Hoshie's Relevance

[Prettywitchiusaka]

I've been thinking about this rather recently, so I figured I should bring it up. As we all know, Hoshie's role has always been a minor one. In fact, her role is so minor, it's no wonder she's rarely ever mentioned within most series proper.
Regardless, I do agree with what Alittleaxorn once said; "You need two peopel to make a baby, so where did Hoshie go?". That brings me to what I'd like to discuss today.

Could Hoshie most likely be expanded upon?

My answer; yes, absolutely. True, I do feel she would be an intricite portion to Tenma's development before series proper. But I do feel that she would make for herself an interesting character.

I don't know why, but when I think about Hoshie's personality, I have a specific image that comes to mind. For whatever reason, I almost get the impression that she is a wise, mature young woman, who is still fairly innocent. True, she may be terrible at home making skills, and she is overly relentles in her pursuits, but it's her kindness that has given her success in life. It's her kindness that keeps her at peace, her kindness that encouraged her to go into medicine, it's even her kindness that keeps her temper at bay despite being very honest and opinionated at times.

It's also that kindness and that innocene that, ultimately, wins Tenma's heart long before they ever marry.

As for how Hoshie could fit into other adaptations, well, I think I might have found one way she could fit into the 03 series.

How I would conceive it, is to have Astro save Hoshie one day before she's about to be killed for being at the wrong place, at the wrong time. She thanks him, and they grow slowly aquainted. Astro finds that he realy likes her, but surcomes to fuzzy flashbacks at certain moments when she's near, making him question if he knows her from somewhere.

In the meantime, Hoshie grows quite fond of both Astro and Uran/Zoran. She also grows rather fond of Ochanimizu/O'Shay, and vise versa. But much like Astro, O'Shay can't help but wonder if he knows her from somewhere, especially since she keeps finding excuses to not be in the same room with Tawashi.

Eventually, a new robotic threat is unleashed, one that Tenma is behind. When this is revealed, Hoshie suddenly becomes much more silent, even desperate to go with Astro on teh mission. O'Shay refuses, telling her that it's much too dangerous, but she keeps insisting. Eventually through her relentless behaviour, O'Shay finally remembers why she seems familair; she is Hoshie Tenma, Tenma's wife. Despite understandsing her reasons, he convinces her to stay as he goes with Astro to prevent any collateral damage. Though little do either of them know that Hoshie snuk into the back of the vehichle, taking her with them as a result.

During the battle, Tenma continues to watch from the sidelines. However, he is surprised to get a visit from Hoshie of all people. Despite his surprise, he is acually glad to see her. However, she bluntly reminds him of the last time they saw each other; the night he burned the Ministry and disappeared. Despite teh guilt he feels, Tenma tries to explain that he had good reason for why he did, only as she begsin to argue how much stress he put her through these past few months worrying about him.

As their conversation progresses, Tenma begins to explain his plans to her; that he intends to create a perfect world of robots, where he is God and Astro is King. Of course, she too thinks he's lost it, and tries to explain that his ideas are ludicrous. And of course, that Astro si not Tobio anymore. Of course, he freely objects her opinions as they argue, the romantic tension between them becoming ever more clear.

Eventually, Hoshie begins to to break down in tears, wondering if she was right to question whether or not he loved her anymore. However, Tenma's own heart begins to break as he sees her crying, and proceeds to hug her. This shocks her, but what shocks her even more is that he tells her that he would never do anything to hurt her. Unfortunately, he then proceeds to remind her that if she is to live, she too will have a choice to make, just like Astro. Hoshie however, is rather confused to what he means. Unfortunately though, Tenma leaves her shortly after, telling her that they will be a family again before he departs. She tries calling out to him, but finds it's no use. All she can do at this point is merely stand there; stand there and cry.

And that's what I think could happen. There's a bit more to it, but I'll discuss that later.

What do you guys think?

[AprilSeven]

YEAH!! I've always wondered why Tezuka didn't include Hoshie - really - in ANY of the tellings of Astro's story. The manga comes the closest, and actually it's a very believable scenario with Hoshie being the typical (in the 1950's) stay-at-home wife who basically follows what ever her husband dictates.

In a retelling and updating of the story the addition of Hoshie's character would be beneficial in better understanding Tenma and even Tobio/Astro (apparently he physically resembles her . . . what about personality?).

And I doubt she'd be a housewife to the exclusion of everything else. You might want to work that into your story above: is she also a scientist? A robotics engineer? Maybe they BOTH wanted Astro, but she wanted him to simply be "human" and Tenma got carried away with all the weaponry?)

Excellent topic and I look forward to seeing what everyone else thinks!

[Prettywitchiusaka]

I don't really get it either, especially concernng the 03 series. Mind you, I think the conflict of Astro having two fathers with differing ideologies works great, but it would have been interesting to include Hoshie there as well.

Atually, that might not be a bad idea. The way I interpret it, Hoshie merely wanted to be a nurse due to her motherly nature, but I don't soubt that she picked up a few things about robotics (how to run maitenance checks, or even fixing minor things) from Tenma. In fact, doing so would probably REALLY make O'Shay question why he vaguely remembers her.

Actually, the more I add stuff like this, teh more I'm starting to think that my interpretation of Hoshie is sort of an expy of Chitose Hibiya from Chobits.

[Androids101]

It'll be interesting if Hoshie always with Astro

[AprilSeven]

Yeah!! I can see her now:

"SKUNK!! You keep your grimy mits offa my little boy!!!! "

love it!

"He's my little man!"

[Prettywitchiusaka]

(chuckles) That actually would be kind of funny.

Actually, the way I see it, Hoshie would stay as a minor character. But in typical fashion, she'd be a minor character who'd actually do stuff.

Essentially, she would show up from time to time to help Astro; give him maitenance check-ups when O'Shay's too busy, chat with him, and even do more familyish things with him and Zoran (i.e. going to the grocery store).

As time passes though, you get teh sense the she seems happy, yet sad all at the same time. At first, Astro thinks it might be because all this family time is reminding her of her broken family, but she revokes that statement. Eventually, we see Hoshie in teh hospital, being checked up by her doctor, crying.

The next time we see her, she has called Astro out to the park late at night to talk to him. Of course, he's suspicious of her motives right off the bat, but only becomes more curious the more she begins to talk. She tells him she's going somewhere far away, and that she probably won't be coming back. Surprised by this, he asks her why, but she explains that she'd rather not say. Eventually, their conversation ends with her thanking him for such happy memories, and to be a good boy as she walks away. Astro calls out to her, but it's no use. She just continues to walk, walk away as tears begin to flow from her eyes.

The next time we see Hoshie, she is lying in a hospital bed, looking very pale and weak. And who else has to come to visit her but Tenma, having infiltrated the building of course. Oddly enough, she is happy to see him, but he can only assume why. Despite this, Tenma takes her hand as they begin to talk. The conversation mostly centers around their past (she even mentions that Tenma has only ever told her once that he loved her, but she didn't mind because he expressed it in other ways), but that also she wants him to be happy after she's gone.

Despite being able to keep his calm composure for this long, Tenma eventually begins to break down in tears as she keeps nearing death. Though before she dies, she expresses that maybe it's better she got to see him one last time as opposed to dying alone. Once that is said, she smiles at him one last time before closing her eyes for good. Withe the inevitability of her death, Tenma can only silently weep over her body before telling her one last time that he does love her out loud.

Afterwards, he proceeds back to his lab. Though it's pretty clear his screams of anguish can only be drowned out by the playing of the organ.

[jeffbert]

For that matter, where is Mrs. Ochanomizu/Elefun? She is in the live-action version, but as with atom's parents, relegated to a background role. I think Tezuka omitted Hoshie from all but the newspaper & JM versions for a reason. In the paper, whose readers were assumed to have grown up with the SHONEN version, H appears to add emotion to the story. Boys might not have been interested in this element; they want action, not tears.

In the JM version, H appears only in Tenma's retelling of the deaths of H & Tobio. Hardly objectionable to 10 year old boys, & necessary to explain why Tenma (who appears only in 1 episode in the middle of the series), was trying to acquire Mars.

[Prettywitchiusaka]

Really? I didn't know that. Though to be fair, I'm still new to Astro Boy cannon, so I guess that makes sense. Mind you, I have my own theories on what a love interest for Ochanimizu/O'Shay could be, but that's not what we're here to talk about.

Anyway, I can understand why (based on your description) Hoshie may not have been included as much. Still though, I do wish Tezuka would have done a little bit more with her. There's so much milage you can get from her character, especially in relation to Tenma. Mind you, I do feel she should be her own character, but considering Tenma's personality, it does make you wonder what happened there a bit.

[AprilSeven]

@Prettywitchiusa - that is a nice outline of how she could have be integrated into the story. I wonder if Jeffbert is correct in his theory that Dr. Tezuka skipped over Hoshie because the manga (and anime) was aimed at boys. Still, there's an awful lot of complex emotions and pathos in these stories (and Astro is drawn so cuuuuuute he pushes all the right buttons in girls...)

**sighes** I wish Dr. Tezuka had lived long enough to have been able to BE HERE WITH US AND TELL US!! So it's up to us to "finish the puzzle..." I think she's a logical and much needed addition to the story.

I was also annoyed they never showed any images of Hoshie in the 2009 movie where Toby's memories come up on the monitor.

[Satus]

To Prettywitchiusaka: Yes, she was a rather minor character. I agree, and I would indeed like to see her character expanded upon more. I believe she has the potential to be a very interesting character that could expand the story itself more. It is kind of strange that sometimes Hoshie dies before Tobio and sometimes Tobio dies before Hoshie. I wonder why that is?

As for how I see her, I can't really say because I do not know the character very well.

Your idea for the 2003 series is interesting and seems believable. I would love to see that animated.

To AprilSeven: I also agree Hoshie should have at least cameoed in Toby's memories in the 2009 movie. It's disappointing.