Dr. Ram is a robotics engineer and the original creator of Atlas and the Omega Factor. Ever since his mother was killed by colonists, Ram has become vengeful against humanity, and built Atlas to help him take revenge.
Story[]
Dr. Ram uses an umbrella to deflect falling rocks
Dr. Ram first appeared in the 1956 manga chapter "Atlas".[1] Growing up, Ram was harassed by European and East Asian colonists who had begun to industrialize parts of South America at the time. His parents and ancestors were made to perform manual labour, something that killed his mother. Dr. Ram developed a grudge against Caucasian and Japanese peoples after his mother's death.
In his adulthood, Ram created the Omega Factor, a device that could automatically override any technical limitations in a robot's body. He brings Atlas to Japan so the robot boy can enter brutal robot coliseum battles. Atlas's reputation gets Astro Boy's attention, and when Astro tries to investigate further, Dr. Ram has Atlas capture Astro. Ram then equips Atlas with a duplicate of Astro's head and sends Atlas out to commit crime sprees in an attempt to ruin Astro's reputation, after Atlas' defeat by Astro via an electromagnetic field Ram had made, Ram, beaten and saddened, vowed never to take revenge again.
Appearance[]
Dr. Ram is an Indigenous Inca man aged somewhere in his 40s to 50s. He has thick curly hair that resembles a lion's mane. This hair is grey in the manga and 1963 anime, but blue in the 1996 Epoch trading card series. He is also drawn with round ears and a round nose, which overall gives him the appearance of a lion. He is always formally dressed in double-breasted suit jackets, or in lab gear. Ram will sometimes be seen smoking tobacco from a pipe.
In Dr. Ram's first appearance, he was depicted as an extremely unflattering blackface caricature. This was due to Tezuka's lack of proper reference material at the time; Japan in the 1950s was limited to media imported only from America.[2] Ram's appearance was corrected for the 1963 series episode "Atlas"; he is redrawn with a normal darker skin tone and a round nose. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Ram's manga design appeared on a series of Japanese trading cards. His design is modified to have navy blue hair and a realistic skin tone.
Creations[]
Some of Dr. Ram's notable scientific creations include:
- Atlas
- Atlas's two "younger brothers"
- Omega Factor
References[]
- ↑ 鉄腕アトム｜マンガ｜手塚治虫 TEZUKA OSAMU OFFICIAL - https://tezukaosamu.net/jp/manga/291.html
- ↑ Ethnic and Racial Stereotypes in Manga | https://www.mit.edu/~rei/manga-ethnic.html