The polemic death of Tobio

[Toshio Tenma]

As everyone knows, Tobio always dies in the series Tetsuwan Atom (remember that Astro Boy: Movie doesn't make part of Tezuka Co.'s mainstream since was made by Imagi instead and ignoring all of the original author's plotlines as reference).

Tobio's death is something sad, however is still important for the development of the series background and origin.

That nine years old boy usually dies as a result of a car crash (again ignoring the CGI movie as said before).

In the 1951 remake of Captain Atom, Tobio dies upon testing a toy car which was hit by a truck.

While in the 1952 manga and 1963 anime, Tobio dies in a car crash after driving a small robo car carelessly.

And in 1980 series, he rode a robot car after being disappointed and upset with his father for not keeping a promise of going in the park with him, but he ends up being hit by a truck and then died in the hospital just after wishing his father to remodel his child robot based under his image.

Then, in 2003 series, Tobio had an argument with his father about robots being threw away like trash and being recycled.

His father gave him a hover bike which Tobio took after fleeing from the Science Ministry and then he went ridding it and was then hit by a truck and killed in the result.

The 2003 dub shamefully made Tobio just flee from home and his father just made a robot replacement rather than going after his son.

The final message that a son doesn't need to be blood related doesn't make sense anymore since you cannot just replace a living son who fleed home with another.

It's your duty to find your son, otherwise you'll commit parental abandonment.

Since Astro Boy is merelly just a heavilly edited version of Tezuka's work it was fated to lose refference to death, but it's story line in the 2003 series in unexcusable.

Just to think about, Tezuka already stated that would be a bad idea making a robot replacement for a living person and it was shown in Tetsuwan Atom manga during Scara Ark which is a retelling of the series origins through time travel.

Following Hoshie Tenma's death who had a cardiac arrest due her dispair of having the robot Tobio sold to the circus, Dr. Ochanomizu decided to make Atom's robot mother based under her image.

However, Atom noticed that his robot father was different, because he was a lot fat than Dr. Tenma.

Then Dr. Ochanomizu said that making Atom's papa based in Dr. Tenma would be a bad idea, since Dr. Tenma was alive and hidding somewhere so it would be a lot of trouble if he returned and saw a copy of himself.

And many may know the bad omen of meeting a person identical to themselves which we known as "doppelganger".

Considering the dubbed story, what would happen if Tobio decided to forgive his father and meet him again?

Would be him really happy to known his father made a robot copy of himself?

Would be him really like Astro who is his robot doppelganger?

Pretending that death doesn't exist is a illusion and is what the kid's friendly rule does in the series starting with the Astro Boy 2003 series.

Tezuka's works had tragedies with even children dying due the fact he believed that children would have to deal with death at early age so he could not change his concept of story upon being critized by NBC since it would be completely against his rights as the series creator.

Death is always there and if we pretend that it doesn't exist, then bigger will the pain when it finally hit our dear ones.

We don't need to always talk about dying, but at least we need to accept that death exists and we should be carefull and enjoy or lifes without risking ourselves.

In the non canon movie "Astro Boy - Tetsuwan Atom: Secret of Atom's Birth", Tobio never had arguments with his father, he just got a kid sized bike which could be assembled during his birthday.

Then, he went to ride it by the night only to be hit by a car and killed in the result.

Dr. Tenma was tould that there was a flaw in the brakes and he felt guilty for his son's death.

In the Akira Himekawa manga, a revision of "Secret of Atom's Birth" was made and mixing elements with the 2003 anime which shows that Tobio don't had arguments with his father and after his death, Dr. Tenma created Atom to replace him.

But, committed the same mistake of his anime version which was showing robots being disposed which made him revolt and then being de-activated and threw like scrap heap.

Due the kid's friendly rule, it's possible that a new series may not even be imported since it could be forbidden due Tobio's death.

Tezuka Co. may even lose interest in importing the series to America since they'll end up having less creative control since the series could be banned should it had elements and mentions related to death and they can't just pretend that death doesn't exist in fantasy works.