Astro Boy

Origin

 
Astro Boy, whose real name is Atom, is a powerful boy robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, known as Doctor Tenma. He created him in order to replace his dead son, Tobio, after he died in a car accident. In fact, Dr. Tenma built Atom to resemble Tobio phsycially, and he treated him as if he were his real son. In time however, Dr. Tenma realized that Atom could not fill the void left over from the loss of his son since Atom could not grow or appreciate human qualities in the same way as a real child. As a result, Dr. Tenma rejected Atom, who then ranaway and innocently signed himself over to a cruel circus owner named Hamegg. Hamegg used androids in his show for the amusement of others, and was often very abusive of them.

After suffering in Hamegg's circus for an extended period, Atom met Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science. The Professor managed to make Hamegg turn the android over to him and became Atom's legal guardian. He soon realized that the boy robot was gifted with great powers, and that remarkably he was also able to experience human emotions.

Under Professor Ochanomizu's guidance, Atom used his powers to fight crime and injustice, such as prejudice since most of his enemies were robot-hating humans. He became known as Astro Boy, the world's greatest superhero, and went on to fight everything from robots gone mad, to alien invaders.

Anime Series

 
Astro Boy, called Tetsuwan Atomu (meaning "Mighty Atom") in Japanese, was first shown on Japanese TV in 1963. That original series, which ran for three years, is considered the first series to embody the aesthetic that became known as anime. The character itself however, originated in a manga from 1951 by Osamu Tezuka.