Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka

     It's been more than ten years since I last watched Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy on TV. It's the very first anime I ever watched and it has formed a crucial part of my childhood, ultimately leading me into a career in animation. Even today, the image of the little robot boy is still vivid in my memories. Despite the fact that I had forgotten most of the plots of the story, Osamu Tezuka had carved the character into my heart. I will always remember the pointy hair, the big eyes, and the pair of bright red boots.
   
     Astro Boy has impacted on people of my age greatly. Different forms of media of Astro Boy were made throughout the years, first from manga, to anime series, to feature films and even video games. It's simply rare to see a piece of work to remain popular for decades.

     The setting of Astro Boy is fifty years from its publication, in the year of 2003. We have already arrived at 2012, but our society haven't yet develop into how Tezuka predicted. However, it's quite obvious of his influence on today's Japan, which is turning itself step by step into a mechanize country. Now we have factories full of machines, computers and smart phones that we can literally "talk" to.  It won't be long till the arrival of the entirely robotic age. Although a robot, Astro is portrayed by Tezuka as a regular human kid. He can think and he has emotions just like anybody else. He is a living soul inside of a robotic body. Tezuka gave him a lovable character, even under the condition when robots were discriminated by the human, Astro still maintain his good heart. He greatly emphasize on the respect of life and fulfillment of the spiritual world - even for robots. That's why Astro is a cute and lovable little boy than a big guy with muscular body like superman.

     Why Tezuka choose to make Astro a robot rather than a regular human boy? In the story, he treated Astro like a human. Well,  beyond human, because he is invincible. After all, Astro is a robot, he is a weapon. However, Astro uses his power to protect rather than destruct. I believe that this is the ultimate message told by Astro Boy, great power should lie in the hands of people who wish to protect others. After the mistreatment of human, after the abandonment of his "father", Astro still choose to stand on the side with human. He loves human, even if human doesn't necessarily love him back.