#that means for Tenma and atom

[p2ii]

too bad both Tenma and atlas are too obsessed with they own respective fathers/sons they could've been such a powerful duo tbh

[arinrowan]

Experiencing Emotions about Tenma Umataro and his relationship with Atom.

You are a genius and global authority in robotics and AI. You can build any robot, you can design any type of AI. Your son dies, and you decide you can fix this the same way you'd fix a broken robot or program.

You build a robot that looks like your dead son, and not only that, you 'fix' all the things that were wrong with him. You make him smart, curious, polite, well behaved. You make him love you.

And then one day, you look at the thing that loves you, that you built to love you, wearing your dead son's face, and you think, "I Fucked Up."

[good-wine-and-cheese]

Mermay!!! I get to make fish people AUs :)

Tenma is a merperson/siren/variant whose son was caught by a fishing vessel (and was either thrown back only to die of his injuries, or has not been seen since, his status unknown) which leaves Tenma resentful of the humans he was already suspicious towards. He has taken to attacking ships and has become something of a folkloric monster spoken of in hushed whispers by seafarers. He collects mechanical parts from wrecks (his own or others) to a secret cavern where he has been building an automaton in the image of his son that he hopes to use to exact final revenge on the humans that took his child from him.

Somewhere along the line he finds himself critically injured - many ships know of him now and have been arming themselves to fight back - and he's forced to flee, fully expecting to die from his wounds. Instead, he finds himself cared for by a bizarre human (Ochanomizu as like a marine biologist or something, there are many benefits etc) who seems not to care about the warnings told of his monstrous nature. Tenma fully intends to kill him when he recovers - and says as much, often - but Ochan keeps taking care of him regardless. And unfortunately, he's quite charming. Over the course of taking care of Tenma, Ochan shows him human kindness exists and convinces him not to take revenge on all of humanity (and, well, his plan probably wouldn't have worked anyway and do you really want to see the image of your son destroyed again)

In the alternate version where Tobio might not be dead, Ochan helps him find his son :(

[choberr]

[tezuka-brainrot]

I get why people simp for Tenma now but I swear you wouldn't be ready IRL.

He looks like he smells like cigarettes and cheap beer and lots of cat pee.

And he doesn't even own a cat.

[pinkeatom29]

unpopular(?) opinion about the 2009 movie

i would like the movie much more if it was 2D/closer to tezuka's stlye/looked good in general

i know it wouldnt fix the other issues of the movie like the bland vilan or the terible paceing but GOD a good artstlye makes SO much diferençe!

[generouskittentidalwave]

Astro boy reboot, oh boy

So news of the new Astro boy reboot series broke out like WILD FIRE and as I predicted the fandom that has been waiting so long for it is very worried of how it'll turn out

But honestly

I'm actually quite hyped for it.

They removed the Miraculous creator from working on it which is a great start in my book THANK THE HEAVENS. Secondly I don't mind Astro having a girl he has feelings for at 9 as that happened in the 80s version and it was genuinely very sweet (ya know until she was found out to be a bomb and the two had to heartbreakingly seperate by her needing to be taken apart which destroyed the fandom's hearts). And he had plenty of crushes over the years so I'm not phased by it.

The only thing I hope for is that they don't make her human, because the problem with a robot child being together with a normal human child is the fact that she can age and he can't as he is permanently stuck with the mind and body of a 9 year old, so OOOO THAT RELATIONSHIP WILL BE *BAD* IN THE LONG RUN IF THEY MAKE THE RELATIONSHIP A PERMANENT THING AND NOT TEMPORARY.

Now to talk about some other things, I am actually really excited for the plot. It's a very slept on plot on the idea that Astro has to keep his robot identity secret from others to blend in as human and sometimes not even discovering he is a robot himself till later as usually unless told or shown otherwise Astro is mistaken to be a normal human child. That idea of self discovery and finding about who you are, who can from, and who you decide to be is a core trait for Astro and I find the plot as a cool way to show that.

And speaking of which, the elephant in the room. Tobio. By the looks of the plot it makes it known that Astro is gonna have the hero name be Astro when he is fighting and will most likely be called Atom by others AND I HOPE I PRAY TEZUKA GOD OF MANGA YOU BETTER HELP HERE I HOPE that they actually keep in and address the fact that Astro/robot Tobio is a robotic replacement by a father gone mad of his 9 year old dying in a tragic car accident as it's a CORE part of his character. The implication that robot Tobio has been living as a replacement in this series and is discovering himself and who he truly is by becoming Astro would be SO COOL

Lastly, the cgi, ima be honest it looks pretty decent. I like the way it looks as we could've gotten something so much worse if it was animated like Miraculous believe me. It looks bright, cartoony and colorful which ppl associate with it causing stir for it being aimed towards kids but the original Astro boy was also aimed towards kids in that same goofy cartoon style. What made it memorable was the story, the meaning, how a goofy and silly looking manga who could hold such darkness and truth and bringing to light deep societal and human issues while dealing with the inner turmoil of a boy trying to find out who he truly is beyond what he was made for. That he isn't a replacement, that he isn't just a robot. So as long as they are able or atleast TRY to hit that mark, then that's what matters to me more than the style.

In conclusion, it's just the pitch idea mind you, just a summed up concept. Everything is subject to be changed and tweaked as things get made and processed. For all we know it could end up being something completely different. The fandom has a reason to be on edge but we should be atleast a bit more open minded towards it until we see it in action it might not be another 2003 but it's definetly no 2009. And as for the ones working on it with both Tezuka productions and the fandom holding them at gunpoint over a series we've waited nearly a decade for, that better encourage them to give out one hell of a series.

Also Tenma and Oshan better be the same divorced science dads we all know and love or I swear to god-

[doctorspaceman]

Thinking about this exchange in "Chapter 58: Old Friend" of Pluto... rant/spoilers below the cut.

I think it's apt for Tenma to consider himself “the only one who can save [Abullah],” as Abullah’s absolute contempt of humanity follows the loss of his children. For their parallel experiences of loss, Tenma may rightly be considered the only one who can “save” Abullah. Yet Tenma’s insistently passive, misanthropic behaviour throughout Pluto raises the question of what he thinks it would mean and take to "save" Abullah, and what the result would look like.

At this point (Chapter 58) in the narrative, Tenma has allowed Abullah to live for years as the world’s most complicated (and therefore dangerous) robot, never attempting to monitor, track, or control him. Instead, he permits Abullah to roam the Earth, guided by a rage that is also Tenma's rage: the rage of someone who has lost everything to the carelessness and violence of other human beings. Abullah's post-death freedom to navigate and 'live' unimpeded on Earth thereby embodies the continuance of Tenma's unchecked grief and rage over his loss of Tobio. This is bolstered by the fact that Abullah (or technically Goji, but I'm not untangling my take on that distinction here) is a material creation of Tenma's in the aftermath of Tobio's death. On a slight tangent - it brings to mind Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where the Creature, reanimated by Victor, roams the wilderness, driven by an unchecked thirst for vengeance. I've encountered a lot of criticism identifying the Creature and Victor as doppelgängers, and I think a similar identification can be made for Tenma and Abullah: each pair with one driven by a treacherous ambition to create, the other violently subjugated (also racialized) and driven to vengeful destruction.

That said, Abullah's experience of loss does not simply parallel Tenma's loss of Tobio, nor does his character merely embody Tenma's emotional response to losing Tobio. Abullah’s death and revival also re-enact the death and reanimation of Tobio and re-double Tenma’s experience of these events. 

The re-enactment occurs on the basic narrative valence: both Abullah and Tobio die avoidable deaths resulting from the carelessness of others (for Abullah it’s world leaders, big picture, for Tobio the driver of the vehicle, small picture) and experience a sort of re-animation through Tenma's science. 

The re-doubling occurs on both an emotional and symbolic valence. Tenma worked in the Persian government lab, developing the Goji AI for Lord-knows-how-long. It's safe to assume he had little to no human contact in the interim, given that if he was identified or reported to be in Persia at that time, the consequences would have been extreme. Further, Chapter 48 suggests Abullah is one of Tenma’s only points of contact with humanity — if not Tenma's sole point of contact with humanity, the only flesh-and-blood person in his life — for those months to possibly years. That said, when Abullah dies in the Central Asian war, Tenma's primary touchpoint with humanity dies for the second time — the first time being the death of Tobio, who was his only family, son, and entire world. 

The factors of paralleling, re-enactment and re-redoubling prime Tenma to consider Abullah in the above scene as both dead and alive, a victim and avenger. Yet even with the above context laid out, the reader can only guess whether Tenma here perceives Abullah as reflective of Tobio or himself, an amalgamation of them both, or something else entirely. So who exactly does Tenma think he can save?

On one hand, Abullah’s existence embodies and reiterates the “Atom-is-not-Tobio” dilemma. For Tenma, attempting to save Abullah could mean lodging another effort to improve his AI, such that it better resembles the living-Abullah personality and thereby 'rescues' the deceased person. This effort, repeating (with the hope of ameliorating) the unresolved Atom-is-not-Tobio problem, could be read as an exhibition of stubbornness, ego, or repetition compulsion. So saving Abullah could mean the possibility of saving Tobio, or the inevitability of losing Tobio again and again.

At the same time, Abullah raises a mirror to Tenma’s unexpurgated devastation and misanthropy. So it's possible that, for Tenma, saving Abullah means saving Tobio — thus saving Tenma himself from his own grief. 

There is one other option I've considered — the simplest and (in my opinion) the unlikeliest: that Tenma envisions saving Abullah as the carte blanche act of alleviating someone else's suffering, that he considers the effort to alleviate anyone's suffering worthwhile. I honestly don't think this is what Urasawa intends or expects the reader to take away. It would be characteristic of Ochanomizu, sure, but not Tenma. That said, the ambiguous possibility of Tenma recognizing Abullah as a redeemable person seems purposeful. It opens up the text and enables the reader to consider the narrative and characters with compassion and grace. It also opens up what could be the only path which, if taken, would lead to the effective moral “saving” of either man, to the possibility of this redemption, perhaps not in the action but in the aftermath of Pluto.

[tehmhachi]

Heres what I want to know... if Atom: The Beginning is split off of the original Astro Boy timeline because Atom traveled back in time from the og timeline where he is made in 2003... and Atom: The Beginning begins in 2020-something... wouldn't that mean that Umetaro Tenma is an alternate timeline version of the original Tobio, and his father was an alternate timeline version of Dr. Tenma? In some convoluted, roundabout way?

[ben-the-hyena]

I'm a bit confused. I know about Osamu Tezuka's Star System, consisting in reusing his characters from different stories for other stories as different roles as if they were actors, think a bit of Muppet adaptations. They could be interpreted as AUs. But is it the case of this one example ?

In a volume of Black Jack, another manga by Osamu Tezuka, Dr Tenma looks older (ormaybedoesntdyehishairandbeardfullyanymore), is more unhinged, is trying to get into politics and he doesn't seem to be a doctor of robotics but he is a doctor in medecine, even owning a hospital. And more importantly : he has NO son, but a total different child, a daughter named Kasumi (or maybe he had 2 children and she is the youngest hence why he looks older ?)

He also acts more unhinged I fucking love his expressions lol and no matter the comic he is a father in, bastard always makes his kids feel neglected because he is a workaholic

She mentions no mother, meaning he is a widow in that continuity too. But he mentions a granny, meaning that unlike Tobio who seemed to have no grandparents, either Hoshie's or Umataro's mother is around (ngl at first I thought he was maybe the grandfather hence why he looks older than usual but then he does call her his daughter later so no)

And not only Kasumi looks kind of a human version of Uran, at some point he does a mistake and accidentally calls her Uran before correcting himself. Does this mean in this universe there was something going on between Kasumi and Uran like between Tobio and Atom, or is it just because shebis meant to be played by Uran like an actress with the Star System and it was just meant to earn a chuckle from the reader ?

She doesn't die fortunately, but she almost does in darker circumstances. She is so sad by him becoming greedier, angrier and more corrupted and ready to be gone on long trips poor little girl attempts at her own life, and goes into a coma. But fortunately Black Jack saves her, and we saw that Tenma does really care for her since by being seen with Black Jack he ruins his reputation and any chance at winning but he no longer cares, she is more important. And it's a nice change to finally see him have a child who lives and him being relieved and deciding to look on life a different way

So yeah either Tenma and Uran are actors as himself and as Kasumi respectfully, or better yet : HC that in the Black Jack universe, which is like an AU to the usual Astro Boy universe (and vice Versa since Black and Pinoko both often appear in Astro Boy media ; I guess both franchises are AUs of each other), robotics doesn't seem to be as developped so Tenma turned to medecine instead and being intelligent became as good at it as he would be in robotics in another world, climbed the scale quickly to the point of having a reputation anf money, still married Hoshie and had Tobio, Tobio never died since no toy car since no robotics, so Tenma being happier longer, he and Hoshie some time when Tobio was older like a teenager they had a 2nd child Kasumi, Hoshie fortunately died of her heart attack since I guess her heart is fragile in every universe and Tobio would soon leave home to study so Tenma found himself with his newborn daughter but he was so deep in his career and work (maybe to make sure nobody dies like Hoshi did again) he didn't have as much time as before all while maybe increasing his work cadence to cheat his widower grief, and nowadays Kasumi is the same age Tobio would have been when he died in the Astro Boy continuity whereas he is alive and a young adult here and Tenma grew older and got a love for power and money the deeper he got in and Kasumi got lonelier and lonelier with her father and brother away and her mother she always hears about but never knew and can't help but wonder if time was better for the family before she was born which, of course, neither of them think so and they adore her

[dweamofsweep]

I’m very sorry to the 5 ATB readers out there but if I had to think about this so do you

the other day I was re-reading the earlier chapters and I realized Ochaji (Hiroshi’s grandpa / the original “Dr. Ochanomizu”) was cousins with Dr. Saruta, who in this universe is the grandpa of Hoshie (Tobio’s mom). So I was like, wow, that means Ochanomizu is actually related to Tobio, however distantly. Kinda cool since usually they don’t know each other at all (as far as we’re told) and only Atom meets Ochanomizu after he’s built to replace Tobio, by coincidence. (Of course, it does line up with all the characters generally being closer in ATB, what with Tenma and Hiroshi being friends and all.)

but then it occurred to me that in the most recent arc the story is kind of bent on pushing Tobio and Botan together. And Botan is Ran’s daughter, and Ran is Hiroshi’s half sister (they share a father, who is Ochaji’s son)… uhhh

I mean yeah, the shared lineage is pretty far back, but did the writer not realize this? Or did they just decide to ignore it 💀 because invariably Tobio is gonna die soon anyway so……..????

[arinrowan]

Hi. I just found your Pluto posts and you just made my night with your analysis on it's themes of humanity, grief and hatred. I finished it last month and I still can't get over how deep and painful it all was.

Dare I ask, do you have any favorite scenes or character moments from Pluto?

I don't think it was meant to be funny but there's something darkly hilarious to me about how many people showed up to talk with Brau 1589 and that he (it?) was somehow the closest thing to therapy any of those characters got. Also the guy losing his human chassis because Pluto accidentally stole it for a few days so the poor dude was just wandering around in his construction body like the worst possible version of losing your car and house keys so you can't drive home.

Are Atom and Goji perfect AIs because they can lie? Was Geischt a perfect AI because he reacted in anger and murdered the man responsible for the death of his child? What do any of these scientists actually mean by a perfect AI, and what do they want to accomplish by creating one? What's the difference between the emotions of an AI and the emotions of a human?

Tenma is a disaster. Just. An absolute disaster. He's responsible for almost the entire plot yet takes responsibility for none of it. With both Atom and Goji we see him show up, do something deeply traumatizing to the robot, and then wander off before he has to deal with any potential fallout or consequences. The closest moment of connection we see him have is with Helena when she asks him how to grieve for her dead husband. He almost connects with Uran but her worldview is too different from his so he ends up insulting and belittling her instead. He lies to himself that he can bring Tobio back to life, he lies to himself that he won't try and fix Atom, does nothing to try and connect with Atom once it's confirmed Atom is alive again and leaves Ochanomizu to deal with any potential fallout, essentially sabotaging any possible fix he could have with his and Atom's relationship. He keeps showing up, saying cryptic things, then wandering off without bothering to provide any context. He also keeps warning people not to do something and then three episodes later we find out he said that because he already did the thing but didn't feel like explaining.

Did he honor Abullah's last request out of respect for his grief?

Is it a kindness for Helena to not remember her dead child? Is it a worse violation that her memory was changed without her consent or knowledge and then two different people in her life, Geischt and Atom, failed to tell her what was missing? Is she grateful Atom lied to her about not knowing what was in her missing memories?

Epsilon refused to be conscripted and dedicated his life to raising children who were orphaned by the war, and despite Goji showing he knows this ON SCREEN he still wants Pluto to kill him. Twice.

Goji being about to potentially kill Wissily by beating him with a pipe, a traumatized child he's had kidnapped, and Pluto not allowing him. Pluto begging Epsilon to kill him because he doesn't know how to stop.

Atom and Pluto, after their fight, waiting for Bora by lying down and stargazing until it's time.

[good-wine-and-cheese]

Heavily inspired by @ssserf's fic here. It got my brain gears brring

Summary: After a harrowing incident, Ochanomizu's survival is dependent on Tenma constructing him an artificial body. He'll do it; but there is something darkly ironic in transforming the most "human" of them all into a machine. Though perhaps humanity isn't so narrowly defined.

Relationship: Tenma/Ochanomizu

Characters: Dr. Tenma, Professor Ochanomizu, Atom, Uran, Inspector Tawashi

Warnings: Near Death Experiences, Terrorism, Medical Procedures, PTSD

[alitontress]

Q&A: Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto

Ask on the subject of Brau-1589’s knowledge, and Europol’s actions:

Regarding Brau1589, how did they know so much if they had no contact with the outside world? Is it because they're so advanced that they're able to garner signals from the other robots? Also, is it implied that when they removed the spear to kill Teddy, does that mean they die as well? Also on the subiect of Gesicht's child, Robita, what happened to them when Gesicht and Helena's memories were wiped? Were they dealt with by Europol? Is it something related to Adolf's brother's crime, on killing the robot children? Sorry for such a long ask, but I'm really glad to see another Pluto fan! I am overall really happy with the anime adaptation!

Don’t be sorry! I freaking love long asks! Here’s a long reply:

In volume 2 of the manga Brau-1589 learned about the outside world because Gesicht exchanged memory chips with him. Brau-1589 then knew everything Gesicht knew and even found the memories Gesicht couldn’t remember. Gesicht exchanged chips because he wanted Brau-1589 to tell him if his memory had been modified since Dr. Hoffman didn’t have an answer for him; Brau-1589 wouldn’t give Gesicht an answer but did freak him out by saying “500 Zeus a body” and then just started laughing at Gesicht. Gesicht was so overwhelmed by Brau-1589’s memory chip that he screamed in horror and quickly ejected the chip; his reaction afterwards was similar to someone getting sick and about to throw up. He tells Brau-1589 that he couldn’t read the data on the memory chip. In the conversation that’s also where Gesicht learns about Dr. Roosevelt. In the anime, Brau-1589 says that he knew Atom was awake, which Tenma finds impressive, but in volume 8 of the manga, Brau-1589 learns Atom is awake only after Tenma tells him.

Yes, it’s implied that Brau-1589 would die if the lance was removed, but Tenma could’ve fixed him up slightly, maybe? And we have Atom promising that they’ll see each other again, so I dunno... maybe he survived. I like the idea that he survived, but I also think it’s interesting that Brau-1589 would sacrifice himself to save humans by killing Teddy when, because he is/was the Blue Knight, he absolutely hates humans.

I think Europol would just send Robita to a scrap heap after they wiped his parent’s memory. Robita was tortured, molested (so others have told me, I don’t quite remember which volume or if that is actually implied), mutilated (while still alive), then killed by Haas. When Gesicht found Haas, there was the bag with the remains of Tobita’s body inside. Europol would need to do something which would leave no trace for Gesicht to find after his memory was wiped. It’s interesting to think what Gesicht did after he killed Haas. Gesicht might’ve taken Tobita’s body to Europol… or might’ve just been paralyzed in that alley, not knowing what to do, but just waiting for Europol to come find him. According to the manga, Gesicht wanted Europol to execute him after killing Haas… so I don’t know. The whole situation is depressing.

[pinkeatom29]

the brazilan cover is actuly much more fiting for tenma

"looking at the sky i keep on wallking, where could my love be? in wich star it is? all this goodness i lost and that i vain it try to find. looking at the sky stars wil tell me that is good to dream haveing someone, that dreaming is good. and that even in the sky my dreams and yours are a pair. there is a sad tear in my look that wont alow me to froget someone and i keep on wallking trying not to cry i want to find in a star that someone, my sweetheart. that i loved so much, that passed away and that wil return one day."

Dr Tenma immediately after a mental breakdown wandering the streets of Shibuya/Metro city. Still drunk, sleep deprived and trying to fight back the immeasurable agony he feels by trying to double down and suppress all his emotions forever coded song.

"What are you talking about though? Is he bitter about losing his job and importance, watching everyone forget about him? Feeling guilt over selling Atom or driving Ochanomizu out of his life? Grieving Tobio and Hoshie?"

Yeah it can be all those.

[p2ii]

ive been kinda ehh abt 03 atlas/daichi's 'white boy dreads' but upon looking at the manga (which is even more inconsistent with his hair texture) and closer at the anime I think it's most probable that it changed after he became a robot.

^pre death

^post death

(also manga pre and post)

which means that this is a design choice Tenma made (while manga daichi made the choice to become a robot, we don't know how much say (if any) he had in the specifics or than 'give me as many weapons as possible')

but like... why? if it's to differenciate between them the green eyes already do that, and it's such a weird detail to change. I wonder if that means that his hair is made out of something sturdier than synthetic hair (considering his other child robot is atom who has metal hair, I don't think hes that focused on the finer details, or it could be his love for robots and their (visible in this case(?)) 'otherness')

anyway I've kinda steered my own design to have the same shape but as ribbons instead of 3d/tubes but I wonder if wires as hair could be a fun design choice too...