context: comics > Osamu Tezuka

Astro in action

Astro Boy

This series, started in 1951, is the work for which he is rightly world famous. Astro is a robot in the form of a boy, and has adventures encompassing family, education, superheroic action, SF and, centrally and regularly, what it is to be human, to be a good person - you may well see a connection here to the story of Pinocchio, particularly the 1940 Disney movie. The stories are touching, fascinating, funny and exciting. The success of this series made him decide to give up medicine - he had completed his degree and qualified as a doctor while getting his manga career going - in favour of comics.

There will certainly be more on Astro in the animation section coming soon, since this was the first animated series in Japan, and the first to be exported.

backwards: First works

forwards: Phoenix