Atom Cat
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 5:00 pm
Tezuka claimed that the name "Atom Cat" was a play on words, literally, "A Tom Cat".
However the name in Japanese didn't look right as the word for cat , "neko" isn't in there. Looking carefully at the katakana spelling, I realized that he literally translated the English phrase into Japanese, トムキャット or Tomukyatto, borrowing the English for "tom cat" with a suitable Japanese pronunciation. You just have to add one character to the beginning to get 'atomu'.
However the name in Japanese didn't look right as the word for cat , "neko" isn't in there. Looking carefully at the katakana spelling, I realized that he literally translated the English phrase into Japanese, トムキャット or Tomukyatto, borrowing the English for "tom cat" with a suitable Japanese pronunciation. You just have to add one character to the beginning to get 'atomu'.