Palliativity 180: The Astroboy

Astro Boy – 鉄腕アトム Tetsuwan Atomu, lit. “Mighty Atom” – 1952

Welcome to the strangely tragic post-apocalyptic story of Osamu Tezuka’s Astroboy. Rather than just an innocent, simple tale of a kid with rocket legs and laser beams, the origin myth of Astro begins with the death of a child.

The boy’s father, a mad scientist, cannot accept the fate of his son and chooses to remake him with steel and atomic fire in his chest. Ultimately, the mad scientist rejects his surrogate-child creation and Astro is forced-out into an unforgiving world that sees robots as slaves undeserving of compassion.

Astroboy not only launched Japanese animation onto the global scnene, but also planted the seed of cyberpunk in the minds of children across the world; a generation destined to question the ghost in the machine.

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