Astro Boy

Astro Boy, also known as "Atom", is not only Tezuka’s best known character but one of the greatest and most beloved icons of Japanese popular culture.

In a future where robot technology is rapidly transforming the economic and social face of the earth, Astro Boy is the most powerful robot in the world, and the first robot with a true human-like artificial brain. The details of Astro’s origin vary among the manga and multiple animated versions, but he was created by the world’s greatest robotocist, Dr. Tenma, the former head of the Japanese Ministry of Science, as a superior replacement for his young son Tobio was killed in a car crash. Growing more and more mad, Dr. Tenma later abandons Astro, for reasons which vary depending on the version, but Astro is recreated by the new head of the Ministry of Science, Dr. Ochanomizu, as a great super-hero, who serves mankind, carrying out rescues, construction projects, space missions, first-contact situations, and an enormous variety of heroic feats only the world’s most powerful robot is capable of.

According to Dr. Ochanomizu’s vision, Astro’s is to be a friend to all humans and help bring about a new understanding between humans and robots which will allow the two “races” to coexist together. Dr. Tenma, on the other hand, has a different vision, seeing Astro as the leader of an inevitable rebellion in which superior robots will overthrow the humans who enslave them and inherit the earth.

Although primarily the star of his own series, Astro Boy, Astro's first appearance was in Ambassador Atom (1951), and he has also appeared on occasion in series like Black Jack (1973-83) and Rainbow Parakeet (1981-82).