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This one has been released in the "right stuff" boxed set, and has been up on youtube once or twice. Anyway, I had downloaded it once from youtube (not very good copy, low resolution) and had forgotten about it. Recently Jeffbert put up the screen shots from the episodes with Chi-Tan, and I wondered if he had been in that episode. (I didn't remember, but then I didn't know who he was). I DO remember that Tezuka was in that episode, he looked out of the spaceship and said "I can see Mushi studios from here!" (if the captions are right).

BTW, sure enough, he IS in there crying so hard that the spaceships nearly fall over before they can take off!

I remember that- that was the first time I ever saw him, and pretty much the only time he even appears in the episode, save for maybe the end.

"Little Brown Fox" wrote:I remember that- that was the first time I ever saw him, and pretty much the only time he even appears in the episode, save for maybe the end.

He was in a few other scenes here and there, mostly in Toshies arms.

You mean Astro's Mama? She didn't have a name in the anime; Papa never had a proper name...

And you're thinking of "Hoshie".

"Little Brown Fox" wrote:You mean Astro's Mama? She didn't have a name in the anime; Papa never had a proper name...

And you're thinking of "Hoshie".

That's right. We'll his robot mother was supposed to have looked like Hoshie who had died. Although in some versions of the manga, I think she divorced Tenma or just left him.

She left him then died. Because apparently just one of the two isn't depressing enough. -_-

"Little Brown Fox" wrote:She left him then died. Because apparently just one of the two isn't depressing enough. -_-

I think that was what happened in the "once upon a time" story arc. I'm not sure if it was ever mentioned for the other versions of the Astro origin tellings.

I've seen the last episode. I think Fluttershy expresses my thoughts best;

I know the Japanese are big on the self sacrifice theme, but it always bugs me when they have you attach to a main character for some years and several episodes only to kill him off in the end. Kinda makes you question why you started watching this show in the first place. Sometimes the concept works but in this case it feels there was no real reason for it other than just a surprising ending. Like giving a child a puppy, allowing the child to love the puppy for a long period of time and then suddenly shooting the puppy. But then, maybe it helps to be Japanese :/

They had to end the series. Probably they can't end a series without killing the main protagonist otherwise people will ask when is the next season

Hoshie was only in the "once upon a time" arc that Tezuka did AFTER the completion of the anime.

It was a hard episode to watch but I understand why Tezuka did it, at the time that was the only way to put a lid on a story once and for all.