him though to see what Astro plans to do.

Astro flies by himself to Africa carrying his sister in a suitcase. When they arrive, their attention is caught by a glowing light emitting from a tiny cross sticking in the ground. A voice comes from the cross telling Astro to put it inside his chest and connect it to his electronic brain and he will gain super powers. But Astro says he already has plenty of super powers and responds by burying the cross in the ground where he found it. Unbeknown to him while he sleeps later that night Uran quietly digs it up and inserts it inside her body.

The next morning Astro and Uran come across an ambulance with humans lying all around, one of them is still alive and pleads for water. Astro is still cold and bitter towards humans and wants to just drive off in the ambulance but Uran does not share his feelings and demands that they turn back and help him. She actually finds that she has the power to force the ambulance to turn around against Astro's efforts to steer it and he gives in. They go back and find some water nearby for the man. He is a doctor and and his team were attacked by an African army while delivering patients and medicine to hospital. The patients had an infectious disease and the African militants touched them when they attacked stealing the medicine boxes. He begs Astro and Uran to find them and show them how to inject themselves with the medicine or else the terrible disease will spread and become a plague. After pointing the direction they went he collapses dead.

In course of time Astro and Uran are attacked by the Africans. Astro fights a giant gorilla robot they bring out against him and both he and it are apparently blown up. Uran is devastated and in her furious grief flips some of the soldiers over onto their heads by added strength the cross has given her. Their leader, Prince Bulbo of the Melanin Tribe, suddenly appears and declares to Uran that her super powers reveal her as the foretold coming messiah. To her astonishment Bulbo says it was prophesied that the messiah would have a cross on the inside of the body. Bulbo says he is a robot and he has been waiting for her to appear and help him create a paradise for poor, enslaved robots. He takes her to his palace and shows her a magnificent bedroom with human slaves.

Later the voice from the cross speaks to her and says they are robots from an alien planet where there was a war between humans and robots in which the humans where all annihilated. When they heard about how humans rule over robots on earth they vowed to come to earth and destroy all of them too. They sent the cross to earth to recruit a helper among earth's robots and though she tries to resist it takes her over and she helps Bulbo capture Tenma and Ochanomizu while they search for Astro.

Meanwhile out in the desert Astro is found shook up and out of energy by another robot named Spark. He isn't really damaged however and Spark revitalizes him with some of his own energy. He tells Astro about Uran and the cross and runs away. Astro goes to seek Uran out and is captured by a revolving trapdoor. He doesn't have enough energy to escape but a human woman helps him. She is the widow of the ruler of the tribe. They didn't have any children of their own so they built Bulbo to be their crown prince. She sneaks Astro energy when Bulbo refuses to give astro any but begs him not to fight Bulbo, for she still loves him just like a flesh and blood son. Astro understands and goes to locate Uran.

Meanwhile, Bulbo threatens Tenma and Ochanomizu if they don't help him cultivate the germs of the infectious disease that has been killing his men. He wants to fire missiles all over the world to transport the disease and wipe out humans so robots will reign supreme. If the two scientists agree to help they will be injected with the medicine. Otherwise they'll die. Even Tenma is feeling uncomfortable about this.

Astro is helped by spark who suddenly shows up again. Astro is almost destroyed by his own sister under control of the cross and she calls the guards after him. Spark gets Astro to safety and they come across Bulbo's mother who has been overcome by the disease. Astro tells spark to do something about Uran while he takes the poor woman to search for the medicine. Bulbo is devastated to see his mother dying and tries to inject her. But when Ochanomizu and Tenma try to seize the medicine behind Bulbo's back he is distracted and attacks them. Astro has had enough and they fight. Astro wins but he listens to the dying woman's desperate pleas for her son's life and refrains from finishing him off. Ochanomizu finally injects the medicine into her just in time. She begins to recover.

Next Spark reappears and he has successfully recovered the cross while Uran was asleep. However Spark is an agent of the robots from outer space and he attempts to force astro to take the cross into his chest so they can use him to lead earth's robots in revolt against humans as they planned all the time. Uran sneaks up from behind and knocks the cross out of Spark's hand so that Astro can jump on it to break it into little pieces. Spark realizes he's been defeated and sets himself to explode. Astro picks him up and throws him far away from the palace just in time. He leaves a smoking hole where he lands.

Bulbo has learned the error of his ways and instructs his men to burn the palace down to kill all the lingering germs. He vows to return to civilization with his mother and all his tribe and seek to learn how to live as a good robot. Astro has returned to his normal self and he prepares to set off home to Japan with Uran, Ochanomizu and Tenma.

Trivia
This chapter continues the storyline running through previous Shonen chapters, Blue Knight and Astro Boy Reborn.

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


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