Astro Boy Omnibus, Volume 2

Astro Boy Omnibus #2

by Osamu Tezuka

Who will stand against invaders from space, robot slave masters, and a dictator producing human clones? Astro Boy, that's who! With powers beyond imagination, Astro Boy fights for the oppressed, whether human, alien or robot. Exciting, whimsical, and touching, Astro Boy brings back the classic era of comics and animation, featuring tales that readers young and old will enjoy.

The late Osamu Tezuka was considered the Walt Disney of Japan, and Astro Boy is his most popular and influential creation. Astro Boy Omnibus Volume 2 features nearly seven hundred pages of Tezuka's classic manga, value priced and ready to rock the 21st Century! Translation by Frederik L. Schodt, author of Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics and translator of Ghost in the Shell.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Japan, Childrens, Robots

680 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2016

About the author

Dr. Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga" and "the God of Manga."

Reviews

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another volume of simple most fun adventures. The first volume was very dark but this volume was much more light hearted.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Astro Boy is just as silly and fun as the first. Evil dictators, volcanic island fortresses, hostile aliens, threat of nuclear war...and always the risk of Astro running out of energy, which Tezuka makes feel more perilous than anything else Astro faces.

The second half of this volume is an ongoing serial from 1969. Your typical plot: locust-woman from another planet, transformed into human form, sent to Earth, where her ship crashes in the ocean, sending her and Astro back 50 years into the past (from 2019 to 1969). The locust-woman ends up shrinking herself to the size of an insect and is not seen again, but Astro has to figure out ways to keep himself alive until sophisticated robots are invented. This includes adventures in Vietnam, where he saves a village of innocent people who are then annihilated the next day anyway, and then later serving as lawyer to a robot falsely accused of robbery (where the robot is convicted and destroyed, even though Astro proves his innocence; presumably this will lead to the world developing in the way it does in the original timeline, so that Astro will eventually be created). It gets a little dark.

Other stories in this book feature the precursors of Transformers and Voltron. The issues of “robot rights” and whether robots are friends or merely slaves to humans appear in most of the stories. The “Once Upon a Time” serial, where Astro is sent back in time, is particularly chilling in how it imagines humans becoming quite callous and numb to real life by the 1990s.

Overall, I find Tezuka’s stories to be unpredictable, engrossing, and great fun. It’s like a lot of other things, and also unlike anything else.

[Preethi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with the "Once Upon A Time" tales!! I need to know that Astro Boy gets back to his own timeline safely — there's already been so much tragedy. 😭

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second omnibus colums of Osamu Tezuka's classic manga, "Astro Boy." Astro is a robot in the form of a boy and his adventures take him from the present to the past, from Japan to space, and back again. He always fights for humans and what is right, is an eager friend to all robots, and doesn't flinch when the going gets hard. As with the first volume, you can spot the occasional Disney/Hollywood influence, but this is for the most part pure Tezuka. Wholly original and every bit as meditative on the relationship between humans and their mechanical creations as Asimov or Heinlein. Tezuka is considered the Walt Disney of Japan and the father of modern manga. Astro Boy is his most popular and enduring creation.

[Corey Nyhus · Rating 4 out of 5]

What the stories lack in cohesive themes or deep characters, they make up for in sheer visceral impact. The often simplistic or familiar plots unfold at a breakneck pace, with great gags and even better action. You never end up where you expected. These *are* kids stories, so there's plenty of redundancy in the themes, with highly skimmable prose at points. But, there are moments that have a darker, surreal, or more mature spin as well that you will see more of in Tezuka's Blackjack or Dororo (both of which I adore). Despite Astro Boy's flaws (in addition to the themes being often half-baked, the women aren't written well, and there is occasional ugly racial caricature that this edition actually took the responsibility to acknowledge directly) it's still of tremendous value to me personally as a cartoonist looking at foundations of the craft from generations past. Vastly inspiring with the way it expresses time and impact, and when the plots are firing on all cylinders, they're deservedly genre-defining. Robot action with political drama and criminal conspiracies. Space Snow Leopard was a favorite of mine. Love the way that funky dude is drawn.

[Η Cultσα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Εδώ μέσα υπάρχει ιστορία στην οποία ο Astro βρίσκεται στο Βιετνάμ κατά τη διάρκεια του πολέμου και προστατεύει ένα χωριό αμάχων από τις επιθέσεις των κακών Αμερικανών (τους πετσοκόβει τους Γιάνκηδες γενικά). Εντάξει, όχι 5, έπρεπε να υπάρχει επιλογή για 50 αστεράκια.

[Al Capwned · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's incredible how many latter sci-fi works were influenced by the stories in this volume. I mean, there is a concept which is a mix of the Westworld TV series and Purge movies here (among others).

[Jesús Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy bueno pero al final Muy triste 😢

[Nina]

dnf