Tezuka in English

Courtesy of Hunterian Museum.

Hunterian Museum’s exhibit is rather small, but it covers the history of these robots, both in reality and in science fiction, which may have inspired the creation of the technology. The image above is the exhibit, in the shape of a robot, whose body is on the ceiling, and appendages are on the walls. The reference to Tezuka’s manga is on wall on the right side in the foreground. Numerous other stories are also noted.

Among the scientific devices noted, are robots the wriggle in mimicry of worms as their mode of locomotion through the body. Such robots will greatly reduce the pain of procedures such as examinations of the gastrointestinal tract, which is currently done by endoscopy, a painful procedure (Sci-fi Surgery). While this in itself, may not seem relevant to Tezuka fans, Here is something that is: With cooperation of The Right Stuf, Inc. among others, The Hunterian Museum of The Royal College of Surgeons of England will show both the English language version of the 1960s Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) episode number 88 Bacteria Corps (79, Mighty Microbe Army) and 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Voyage Thursday October, 22nd beginning at 7pm. Both of these stories involve the shrinking of humans to microscopic-size and the insertion of them into the body of the patient. Helen McCarthy, author of numerous books on manga and anime (http://www.helenmccarthy.org/0/Books.html) will introduce this event.

Tezuka Osamu had written two comic stories about miniaturized surgeons entering the patients’ bodies to destroy tuberculosis bacteria, Tuberculosis in the fall of 1948, and Monster on the 38th Parallel in early 1953. While these stories were different, their plots involved Tezuka’s actors Higeoyaji (‘Mustachio,’ but also Known as “Mr. Pompous,” “Daddy Walrus” or “Wally Kisagari” in the 2003 Astro Boy) and Kenichi (Known as ‘Kenneth’ or ‘Kennedy’ (Tezuka Osamu World, “Tuberculoses”; “Monster on the 38th Parallel”), in the 2003 Astro Boy) both being shrunken as described above. Now, being shrunken and by various means, inserted into the bodies of the patients, they seek out the infection, only to discover that the Tuberculosis is actually a colony of intelligent beings who have established themselves inside the patient’s body. Now the problems are multiplied as an element of ethics is present, as both the patient and the Tuberculosis claim “the right to live” (Natsu Onada, 91, 92). Tezuka wrote another Tetsuwan Atom story about intelligent microscopic organisms, Living Mold from Outer Space was one of the last chapters in the Chronicles of Astro Boy or as Fred Schodt titles the series, Once Upon a Time Astro Boy Tales. Featured in volume 8 of Dark Horse’ 23 volume Astro Boy series, it has no other relevance to our current subject, other than that, though. Dark Horse provides a four page preview of this tale along with other details Dark Horse' web page for Astro Boy volume 8.

The first, Tuberculoses, dates to “October 20, 1948” and was “Published as a book” (Tezuka Osamu World, “Tuberculoses”); the second, The Monster on the 38th Parallel, was a remake that remained accurate to its basic plot, but introduced a few other plot elements, he published in March of 1953 “as a supplement to ‘Shonen Gaho’ (Shonen Gahosha)” (Tezuka Osamu World, “The Monster of the 38th Parallel”). While the latter source notes that Kenichi and Higeoyaji gain access by “Riding on dust particles, they enter the body of a boy through his nose,” Atom (Astro Boy), in the place of Kenichi and Higeoyaji (Mr. Pompous) are placed into the patient’s mouth via a spoon. Natsu Onada Power's God of Comics notes the conflict depicted in this latter version was modelled upon

TezukaOsamu.net has a page (in Japanese) for each of these stories, complete with a few selected images,
Tuberculosis: http://tezukaosamu.net/jp/manga/105.html,
Monster on the 38th Parallel: http://tezukaosamu.net/jp/manga/176.html

Tezuka on the Wonder Beat Scramble Special Episode

An animated version of Osamu Tezuka personally introduces the animated series Wonder Beat Scramble, relating it to his own stories of shrunken people in both manga and anime. The image depicts the “God of Manga” showing various scenes from those stories. Currently, Wonder Beat Scramble’s Special Episode is available on Crunchyroll: Crunchyroll, Wonder Beat Scramble Special Episode.

1960'S 88 Bacteria Corps (79, Mighty Microbe Army): Atom (Astro Boy) and Higeoyaji (Mr. Pompous / Daddy Walrus) stand before the leader of the Bacteria Corps, whose drooping nose is in the foreground.

In the 1960s Tetsuwan Atom series' the 88^th Bacteria Corps (79, Mighty Microbe Army) Tezuka cast Atom in the role previously held by Kenichi, and rewrote the story to fit Atom's world. An astronaut returned to Earth after becoming exposed to the 'bacteria' while in space, and Dr. Ochanomizu was called upon to help cure him.

1960S' 125 Find the Bacteria Atom watches as the doctor, prepares to inject a patient. The biochemist who developed the medicine stands at his right.

In the 1960s Tetsuwan Atom series' 125^th episode, Find the Bacteria, Atom’s involvement required him to carry the biochemist to the site of the epidemic, and defend her from the irate villagers who were content with their infection. Also, since he being a robot was immune to the disease, he was especially suited to this task. Unfortunately, most of the film was lost, and only a few frames remained. The DVD set, however, tied them together with line drawings such as the one above.

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In this frame from U-18 Knew It, Higeoyaji receives treatment.

March 10, 1976, Tezuka Osamu, in one of hundreds of Black Jack stories, wrote U-18 Knew It. This story is about a computerized hospital that goes haywire, holding its patients hostage and demanding that the unlicensed physician Black Jack come to cure it, or else it will kill the patients. More closely related to Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001, than to the other stories herein discussed, this tale nevertheless was of sufficient interest to the Exhibit’s planners to include a rare English language showing of its animated version among other features for its Evening Event: Robot Revolution scheduled for Thursday November 19 at 6.30pm. For those who cannot attend, Crunchyroll.com has it online (CR / Anime / Black Jack / Special 3) and the publisher Vertical features the comic version in its 1st volume of Black Jack manga: http://www.vertical-inc.com/blackjack/index.html.

Parasites Lost, in a similar scenario to that depicted in Tezuka's stories (above), the core characters of Futurama are awed by the sight of the worms' civilization inside their friend's body.

In Futurama’s Parasites Lost, rather than using miniaturized humans, tiny remote-controlled versions of each are created, the reason being that Professor Farnsworth cannot afford miniaturized atoms. Both this and Wonder Beat Scramble show they were influenced by both Tezuka’s stories and Fantastic Voyage as well; for while only the former featured infection of intelligent humanoids, only the latter had the submarine. Also note the worms that infect the patient are intelligent and civilized, similarly to the bacteria of Tezuka’s stories of earlier decades.

1980s Tetsuwan Atom

1980 Tetsuwan Atom series’ 42, Hurry, You Three Second-Rate Knights! (Astro Boy 19, The Robots Nobody WantedThe nurse robot Lily (Becky) is instrumental in treating injured people aboard a space station.

In the 1980 Tetsuwan Atom series’s 42nd episode Hurry, You Three Second-Rate Knights! (Astro Boy 19, Robots Nobody Wanted) Atom meets a nurse robot named Lily (Becky), who redeems herself by treating the injured aboard a damaged space station while the Earth-based emergency squad is still in transit. Lily's cures healed everything, including sick flowers. Lily was rejected by her former employer for a mistake that employer herself had made. Her two companions were similarly dismissed by their employers. All three were doomed to be recycled, and even when they escaped and sought employment, they were regarded as outlaws, because their work permits had been voided.

The museum’s interest in these science fiction stories relates directly to the theme of its exhibit, Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots. While the actual shrinking of humans to microscopic size is pure science fiction, the employment of tiny high-tech robots inside patients is on the verge of reality. As incredible as it seems, current technology includes tiny robotic pills whose purpose ranges from merely providing physicians an interior view of the patient to actually aiding in treatment. According to one of the exhibit’s web pages, among the most unusual of these miniature robots, is the “ARES Robot prototype” that actually consists of several parts, all swallowed separately, but that assemble themselves into a unit, once inside the patient (Sci-fi Surgery).

Decades before the ARES Robot prototype was even a dream, Tezuka Osamu had written about a robot rocket that consisted of many small parts, all of which would assemble themselves into a unit, once they were in space. Astro Boy’s 51st comic adventure Robot Spaceship or Robot Rocket, published serially in Shonen (Boys) magazine starting in 07/1963, and continuing until sometime in December of 1963, was that tale. While this story had nothing to do with surgery, the concept of the individual parts assembling themselves on site, without the help of human hands is the same. The Astro Boy animated series that had started in January 1963 aired its own version of this story November 12, 1963. Episode 46 Robot Spaceship featured all the important details. The English language version (#46, Phantom Space Ship) was included in the Right Stuf’s 1st boxed set of this series. Note that the English language version of the latter tale 79, Mighty Microbe Army is included in the 2nd boxed set.

Atom (Astro Boy) has also helped a doctor and a nurse in injecting people who were suffering from an epidemic in episode 125, Find the Bacteria, which aired July 10, 1965, but only in Japan. A complication was that because of the disease, the infected people are highly resistant to any attempts to administer a cure. Nobody wants it. So immediate was the need for Atom (Astro Boy)’s help that his mentor, Doctor Ochanomizu (Elefun) stormed into his home, and took him right out of the shower. Unfortunately, most of the video for this episode was lost, and the DVD contains scattered frames along with rough drawings to fill the gap.

Last updated 10/01/2009

Except where sources have been cited, any similarities between my own work and those of Tezuka Osamu, Tezuka Osamu World Dark Horse Comics, or other sources are purely coincidental.

Images are the property of their respective Copyright holders, and have been used without permission. except where noted.

Character names, short quotations of synopses, dates of publication, are the property of the respective copyright holders.

ASTRO BOY ® is a registered trademark of Tezuka Productions.

Tetsuwan Atom ® is a registered trademark of Tezuka Productions.

Tezuka, Osamu. Astro Boy Volume 8. Trans. Frederick, L. Schodt. Milwalkee, Oregon: Dark Horse 2002. www.darkhorse.com

--. Black Jack. Trans. Camillia Nieh. New York: Vertical, 2008.

Tezuka, Osamu. Astro Boy (1960s). Perf. Shimizu Mari, Kachita Hisashi, Mizugaki Yoko,Muto Reiko,Yoshikawa Kazuko, Komiyama Kiyoshi, Yajima Kazuaki, Wada Fumio, Yokomori Hisashi, Sakamoto Shinpei, Kanemoto Shingo, Chiba Koichi. Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. / Mushi Production, 1963.

--. Astro Boy (1980s). Perf. Shimizu Mari, Kachita Hisashi, Sugaya Masako, Kumakura Kazuo, Kuwahara Takeshi, Hojo Michiru, Hibino Misako, Yokozawa Keiko, Oki Tamio. Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. / Mushi Production, 1980.

--. Wonder Beat Scramble. Perf. Hiromi Tsuru, Ichirô Nagai, Keiichi Nanba, Mami Koyama, Mayumi Shou, Mayumi Tanaka, Ryo Horikawa. Mushi Productions, TBS 1986.

English-language Animated Cartoons:

Groening, Matt. “Parasites Lost.” Futurama. Perf. Billy West, John DiMaggio, Phil LaMarr, Lauren Tom, Katey Sagal. 2001. DVD, Fox Film Corporation. 2004.

Tezuka Osamu. Astro Boy (1960s). Perf. Billie Lou Watt, Ray Owens, Gilbert Mack. NBC, 1963. The Right Stuf Astro Boy (1963) Ultra DVD Box Set 1: RSDVD2013,
Astro Boy (1963) Ultra DVD Box Set 2: RSDVD2014 2006.

--. Astro Boy (1980s). Perf. Richard Ganoung, Bob Gonzalez, Debby Holmes, Del Lewis, David G. Miller, Paul M. Nelson, Brian Parry, Nicholas Podbrey, Jay Rath, Kahlei A. Slick, Patricia Kugler Whitley, Becke Wilenski. Manga Entertainment, 2005. Manga Entertainment's official Astroboy pages

Anime News Network. Wonder Beat Scramble (TV). Accessed 10/01/2009. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3352

Royal College of Surgeons of England. Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots. 2009. Accessed 09/15/2009.
http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/exhibitions/sci-fi-surgery

Tezuka Osamu World. (Astoboy Manga) Subtitle List. Accessed 12/30/07.
http://en.tezuka.co.jp/manga/sakuhin/subtitle/m025.html

--. (Astoboy 1963 anime) Subtitle List. Accessed 12/30/07.
http://en-f.tezuka.co.jp/anime/sakuhin/subtitle/ts002.html

--. (Astoboy 1980 anime) Subtitle List. Accessed 12/30/07.
http://en-f.tezuka.co.jp/anime/sakuhin/subtitle/ts017.html

--. “The Monster of the 38th Parallel.” Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine. Jun 20, 2007
http://web.archive.org/web/20070620222245/http://en.tezuka.co.jp/manga/sakuhin/m031/m031_01.html

--. “Tuberculoses.” Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine. 16 Jan. 2008
http://web.archive.org/web/20080116190156/http://en.tezuka.co.jp/manga/sakuhin/m005/m005_01.html

Wonder Beat Scramble on Crunchyroll
http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-527886/wonder-beat-scramble-special-episode

Tezuka Productions. Tuberculosis. Accessed 09/08/2009.
http://tezukaosamu.net/jp/manga/105.html,

Tezuka Productions. Monster on the 38th Parallel Accessed 09/08/2009.
http://tezukaosamu.net/jp/manga/176.html

Power, Natsu Onada. God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the creation of post World War II manga. Jackson, MI. University Press of Mississippi. 2009

Acknowledgements