022 – Black Lux [Astro Boy] (Manga)

Astro Boy (1952-68), Chapter 022 ‘Black Lux’ (アトム大使), first appeared in the supplement to the September 1957 edition of Shonen.

What it’s about?

Astro gets involved in a very unusual case when a mysterious parcel is delivered to his house containing heaps of severed robot parts. Professor Ochanomizu manages to put them together to make a robot but he cannot find a head to fit the body. when activated the headless robot keeps saying things like Aurora and Lux over and over. They contact the police and find out that Lux refers to a dangerous gang of human terrorists who murder robots ruthlessly. Their leader is known as Black Lux and they all wear black masks to avoid identification. Aurora probably refers to Mount Aurora in Antarctica.

The police request Mr. Mustachio go to Antarctica with Astro and his parents to investigate Black Lux. When they arrive Mustachio gets himself into trouble when a bus driver refuses to allow the robots to ride on his vehicle because it’s only for humans. Mustachio has a fight with him and beats him up resulting in him being arrested.

Astro and his parents have to go on without him and meet a robot who owns his own whale ranch near Mount Aurora. Astro shows the headless robot to all the robots on the ranch but nobody can recognize her. The missing head makes it difficult also. When Black Lux suddenly appears Astro urges them all to fight and they all jump up and down upstairs causing pieces of the roof to fall down on Black Lux and his men. The boss is badly hurt but two of his men manage to escape with him in a stolen getaway car since Astro has smashed all their planes.

Meanwhile Mustachio manages to trick the police when they attempt to quietly murder him in jail. He realizes that the local police are in the pay of Black Lux and overpowers them and escape. He discovers a letter from Lux among the police chief’s papers saying he was heading to Mount Aurora and grabs a taxi to take him there. But on the way a plane a bomb upon the car and Mustachio only just escapes in time though he now faces death in a freezing blizzard.

Fortunately he is saved by robot staff at a hospital run by a human doctor. The doctor asks Mustachio if he has ever seen a female robot showing him a photo. Mustachio realizes it must be the robot they brought with them. Suddenly Black Lux’s men arrive and get the doctor to operate to save the life of their boss. Naturally Black Lux repays their kindness by killing all the robots and even the doctor because he hates humans who treat robots nicely. Mustachio puts up a fight and briefly comforts the dying doctor. He tells Mustachio that he built that female robot and that she adopted an abandoned human baby and was banished from the country by the heartless government. She took the child and vanished. He breathes his last and Mustachio is knocked out and taken prisoner.

Meanwhile back at the whale ranch all the robots are giving emergency first aid to all Black Lux’s other men. Then are all ashamed of themselves and in return for such undeserved kindness one of them informs Astro that their secret headquarters is found in Capetown, South Africa. Astro and his parents go there and Astro saves the town from a herd of stampeding elephants. All the townspeople thank him including the town doctor who recognizes the headless robot saying he found it in the trash and sent it to Japan to be repaired. They discover the missing head at the dump and finally she is completely rebuilt. Later Astro rescues Mustachio only to find Black Lux has captured his parents next. Black Lux orders his men to destroy Astro and his family but they unmask revealing themselves to be robots. All his men had reformed and sent robots in disguise to trap Lux. Lux tries to escape. Astro captures him and unmasks him. He is amazed that Black Lux is barely seventeen or eighteen years old.

Finally the photo of the robot slips out of Mustachio’s pocket by Lux’s feet. He says it’s his mother and pulls out a photo he has too. The truth comes out. The robot is Lux’s mother. When she adopted him he was too young to realize and when she broke down he assumed she was dead. And because there were other robots around he grew up believing that robots had murdered his mother so he declared war on all robots worldwide. Lux cannot believe it at first but as he looks at her and touches her he realizes she is indeed his mother and buries his face in her lap crying joyfully as she cuddles him.

What you should know

This story appears to have been adapted for animation at least three times. In the 1980’s series it formed episode 39 “Blackie Young”. While in the 1960’s series it was first used in episode 13 “The Deep Freeze” and actually reappeared as a remake in episode 68 “The Hooligan Whodunnit”. All three adaptations present the same basic story though they tell some bits and pieces in different ways.