Ambassador Atom [Astro Boy] (Manga)

Astro Boy (1952-68), Chapter 000 ‘Ambassador Atom’ (アトム大使), was originally serialized on a monthly schedule from April 1951 to March 1952 in Shonen.

What it’s about?

After their own parallel “Earth” explodes, it’s people are cast adrift to wander aimlessly in space for a new planet to call their home.  Segregated into spacecraft organized by country, two boys aboard the Japanese ship, Tamao and Kenichi, make a risky spacewalk in an attempt to go visit the American ship. Although it looks like they’re certain to get left behind, luckily the pair are rescued by Dr. Ochanomizu in the nick of time.

As luck would have it, just then the wandering spacefarers discover another Earth and crash land in the mountains outside Tokyo. While Dr. Ochanomizu and his lab assistant study the new planet’s flora and fauna, the rest of the Alien people enjoy exploring their new surroundings. Tamao becomes separated from the rest of the group and is discovered by some hikers in the forest. Believing he’s lost in the woods, they decide to bring him back to Tokyo.

When the group parts ways at Tokyo Station, Tamao pleads with one of the men not to leave him behind, so the man decides to bring him to Shinjuku to meet the Manager of the Space Theatre Monsieur Ampere. Sensing an opportunity, Ampere decides use Alien Tamao in an act and have him face off against another new acquisition of his – a little robot named Astro Boy. Created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Dr. Tenma to replace his late son Tobio, Astro was sold to Ampere after Dr. Tenma realized that a robot could never replace his son.

During the act, Space Tamao spots his parents in the crowd – not realizing they’re actually Earthling lookalikes of his own family. In the confusion, the two Tamaos become mixed up, and Alien Tamao goes home with his new Earthling family. Of course, the mix-up is soon discovered and the police return Earth Tamao to his rightful family. The revelation that there are two identical Tamaos is a surprise for the children’s teacher, Higeoyaji and soon a group lead by the Dr. Ochanomizu of Earth is off to investigate the mysterious spacecraft in the mountains.

“Alien” Dr. Ochanomizu conducts research on strange Earth life forms

After Dr. Ochanomizu of Earth meets his Alien counterpart, there’s an announcement that the countries of Earth will welcome their alien immigrants, and for a while things appear to be going smoothly. Of course the sudden surge in the Earth’s population soon puts a strain on the food supply and tensions begin to rise. This causes Dr. Tenma to come up with a solution – a shrinking drug that turns it’s victims tiny. Although Astro refuses to help him, Tenma unleashes a Red Shirt Brigade to start attacking Space People and shrinking them out of existence. The conflict soon escalates and the Aliens declare war on the Earthlings and a battle ensues.

In order to avoid all-out destruction, Kenichi decides to send Astro Boy – given that he was neither Earthling nor Alien – on a mission as an Ambassador to negotiate a peace. Luckily both sides accept the offer to split both populations and move half the total population to another nearby planet, such as Venus, to colonize it.

What you should know

Despite being the first appearance by Astro Boy, he really is only cast in a small supporting role in the story. Not yet the robot boy hero, Astro is quite cold and mechanical – a true robot. That’s not particularly surprising when you consider that Tezuka decided on the title ‘Ambassador Atom’ first – in an attempt to hit a nerve with the Japanese public’s interest in atomic energy at the time – and filled in the character and story later. Luckily, the series was enough of a hit that, with a few tweaks to his personality and a more prominent role as the central protagonist, the Astro we know and love was given time to develop.

Dr. Tenma shrinks Alien Higeoyaji

Also, like many of Tezuka’s works, it is sometimes difficult to know which version of the story you’re reading. Osamu Tezuka’s insatiable need to go back and tinker with a story almost every time it was published has caused confusion for his fans more than once, and ‘Ambassador Atom’ is not immune to this.  English-speaking readers are most likely to be familiar with the comprehensive 23 volume set – based on the Japanese language Akita Shoten collection – that Dark Horse Comics released from 2002-04 (and re-released as a 7-volume omnibus set from 2015-17). However there are some significant differences to the story presented in that edition from the one presented in the 400-volume Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works edition, published by Kodansha (MT-221).

Unlike the Dark Horse/Akita edition, where the story really begins with Tamao standing in front of Tokyo Station, the Kodansha edition is truer to the original serialization and presents the Aliens crash landing on Earth and their early exploration of their surroundings in much more detail. So, for example, while Star System player, Chiruchiru is listed as having appeared as Dr. Ochanomizu‘s lab assistant in ‘Ambassador Atom’, English-speaking readers searching for him won’t find him as his role is completely cut from the Dark Horse/Akita edition.

Another notable change is the absence of a second, Alien, Dr. Tenma.  This means some of the plot points of the struggle over ownership/control of Astro Boy are handled by Monsieur Ampere and Alien Higeoyaji instead. Although these omissions don’t substantially change the story, they do present an opportunity for Tezuka fans to explore the evolution of his manga stories and discover the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) differences between editions.