Atlas/2003

Atlas is a robot in the 2003 anime version of Astro Boy. He's a robot with kokoro, a program that gives robots freewill and emotions, and was formerly human. He serves as a temporary villain and eventually helps Astro stop the fighting between humans and robots.

Early Concept
Atlas' early concept was much closer to his original design as shown in the original manga and 1960s anime. In the pilot trailer, Atlas is said to be a robot based on a 14-year-old human boy, which differs from the final Atlas being based on an 18-year-old boy.

Early Life
Daichi was the son of Mr. Tokugawa, a wealthy man who was CEO of his own company. When he was very young, his father gave him an atlas as a present and promising him that one day they would go to the moon and look back at the Earth together.

On a future birthday, Daichi's father was away at work. He tried to call his father to show him a drawing he had made of them, but was instead yelled at for calling him while he was at work. Mr. Tokugawa hung up, leaving Daichi upset.



Years later, Daichi has the dream of being a painter. His father finds out and disapproves. Tokugawa throws Daichi's paintings into the fireplace. When Daichi protests, his father pushes him to the ground and says being a painter is a useless dream and that Daichi's only concern is to train to be the next CEO.

Death and Rebirth


Daichi and his air bike gang went to the spaceport one night so Daichi could hijack a shuttle to the moon. Something went wrong, resulting in Daichi's death. His father went to Dr. Tenma, begging him to remake Daichi in a robot body. Dr. Tenma built a robot like Mr. Tokugawa asked, inserting all of Daichi's memories into his electronic brain.

Daichi shortly went to meet up with his gang to inform them he was back. However, once they learned he was a robot, they talked to him like he wasn't Daichi and teased him for being a robot. Daichi realized they were only hanging out with him because of his father's wealth. Enraged, Daichi unintentionally activated his transformation into an armored battle mode he wasn't aware he had. With his new powers, Daichi attacked his now former gang and then declared he was Atlas, the strongest robot on earth. He decided he would use his powers to attack Tokugawa's power plants.

Atlas later came across some kids that were picking on a few robots. He demonstrated his power by attacking a nearby power plant. When they ran scared, he chased after them. That's when Astro showed up to intervene. He tried to talk Atlas out of wanting to harm humans, but failed. Atlas attacked him and nearly defeated him. Instead of just finishing him off, Atlas left him alive and flew off.

Atlas, as Daichi, went to a meeting that was meant to unveil him as the next in line for Tokugawa Conglomerate's CEO. Instead of the planned speech, Atlas revealed that he would not be the next CEO because the Tokugawa Conglomerate would not exist by the end of the day. When Tokugawa questioned what he was doing and why, Atlas revealed his battle mode and his identity as Atlas. Atlas then caused destruction to the surrounding buildings. The police showed up to stop him, but he fought them back. Astro interfered to save the police but refused to fight Atlas. To get Astro to fight him, Atlas started to attack the city. Atlas was winning until Astro discovered an arm cannon and defeated Atlas with it.

Damaged, Atlas found Tenma's secret laboratory and busted down his door, demanding repairs and upgrades. Tenma warned him that his body may not be able to handle too many upgrades, but Atlas didn't care. He had unfinished business. While being repaired, Atlas asked Tenma about why he decided to build him. Atlas told him the he knew about Astro; that he had built him because he also wanted a successor but he didn't follow orders when Tenma needed him to. Angry, Tenma told him to shut up because he was disturbing his work. Atlas was then jolted by high amounts of energy and blacked out.

Repaired and upgraded with a new arm cannon, Atlas hijacked another shuttle and went to the moon to destroy the plant there. Astro followed him and they fought until Astro's arm cannon ran out of energy. That's when Mr. Tokugawa increased the gravity and tried to kill Atlas by shooting him with a plasma gun Dr. Tenma gave him. Atlas was hit a few times on the back, destroying one of his jets. Atlas forced himself to stand up and blast the controls to set the gravity back to normal. Then he flew up to where Mr. Tokugawa was and attempted to shoot him. However, a cannon on his leg exploded and the shot missed, instead blowing a hole in the wall. The decompression began to suck Mr. Tokugawa out. Astro tried to save him but he was stuck in some of the railing from Atlas flinging him off his back when Astro tried to stop him from shooting his father. Through the hole, Atlas could see the earth and remember back when his father promised to take him to the moon. Having a change of heart, Atlas pulled his father back in and handed him to Astro. Astro offered to pull Atlas in, but Atlas refused. He told Astro that it was hard for humans and robots to get along, but he could do it. Then as the jets on his back exploded, he drifted off into space.

Pavlos' Puppet
Atlas was later found in the asteroid belt encased in rock by a private salvager. He was brough to the anti-robot group headed by Mr. Drake and given to Dr. Pavlos, who inserted his nexus chip into his electronic brain. The chip disabled his kokoro and allowed him to be remotely controlled by Dr. Pavlos. He was sent to capture Astro so that a nexus chip could be placed in him too. That failed and Atlas was forced to fight him again. The battle took them to a cliff over the waterfall. The chip deactivated before Atlas could blast Astro off the cliff. Then the signal came back again and the shock caused Atlas to stumble backwards off the cliff. Luckily, Astro grabbed him and pulled him back up. Noticing Dr. Pavlos' ship was damaged, Astro flew off to save him. After a few moments thought, Atlas followed. He briefly saw his father in another ship on the way there. Atlas hooked himself up to the ship to keep the core temperature down long enough for Astro to escape with Dr. Pavlos. He took the ship up into space so that no one would be hurt when it exploded.

Robotonia
Main article: Robotonia



Atlas appeared later at Robotonia to fight Duke Red's army in defense of all robots after the human leaders had passed a law to destroy all thinking robots. While initially fighting on Blue Knight's side, Atlas later joined Astro's side to stop the fighting. After a truce was called, Atlas and Pluto went to join Astro's other allies. He later witnessed Astro being shot out of the sky and essentially die. Atlas was visibly distraught as Astro was his only friend.

What happened to him after that is unknown.

Dub Differences
In the English dub, Daichi was said to always be a robot and was built by Dr. Tenma at Mr. Tokugawa's request because he wanted an heir. He will sometimes refer to Astro as his brother since they were both built by Dr. Tenma, a relationship not present in the sub.

"Astro Boy": PS2 Video Game
In the PS2 game, no references to Atlas' past as Daichi or relation to Dr. Tokugawa are made. He's simply a robot that hates humans and their "puppets". This is why he fought Astro. In the first fight, Atlas had some other robots on air bikes fight with him. After he was defeated, Atlas left on his air bike. He later returned, disguised as Astro with some other dopplegangers. After some fighting, Atlas revealed himself and continued fighting Astro. This time, when he was defeated, Atlas exploded.

Astro Boy:  Omega Factor
Main Article: Astro Boy: Omega Factor

In Omega Factor, Atlas is again a robot made with the memories of Mr. Tokugawa's deceased son Daichi. This time he was lost on the moon and Astro was sent to find him. When Astro found him, Daichi revealed his armor form and declared himself as Atlas. They fought until the battle caused a capsule with a young woman to come into view and seeing this caused Atlas pain but he couldn't understand why. It's later revealed that the woman, Prime Rose, is Daich's girlfriend who had a disease, explaining why she was in the capsule. Daichi wanted to take her to the moon but became ill from the radiation of Death Mask and died. That's when Mr. Tokugawa had Tenma build him a new body. Astro also learns that Prime Rose is Drake's daughter and that her disappearance at the hand of a robot (he assumed; it was actually Daichi in disguise) was the cause of his anti-robot attacks. Because of this,  Astro brought Black Jack to the moon to operate on Prime Rose. Astro had to fight Atlas while this was happening, keeping him away from the oxygen tent. After Prime Rose's operation was done and Atlas' memories of her returned, they contacted Drake to let him know his daughter was okay.

Manga
Main article: Astro Boy (Akira Himekawa manga)In the 2004 manga by Akira Himekawa, young Daichi received the atlas as a present from both his father and his mother. Mr. Tokugawa again began neglecting Daichi. Daichi's mother fell ill and was in the hospital for a while. She eventually died, which devastated Daichi. Worse, his father wouldn't even show up when he was called because he was in a meeting.

Daichi again formed a gang and eventually rebelled. He left on his air bike. Katari went after him and ran him over the edge of the highway. Daichi fell down and was mortally injured. Dr. Tenma showed up, offering him a new body.

With his new body, Atlas began a quest to take revenge on humans. He fought Astro on several occasions, their last battle being at a Tokugawa plant. Atlas had Astro defeated and was about to finish him off when his arm cannon locked up. A message popped up telling him that Astro was Tobio, then his arm cannon exploded. Tenma showed up to take Astro and left Atlas behind.

Atlas hijacked a shuttle and went to the moon. There he ran into his father and Katari. His father was shocked to learn what had happened to Daichi and that Katari had killed him. When Tokugawa was almost sucked out of a hole in the wall, Atlas saved him. Tokugawa apologized for his actions. Dr. O'Shay came and fixed Atlas' arm. Learning of a bomb planted by Kato, Atlas went off to help Astro stop it. Atlas eventually took the bomb and flew into space to destroy it. He was shortly found encased in rock and later repaired.

Atlas, resuming the name of Daichi, became the president of Tokugawa Conglomerate.

Trivia

 * His English voice actor is Greg Cipes.
 * His Japanese voice actor is Nobuyuki Hiyama.
 * Atlas appeared in episodes:  6 "Birth of Atlas", 7 "Atlas", 37 "Atlas Strikes Back", 47 " Decisive Battle! Robotonia" and 48 "Journey to Tomorrow".