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鉄腕アトム [Tetsuwan Atom] #23
Astro Boy, Vol. 23
The worldwide explosion of Japanese animation, toys, games, and comics can be traced to one focal inspiration, master storyteller Osamu Tezuka, and Astro Boy is Tezuka's most revered creation, a rousing all-ages masterpiece of action, fun, and humanity. This, the final volume in the definitive Astro Boy collection, features a cavalcade of Astro Boy short stories featuring everything Astro fans have come to robots, ray guns, rockets, and a riot of a good time!
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Osamu Tezuka
2,145 books1,299 followersDr. 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."
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 3, 2020
Volume 23 is the final number in the Dark Horse Manga series of Astro Boy comics by Osamu Tezuka. As those of you who read my reviews know by now, I have been ordering them off and on to give to my husband Marco, who had Astro Boy as a childhood hero.
I don't think he will like this book, though. I didn't. I thought the stories were pretty silly. Astro Boy looked a little different than he had in earlier volumes; and that innocent magic that I had come to expect from other volumes is missing here.
Nearly all of the other books I've ordered had stories that were originally published in the 1960's, but these were from 1980 and 1981, with the final selection The Silver Tower dating from 1976. Had Tezuka run out of ideas for Astro Boy? Maybe he was trying to focus on other topics by these years, who knows. All I know is that this is the first of all these Astro Boy books that I did not care for.
I would not say I was ever a big Astro Boy fan anyway, but I could always see the attraction for youngsters, and I got a kick out of many of the situations AB got into, not to mention his nifty features like machines guns in his butt.
But this book just left me rolling my eyes and wondering what happened. It has 16 stories, but they all felt rushed and repetitive, if not downright stupid. One had the requisite evil scientist building a robot that would be able to defeat Astro Boy. The robot looked a little like AB, and he had all seven of AB's special features, plus a new one. The eighth feature was that the robot could pee and anything he peed on would blow up. Would Astro Boy be able to win their battle or would he get peed to death?
Seems to me that was scraping the bottom of the barrel for plot lines.
I would love to read at least one example of some of Tezuka's works for adults. I read in Wiki that his series Phoenix was profound and ambitious. That series was left unfinished when the author died of stomach cancer at age 60 in 1989. I imagine Tezuka had many more stories he wished to tell, 60 is too young for anyone to go, let alone someone with the creative drive this man had.
I have just one more Astro Boy book to read: Volume 6, which I was able to order in good condition so that Marco would have all three volumes of a three part sub-series. But I'll save that for a week or two before I read it. I need to let the disappointment from Volume 23 fade away first.
I don't think he will like this book, though. I didn't. I thought the stories were pretty silly. Astro Boy looked a little different than he had in earlier volumes; and that innocent magic that I had come to expect from other volumes is missing here.
Nearly all of the other books I've ordered had stories that were originally published in the 1960's, but these were from 1980 and 1981, with the final selection The Silver Tower dating from 1976. Had Tezuka run out of ideas for Astro Boy? Maybe he was trying to focus on other topics by these years, who knows. All I know is that this is the first of all these Astro Boy books that I did not care for.
I would not say I was ever a big Astro Boy fan anyway, but I could always see the attraction for youngsters, and I got a kick out of many of the situations AB got into, not to mention his nifty features like machines guns in his butt.
But this book just left me rolling my eyes and wondering what happened. It has 16 stories, but they all felt rushed and repetitive, if not downright stupid. One had the requisite evil scientist building a robot that would be able to defeat Astro Boy. The robot looked a little like AB, and he had all seven of AB's special features, plus a new one. The eighth feature was that the robot could pee and anything he peed on would blow up. Would Astro Boy be able to win their battle or would he get peed to death?
Seems to me that was scraping the bottom of the barrel for plot lines.
I would love to read at least one example of some of Tezuka's works for adults. I read in Wiki that his series Phoenix was profound and ambitious. That series was left unfinished when the author died of stomach cancer at age 60 in 1989. I imagine Tezuka had many more stories he wished to tell, 60 is too young for anyone to go, let alone someone with the creative drive this man had.
I have just one more Astro Boy book to read: Volume 6, which I was able to order in good condition so that Marco would have all three volumes of a three part sub-series. But I'll save that for a week or two before I read it. I need to let the disappointment from Volume 23 fade away first.
August 31, 2012
I'm giving this one 3 stars but I'm not really being fair. This is a collection mostly consisting of stories from the early 80's. It seems that Tezuka brought back Astro Boy for a run in a kids mag. As a result, these stories really are aimed at kids, as opposed to being more all ages. It makes for a lot of poo and pee jokes that you wont find in the main series. That said, you can tell Tezuka is having a lot of fun with these. The art work if cartoon-y, the plots silly and over all still a fun read.
not-gonna-read
August 6, 2025I can honestly say that I have no idea how the heck this book was the manga that ‘started’ the shounen manga or inspired manga artists with their successful shounen series such as Dragon Ball. This manga is just kind of out there that I have absolutely no idea how I was going to rate this.
First off, this manga was made in the50’s so the art and the story really has an old fashion type story structure that we’ve seen in old comics before. Especially in the sci-fi and the action genre. The hero lives life normally (or sometimes discovers new powers about himself). A villain appears and causes chaos.
There’s nothing much to say about this book except for the fact that some of the scenes in this manga don’t make any sense and just pop out of nowhere. For example, in the beginning of the manga there is this young boy driving a car. Mind you that this kid is no older than 12 years old and yet he recklessly drives the car and ends up getting into an accident. There’s also the police cars that are shaped like dog heads and there are some sort of diamonds on the moon (or some sort of crystals with an abandoned city, I can’t remember).
The plot is just series of events that happen to our protagonist, Astro Boy and they are kind of boring and lame. They’re predictable and the villains are not really that interesting and can sometimes be kind of stupid. Astro Boy is the only thing about this manga I actually enjoyed. He’s nice, wants to do the right thing, stands up for his friends and is basically your typical superhero. He’s not that interesting or complex but they do give him a good backstory that makes you feel sympathy for him.
If you like the story of robots coexisting with human then this’ll be a cute manga to check out. Just keep in mind that it was made in the 50’s so the plot and the characters are kind of old fashioned and not that complex.
First off, this manga was made in the
There’s nothing much to say about this book except for the fact that some of the scenes in this manga don’t make any sense and just pop out of nowhere. For example, in the beginning of the manga there is this young boy driving a car. Mind you that this kid is no older than 12 years old and yet he recklessly drives the car and ends up getting into an accident. There’s also the police cars that are shaped like dog heads and there are some sort of diamonds on the moon (or some sort of crystals with an abandoned city, I can’t remember).
The plot is just series of events that happen to our protagonist, Astro Boy and they are kind of boring and lame. They’re predictable and the villains are not really that interesting and can sometimes be kind of stupid. Astro Boy is the only thing about this manga I actually enjoyed. He’s nice, wants to do the right thing, stands up for his friends and is basically your typical superhero. He’s not that interesting or complex but they do give him a good backstory that makes you feel sympathy for him.
If you like the story of robots coexisting with human then this’ll be a cute manga to check out. Just keep in mind that it was made in the 50’s so the plot and the characters are kind of old fashioned and not that complex.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews