Astro Boy (character)

This article is for the character for other uses see Astro Boy (disambiguation)

Astro Boy (アトム Atomu) known in Japan as ' Mighty Atom' or 'Iron Arm Atom'  is the main protagonist of every series in the Astro Boy franchise. A robotic boy with human emotions created by Umataro Tenma. Tenma created Astro in the image of his deceased son Tobio Tenma. After learning that Astro is robotic and therefore cannot function like a biological human boy, Tenma sells Astro to a robotic circus out of a fit of rage. Astro forced into fighting other robots against his will in the robot circus is eventually rescued by Hiroshi Ochanomizu. Astro fits the embodiment of a hero, he has a strong sense of justice and is always willing to defend those who can't defend themselves. A natural pacifist, he always attempts to solve situations intelligently with diplomacy. He has an extreme care for the preciousness of life.

Design
Tezuka was a lifelong fan of Disney and he styled many of his early characters based on famous Disney characters. Astro would continue this trend of characters designed after Disney characters, using a simplistic cartoon style. Astro bears a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse Disney's most popular character. The most prominent feature of Astro's design that borrows from Disney is in the head. His head uses a large circular shape, also being used by many popular American animated characters at that time. Psychologically this suggests Astro's innocence, the spikes on his head also suggest an edge to his personality.

Astro Boy's most defining feature are his eyes, especially in the anime series due to the use of limited animation Astro's eyes were designed to be fully reactive to light and feel dynamic this would become a very common design aspect in anime and manga characters that would follow. The use of the eyes in this manner allowed the facial expressions to use less animation yet seem more real.

Classic Appearance
Although a robot Astro was intended to look indistinguishable from a human being as he was designed to resemble Tobio Tenma. He was given many of the similar distinguishing attributes, his large innocent eyes, jet-black spiky hair and light skin tone. Achieving his realistic skin tone by being layered in a type of silk made up of the components of human skin. His hair has two spikes one on the the left of his head pointing directly upwards and the other on the right side just above his ear pointing out to the side. He has one bang in the exact center of his hairline. Since Astro is a robot and does not function like a biological being the height of his body, his weight and the length of his hair never change.

Abilities and Powers

 * Horsepower: Astro was designed with a 100,000 horsepower engine, making him among the most powerful robots. In some adaptations he is upgraded to 1,000,000 horsepower.

Reception and Legacy
Astro's character proved such a success that it launched into an international franchise of anime, manga, films and video games. Tezuka, originally designed after traditional Disney characters of the time, Astro's style reflects that of Mickey Mouse. A simple cartoon style of character, although Tezuka would implement some of his own styles into the drawings that would become commonplace for most anime and manga that came after. Astro would also inspire the creation of the character Mega Man.

Astro was listed on Empire magazine's 50 Greatest Comic Characters list ranking forty third, making Astro the only manga character on the list. IGN's Chris Mackenzie also ranked Astro Boy as 2 on the list of the top anime characters of all time. Astro was placed tenth Mania Entertainment's 10 Most Iconic Anime Heroes written by Thomas Zoth who commented that "he was Japan's first great modern cartoon hero, on the printed page and the TV screen". In 2014, IGN ranked him as the fourth greatest anime character of all time. In 2004. Astro was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004 and was accepted as an honorary citizen of the city of Niiza in Japan. Astro appeared in Screwattack's Death Battle!, where he faced another fictional robot, Mega Man in battle and won. On April 7, 2003 Japan celebrated the official date of birth for Astro, people from all over Japan participated.

Trivia

 * Akin to Mickey Mouse, no matter which direction Astro Boy faces, the spikes atop his head are always in the same place.
 * Astro Boys Color remake that came out in the 1980's was originally meant to come out during 1977, but changes in plans resulted in it changing into a show called Jetter Mars