Astro Boy 4
Posted: March 15, 2007 Filed under: Astro Boy 1 Comment »Astro Boy… I don’t know. It’s not for me. When I read it, I feel like I’m reading a textbook or eating vegetables. It’s sort of against my will, but I know it’s good for me in the end. Plus, I’m a completist, and since I’ve started it I have to finish it, and the incentive for finishing is starting Saint Seiya. I really wanna read that one, and I’ve got… 19 more volumes of this to go!
This one had a lot more shorter stories than any of the first three volumes. My favorite of these short stories was the one that took place on the moon (“Ivan the Fool”), because I really enjoyed how Tezuka played with ecology there and I liked the way the whole stranded scenario played out. That one felt like it probably would have been at home in any anthology, and it was a lot less kiddy to me than the others.
The best story in the volume was actually one called “Ghost Manufacturing Machine.” It was just as huge and epic as the Strongest Robot story from last volume. It’s got peril in the fact that the scientist is kidnapped and taken to another country, and Astro can’t go after him because it breaks robot law, it’s got a lot of Astro getting into tight situations, it’s got Hitlini, it’s got a backstabbing friend for the scientist who turns out to be all right, and it’s got a cute robot named Platinum. What more could a six-year-old boy ask for? While the series isn’t for me, I feel like it’s one of the few manga that would do well to be in every library in America simply because it is really, REALLY good for kids.
Once again though, the series deals with death in rather disturbing ways. Two characters are killed at the end of the main story, and barely any pause is given to either. You kind of feel the impact of one because he’s sacrificing himself willingly, but the other… literally it comes out of nowhere, about two panels are spent on the scene, and I don’t think he’s mentioned again despite the huge part he’s played. I felt pretty bad about the second death.
[...] at the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 1 of Vampire Knight. Connie reluctantly reads volumes 4 and 5 of Astro Boy at Slightly Biased Manga. And at Let’s You and Him Fight, Jones gives the [...]