{"id":4771,"date":"2015-08-19T23:26:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T23:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=4771"},"modified":"2023-02-15T06:22:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T06:22:05","slug":"astro-boy-ambassador-atom-manga","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=4771","title":{"rendered":"Ambassador Atom [Astro Boy] (Manga)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
English Title:<\/strong><\/td>\nAmbassador Atom<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japanese Title:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u30a2\u30c8\u30e0\u5927\u4f7f
\n[Atomu Taishi<\/em>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original run:<\/strong><\/td>\n1951\/04
\n1951\/05
\n1951\/06
\n1951\/07
\n1951\/08
\n1951\/09
\n1951\/10
\n1951\/11
\n1951\/12
\n1952\/01
\n1952\/02
\n1952\/03<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Published in:<\/strong><\/td>\nShonen\u00a0<\/em>
\n[\u5c11\u5e74]<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Type:<\/strong><\/td>\nSerial<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Astro Boy<\/em> (1952-68)<\/a>, Chapter 000 \u2018Ambassador Atom\u2019 (\u30a2\u30c8\u30e0\u5927\u4f7f), was originally serialized on a monthly schedule from April 1951 to March 1952 in Shonen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What it\u2019s about?<\/h3>\n

After their own parallel “Earth” explodes, it’s people are cast adrift to wander aimlessly in space for a new planet to call their home.\u00a0 Segregated into spacecraft organized by country, two boys aboard the Japanese ship, Tamao<\/a> and Kenichi<\/a>, make a risky spacewalk in an attempt to go visit the American ship. Although it looks like they’re certain to get left behind, luckily the pair are rescued by Dr. Ochanomizu<\/a> in the nick of time.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, just then the wandering spacefarers discover another Earth and crash land in the mountains outside Tokyo. While Dr. Ochanomizu<\/a> and his lab assistant<\/a> study the new planet’s flora and fauna, the rest of the Alien people enjoy exploring their new surroundings. Tamao<\/a> becomes separated from the rest of the group and is discovered by some hikers in the forest. Believing he’s lost in the woods, they decide to bring him back to Tokyo.<\/p>\n

When the group parts ways at Tokyo Station, Tamao<\/a> pleads with one of the men not to leave him behind, so the man decides to bring him to Shinjuku to meet the Manager of the Space Theatre Monsieur Ampere<\/a>. Sensing an opportunity, Ampere<\/a> decides use Alien Tamao<\/a> in an act and have him face off against another new acquisition of his – a little robot named Astro Boy<\/a>. Created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Dr. Tenma<\/a> to replace his late son Tobio, Astro<\/a> was sold to Ampere<\/a> after Dr. Tenma<\/a> realized that a robot could never replace his son.<\/p>\n

During the act, Space Tamao<\/a> spots his parents in the crowd – not realizing they’re actually Earthling lookalikes of his own family. In the confusion, the two Tamaos<\/a> become mixed up, and Alien Tamao<\/a> goes home with his new Earthling family. Of course, the mix-up is soon discovered and the police return Earth Tamao<\/a> to his rightful family. The revelation that there are two identical Tamaos<\/a>\u00a0is a surprise for the children’s teacher, Higeoyaji<\/a> and soon a group lead by the\u00a0Dr. Ochanomizu<\/a> of Earth is off to investigate the mysterious spacecraft in the mountains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

“Alien” Dr. Ochanomizu conducts research on strange Earth life forms<\/p><\/div>\n

After Dr. Ochanomizu<\/a> of Earth meets his Alien counterpart, there’s an announcement that the countries of Earth will welcome their alien immigrants, and for a while things appear to be going smoothly. Of course the sudden surge in the Earth’s population soon puts a strain on the food supply and tensions begin to rise. This causes Dr. Tenma<\/a> to come up with a solution – a shrinking drug that turns it’s victims tiny. Although Astro<\/a> refuses to help him, Tenma unleashes a Red Shirt Brigade to start attacking Space People and shrinking them out of existence. The conflict soon escalates and the Aliens declare war on the Earthlings and a battle ensues.<\/p>\n

In order to avoid all-out destruction, Kenichi<\/a> decides to send Astro Boy<\/a> – given that he was neither Earthling nor Alien – on a mission as an Ambassador to negotiate a peace. Luckily both sides accept the offer to split both populations and move half the total population to another nearby planet, such as Venus, to colonize it.<\/p>\n

What you should know<\/h3>\n

Despite being the first appearance by Astro Boy<\/a>, he really is only cast in a small supporting role in the story. Not yet the robot boy hero, Astro<\/a> is quite cold and mechanical – a true robot. That’s not particularly surprising when you consider that Tezuka decided on the title ‘Ambassador Atom’ first – in an attempt to hit a nerve with the Japanese public’s interest in atomic energy at the time – and filled in the character and story later. Luckily, the series was enough of a hit that, with a few tweaks to his personality and a more prominent role as the central protagonist, the Astro<\/a> we know and love was given time to develop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Tenma shrinks Alien Higeoyaji<\/p><\/div>\n

Also, like many of Tezuka’s works, it is sometimes difficult to know which version of the story you’re reading. Osamu Tezuka’s insatiable need to go back and tinker with a story almost every time it was published has caused confusion for his fans more than once, and ‘Ambassador Atom’ is not immune to this.\u00a0 English-speaking readers are most likely to be familiar with the comprehensive 23 volume set<\/a> – based on the Japanese language Akita Shoten collection \u2013 that Dark Horse Comics<\/a> released from 2002-04 (and re-released as a 7-volume omnibus set from 2015-17). However there are some significant differences to the story presented in that edition from the one presented in the 400-volume Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works<\/em><\/a> edition, published by Kodansha (MT-221<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Unlike the Dark Horse\/Akita edition, where the story really begins with Tamao standing in front of Tokyo Station, the Kodansha edition is truer to the original serialization and presents the Aliens crash landing on Earth and their early exploration of their surroundings in much more detail. So, for example, while Star System<\/a> player, Chiruchiru<\/a> is listed as having appeared as Dr. Ochanomizu<\/a>‘s lab assistant in ‘Ambassador Atom’, English-speaking readers searching for him won’t find him as his role is completely cut from the Dark Horse\/Akita edition.<\/p>\n

Another notable change is the absence of a second, Alien, Dr. Tenma<\/a>.\u00a0 This means some of the plot points of the struggle over ownership\/control of Astro Boy<\/a> are handled by Monsieur Ampere<\/a> and Alien Higeoyaji<\/a> instead. Although these omissions don’t substantially change the story, they do present an opportunity for Tezuka fans to explore the evolution of his manga stories and discover the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) differences between editions.<\/p>\n

| <\/strong>Next (Astro’s Parents) >><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astro Boy (1952-68), Chapter 000 \u2018Ambassador Atom\u2019 (\u30a2\u30c8\u30e0\u5927\u4f7f), was originally serialized on a monthly schedule from April 1951 to March 1952 in Shonen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":284,"parent":714,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,23],"class_list":["post-4771","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manga","tag-astro","tag-astro-boy","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6vZWu-1eX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4771"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13247,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4771\/revisions\/13247"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}