Astro Boy 16
March 2, 2008
I wasn’t nearly as thrilled with this volume as I was with the last volume. Last time we got a bunch of historical insight into the series, other manga artists, and a lot of commentary from Tezuka. We even got to see the primitive beginnings of Astro Boy. This time around, there was little, if any, introduction from Tezuka, and the stories were a little bland.
The story I definitely remember Tezuka introducing was one that he said was based on media coverage of the Loch Ness monster at the time. When he introduced it like that, I thought the story would be about the “gentle giant” Nessie stereotype I’ve seen elsewhere. Not so. There is a whole race of lake monsters, and they’re out to take over humans. They control them with gas and hypnotize people into killing each other. There’s an awesome takeover at the end. That story was pretty rad, if a bit slow to get going.
A story called “Robio and Robiette” let me know to expect Shakespeare undertones, but this was a very close adaptation of the play, except done with robots. The two families are done as feuding scientists with robots who are wired to beat on each other when they see an opponent. I don’t remember a lot of the character names from the original play, but I did pick up on the “Chibolt” robot. The ending was understated-disturbing in a very Tezuka way.
What else… there was another story about Astro Boy balloons wreaking havoc courtesy of Skunk Kusai, and the first story involved ghost cats. Duke Red was in here somewhere too, but then again he always is.
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