Tezuka In English Discussion Forums

Episode 7: Zero, the Invisible Robot was brilliant!

It was insane and really warped, and I loved it!

Mine's "The Greatest Robot in the World" two-parter. Hands down.

I know its crazy, but I rather like the plot of the GBA game--unlike so many video game conversions I like how the game actually worked as a synthesis of the manga and animes including the time-travel and the inclusion of the 60's ending that can then be 'remade' through time-travel (+ the aid of the phoenix) to redo certain things.

I can't pull out a particular story off the top of my head, but I do really love some of the manga stories that were more or less discrimination stories in disguise and the abuse that humans were laying on the robots. Here I think Tezuka uses Astro's status as a 'boy' to great effect, making him more sympathetic figure in a future world that cannot quite extend its humanity to robots.

Its far easier to name my least favorite (though I also can't think of any particular stories)--there's a fair number of these that are just grind and chug action adventure for the kiddies, and these I often feel miss the mark.

Oh god, that 80's episode where there are two Uran's...that's...the ONE! (best, cutest moment ever!)

The one with a dictator - he has the face of Adolf Hitler - who wants to clone his shadow in order to become immortal and control the giant country forever. To access his goal, he kidnaps an old friend of Dr. Ochanomizu, a scientist who has a robot engaged in a militia. Astro comes in the country during the story - because Dr. Ochanomizu falled in a trap out there.

Yeah, that one's a good one. It's one of my favorites, but I still prefer the Greatest Robot in the World.

I really like the FuhrerZZZ manga section and the way it ties into later Phoenix and Vampires plotlines. In the 2003 anime I'm very interested by the Phoenix two parter, but it wasn't actually that well done. I agree the plot of the GBA game was fabulous. And I like the 1980 episode where Astro's class takes a fieldtrip to space - I want to take a fieldtrip to space!

Of course, these days my favorite Astro Boy story is Pluto ("The Greatest Robot in the World", but that's largely Naoki Urasawa's fault, not just Tezuka's.

I'm not sure if this was animated, but the manga episode with the alien Bem and the fridge that was a bomb is my favorite.

Several different animated adaptations of the alien bomb idea were done, but none reproducing that exactly, so far as I know. So the idea was used, but not the exact story. A sentient bomb was one of Tezuka's favorite recurring ideas, as a way to explore how humans create things and throw them away so callously.

Greatest Robot in the World: it's the first epic-fight saga in manga's history, and the reason why I started to collenct Astroboy. An action-packed, dramatic story with lots of changes in the plot (some of them quite cheesy, but they don't affect the average quality of the story). The only weak point is that it ends too fast.

And it inspired Pluto, the most awaited manga in my country at the moment (we'll have it published in March).

Well, as for me, I love Episode 26: Doctor Black Jack's Operation. I enjoyed seeing the cameo! It was real weird though that he was riding that broom stick. It looked like it hurt a lot!