It is quite likely that, even if you are unfamiliar with anime and manga, you have heard of Astro Boy. When discussing the impact and legacy of Osamu Tezuka with people, I often bring up Astro Boy as it allows them to visualize Tezuka’s art style. However, Astro Boy’s legacy goes beyond art and the stories themselves and feeds into the processes of both the modern anime and manga industry.
The story of Astro Boy (as established in the manga chapter “The Birth of Astro Boy”) starts with the death of a boy called Tobio in a car crash. Dr Tenma, head of the Ministry of Science and father to Tobio, is distraught and decides to recreate his son as a robot. After spending time with the new robot, he realizes that the robot will not grow as his son would have and becomes abusive. Dr Tenma eventually sells the robot to a circus where he is discovered by a professor named Ochanomizu. Ochanomizu takes him away from the circus, becomes a father figure to him and renames him Astro Boy. From then on, Astro Boy defends the world and helps to maintain world peace.
First appearing in the manga “Ambassador Atom” as a side character, Astro Boy (originally known in Japanese as “Tetsuwan Atomu”) quickly became a popular character and was given his own manga series in 1952. These stories were primarily published in Shonen magazine but were also published in many other magazines and newspapers. With an estimated 100 million copies sold worldwide, Astro Boy remains one of the most popular manga series of all time.
However, Astro Boy’s importance also extends into anime (perhaps more so). After a live-action 1959 series of Astro Boy, Tezuka decided that he wanted to create an animated series to more accurately adapt his manga. That year, the royal wedding of Prince Akihito and Michiko caused a surge in the sales of televisions. Tezuka established an animation studio named “Mushi Production” and the first episode of the animated Astro Boy TV series aired on January 1st, 1963.
However, the true legacy of Astro Boy is the cost-cutting techniques that were developed (and later adopted by the anime industry). In order to compete with other animated series such as those made by Hanna-Barbera, Tezuka sold his Astro Boy series for 500,000 yen an episode, an unreasonably low price. To reduce costs, he lowered the frame rate, created a bank of animation that he could reuse (for instance, Astro Boy flying) and used animation layers to reduce the amount of new animation that had to be created. Even with all of these measures, the Astro Boy TV series lost money per episode and he was reliant on merchandising and international sales to turn a profit.
As time progressed, Tezuka began to take a more negative view of Astro Boy. He found writing Astro Boy exhausting and painful but continued to do so in order to fund his more experimental titles. Nonetheless, years after the end of Astro Boy, he would look back at Astro Boy and say how much pride he had in his creation.
The legacy and impact of Astro Boy on manga and anime cannot be understated. Through tireless effort and imagination, Tezuka established many of the techniques used in both mediums that are still used to this day. Let me know about your experience with Astro Boy and your thoughts on his legacy.
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