Episode #193, "greatest adventure on earth"

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Many authors have killed off their main characters only to have to bring them back under pressure from readers (death threats?). Doyle had to bring back Sherlock Holmes after killing him off only halfway into his career.

[Earthshine]

I think the official reason why the Once Upon a Time arc was made was because Tezuka felt that the fans of the manga were let down with the ending of the anime (as they were two different entities). Tezuka wasn't all that fond of Astro Boy (using the story as a means to market and make money) and by this point in time he was absolutely sick of it, but he understood that it was cherished by his fans and he didn't seem to like to disappoint them.

I could be misremembering though so ignore all of that if I'm wrong.

I personally found the Once Upon a Time arc excruciatingly painful to read.

[jeffbert]

A day before this thread started, I uploaded images for #192, I will do that one before this one.

[Dragonrider1227]

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.

I question if such a story even needs a "lid" on it. I mean, does anyone ever put a lid on Superman? (Although he did die once, it was always intended for him to return) I guess if he hadn't, he would just get bombarded with fan asking "So, what happens next?" And I guess this was Tezuka telling them; "NOTHING! HE'S DEAD! MOVE ON!" This sort of behavior in a creator always bothers me but it's kind of understandable. still though, while it's understandable that a creator would grow sick of a character or series and want to move on, what these creators often fail to see I think is that fans often see these characters as friends. Sometimes perhaps even family. I know when I got into the manga, I very quickly grew attached to Astro as a character. In very little time he almost became like a little brother. And I didn't even grow up on the character as a child. So, unless it was properly written or intended from the beginning, (like Cowboy Bebop or Death Note) killing off the main character feels to me like a slap in the face to the fans. Like I said, this approach can work, but it has to be properly written, perhaps intended from the beginning, and certainly not with a beloved children's character.
On the other hand, it did end with Elefun claiming Astro would return someday so I guess it ended open. I guess... maybe...
Wow, that rant went on longer then I intended. Sorry ^^;

[AprilSeven]

I read in more than one place that the Japanese custom is to keep sagas such as Astro's going until the main character dies.

Because Astro is a robot, he could conceivably live "forever" - so Tezuka created this episode to give closure to the "official" story of Astro with the intention that the audience would "move on."

They did NOT, however, and basically were relentless in their demands to bring Astro back. His "Once upon a time" series was a way to "bring him back" but also to have the opportunity to "update" him. Not a successful move, on his part!

As we now see, audiences tend to prefer Astro younger and more innocent than more "edgey" - and the fact he restyled Astro in the 1980's anime as younger looking boy was in acknowledgement of this preference.

Even after the 2003 series (where he seemed a bit older - and 2009 movie where he is a teen), there are these other "movies" (Like Secret of Atom's Birth) where, once again, his appearance has been made younger. His 2014 incarnation is the youngest yet!

- can't help it. I am the fountain of CUTENESS!!

[Earthshine]

I read in more than one place that the Japanese custom is to keep sagas such as Astro's going until the main character dies.

Because Astro is a robot, he could conceivably live "forever" - so Tezuka created this episode to give closure to the "official" story of Astro with the intention that the audience would "move on."

They did NOT, however, and basically were relentless in their demands to bring Astro back. His "Once upon a time" series was a way to "bring him back" but also to have the opportunity to "update" him. Not a successful move, on his part!

This is exactly what I remember being the dynamics of the situation involved in the decision of killing off Atom in the 1960s anime. Tezuka wanted to do other things however he couldn't because of the Astro Boy anime, but how things were in Japan at the time a story was only over when there was nothing more to tell, which often involved the deaths of the story's heroes.

Killing off heroes is something that hasn't been fairly consistent or permanent in the comic book world (this includes manga). Back in the 1990s DC Comics DID actually kill off Superman (as Dragon stated) but that was only temporary as they revived him only a year later. His comics did continue on though and a new character was born from his death; Superboy aka Kon-el.

There have been other instances as well in DC comics of them killing off characters only to bring them back to life (Batman, Superboy, Kid Flash/Impulse, the second Robin [although he was dead for almost 20 years before the writers brought him back]).

This makes some fans edgy because it seems like some writers aren't taking their heroes seriously, many feel that if a character dies they should STAY DEAD and never be brought back unless there is a "good enough" reason to do so.

I'd go into some other instances of character death but I am mostly versed in Tezuka's comics and comics by DC (I apologize for that).

It's a touchy subject all across the board I think and it's never possible to please every fan of a comic when it comes to 'ending' something. Comics hardly 'end' with a death now. It didn't work back then and it still to this day doesn't work. It's very difficult now to kill a hero (and sometimes a villain) and makes sure that they stay dead. Death is now treated as a tool for marketing I think.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Tezuka only killed Atom off in the Anime, he never did that in the Manga. I'll fairly sure that the Manga which was running concurrently with the Anime didn't just end at that point, and the "once upon a time" story arc stood by itself and didn't actually start after Astro's Anime end. BTW because this story arc involved time travel it gave Tezuka a chance to poke some serious political jabs at the situation in Vietnam.

[Earthshine]

Yeah I remember how 'loaded' the Once Upon a Time arc was. It was very obvious that it was something Tezuka felt strongly about and couldn't help expressing his opinions about the war. No this is not intended to start a conversation about Vietnam.

I think I stated before, that story arc was really really hard to read for me. To me when I was reading it it just seemed like Tezuka was 'bullying' Atom to the extreme. Every possible bad thing that could have happened to him happened in that story arc. click for spoilerAnd he did actually 'die' in the arc at the end when his body ran out of power and he was left to decay in the fields with Sclara(?) It was a very depressing comic, and this is coming from someone who stomachs the Batman series.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Well one "instance" of Atom died while another "Instance" was created and came to life. Dr. Emmit Brown would approve!

[Little Brown Fox]

There's the whole "Atom Returns" arc that no one seems to be talking about (except for maybe April, but I think she confused the two...). This is where he got his slightly older look, along with the body armor and the ability to travel time. I wonder how Tezuka was planning to end that one? Due to its extreme unpopularity, it was cancelled before it could reach the conclusion it was heading for, which presumably has him finding his family again, but maybe not even ending there- maybe something else would come up?