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Tetsuwan April Challenge (2017 Edition)

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 5:06 am
by Shiyonasan
Since there seems to be some interest in doing another Tetsuwan April challenge this year, I've started a new thread for 2017.

Here's the rules as posted in the previous thread:

Earthshine wrote:During Tetsuwan April each day is set for a specific character (or characters) in which the participants must focus on; whether it be art, fiction, gifs, screenshots, headcanons, recipes, fic recs, songs, color pallets, whatever so long as it focuses on that character on that day. It can be ANYTHING.

I have left [Tuesdays] as “free days” in which you can take a break, or focus on other characters not on this list (such as Novacain, Chief Nakamura, Noh Uno etc). You may also pull in characters from other Tezuka series.

It is okay if you can only participate on a couple days or one day, by no means does this mean you must contribute every day, but if you can and want to challenge yourself the more rewarding it is.

I understand there are some pretty underrepresented characters on this list, and that is the point; for you to think of interesting ways to represent an otherwise unknown or underrepresented character in this fandom.

On the days in which there are multiple characters you may feel free to do only one or all, or some of the characters listed on that day.


I've updated the list a bit this year to include characters from Atom: The Beginning and Astro Boy Reboot.

1 (Saturday) Atlas
2 (Sunday) Tawashi
3 (Monday) Delta
4 (Tuesday) Free
5 (Wednesday) Dr. Ochanomizu
6 (Thursday) Kenichi and/or Shibugaki and/or Tamao
7 (Friday) Atom
8 (Saturday) Higeoyaji
9 (Sunday) Pluto
10 (Monday) Uran
11 (Tuesday) Free
12 (Wednesday) Dr. Tenma
13 (Thursday) Bem
14 (Friday) F14/Tom (Ran's cat in ATB)
15 (Saturday) Hoshie Tenma
16 (Sunday) Atom's Parents (one or both)
17 (Monday) Tobio
18 (Tuesday) Free
19 (Wednesday) Livian
20 (Thursday) Skunk
21 (Friday) Denkou
22 (Saturday) Moriya and/or Motoko (ATB)
23 (Sunday) Epsilon
24 (Monday) A106
25 (Tuesday) Free
26 (Wednesday) Fubuki and/or Akino (boy and girl in ABR)
27 (Thursday) Cobalt
28 (Friday) Ran Ochanomizu
29 (Saturday) Blue Knight
30 (Sunday) Reno


I suppose it's a bit early to post this thread, but hey, I suppose it gives you all time to prepare. :)

I look forward to seeing what everyone creates. Good luck, and have fun!

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:43 pm
by Juanita
Definitely participating! Might only be able to do one a week tho

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 2:43 am
by Kitty Lue
Hoping life doesn't decide to throw too much at me this April, this'll be great to participate in! :D

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:04 pm
by Shiyonasan
Bumping this thread because tomorrow is the beginning of April! Check the first post for details if you wish to participate.

Again, only do as much as you want to do or are able to do. It's cool if you can draw every single character on the list, but don't feel like you have to draw everyone. :)

As I said in the first post, good luck and have fun!

四月 馬鹿

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 7:13 pm
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Looks like I claim the first entry here this year (again).

四月 馬鹿


Atlas held up the newspaper and pointed to an article on the front page. “That bastard Tokugawa has gone too far this time!” he yelled. “I'm gong to give him a piece of my mind!”

“You'd better not!” Astro yelled back. “Every time you go on a tirade like that you cause millions of Yen worth of collateral damage to innocent bystanders. And you wonder why Tawashi has a price on your head?”

“It's not my fault!”, the red and blue robot yelled back. “Anybody stupid enough to be near that greedy SOB deserves what they get coming to them. You'd better not be thinking about stopping me, or you'll be taking collateral damage!”

Astro stood between Atlas and the door. “You have to get by me in order to get out of this room.”
“Not really, Baka!”, Atlas laughed as he blasted a new hole in the ceiling.



Toshi happily rode his skateboard and watched the crowd gather in the large field about a block away from his favorite playground. The large lot had been vacant for as long as he'd remembered, and he and his buddies had often played make believe war games among the large piles of dirt and ruts in the ground left behind by the heavy machinery that had dug up the place and then left. Now the machines were back, along with a group of loud people holding signs. Toshi kicked his board towards the edge of the park where he could get a better view of the confrontation across the street, just as a bunch of police cars pulled up with their sirens running.

“Break it up!” a robot cop yelled through a bullhorn. “This is private property, and your group doesn't have a permit for this gathering!”
Most of the crowd slowly backed away from the site to regroup across the street inside the playground, where they continued to wave their signs and shout obscenities. Ieyasu

Tokugawa smiled as the crowd left his property. “Can't you get them to shut up?” he asked Delta, the leader of the robot police squad.

“I'm sorry Tokugawa San,” Delta replied, “The park across the street is public property, and as long as the crowd doesn't break any laws they have every right to be there. So long as they don't throw anything heavier than words at you, I'm afraid I can't do a thing to remove them.”


Atlas hovered over the scene out of sight and waited. He was tempted to egg the crowd on, but there were too many of the police force present. He was very happy to see that most of the protesters hadn't left, but had merely retreated across the street where they could still make their presence known. Suddenly he got an idea, he produced a cell phone from his pocket and made a quick call to a hacker friend who owed him a favor.


Toshi skated over to a group of people who were loudly shouting obscenities at the workers across the street. “What's going on?” he asked one of them.

“You'd better go home kid,” one of them told him, “Things here might get ugly.”

“Why?”, the boy asked.

“That property across the street belongs to the Tokugawa corporation,” a well dressed individual holding a sign told him. “That site is where they intend to drill an experimental well to tap into oil or gas reserves deep underground. They want to make use of hydraulic fracking to release those deposits. The technique is suspected to be unsafe in areas where seismic instability is present, pretty much anywhere on these islands. Our group has been trying to stop them, but their permit for this site was finally granted despite our legal fight in the courts.”

Delta felt his radio buzzing, and he answered the call. After a few minutes communicating with HQ, he motioned to his squad. “We've been recalled!” he yelled out.
“We're needed elsewhere!” The robot squad quickly got back into their squad cars and left, over the protests of Ieyasu Tokugawa to the squad leader.

Tokugawa's own security force managed to keep the protesters on their side of the street, and the drilling machinery started up. Toshi kicked his skateboard away from the protesters and took the long route to the rear of the lot where he and his friends had used to play. He knew where a tunnel came to the surface, and was pleased to find that the entrance was still open. The boy used his cellphones screen as a flashlight and made his way through the passageway to get closer to the action. He was curious just what kind of drilling the group was protesting against.

Atlas laughed as the cops withdrew. “Looks like my hacker friend managed to get Delta's group distracted by a false alarm,” he chuckled. “They should be gone long enough for me to shut this operation down!”

Toshi came out of the tunnel about a hundred meters away from where a large boring machine had just started drilling a vertical shaft into the ground. He could feel the vibrations in the earth as the heavy weight rose and fell, hammering the drill head into the ground.

Across the street, a few of the protesters had become emboldened by the retreat of the police, and they crossed the street armed with rocks and bottles. Tokugawa's men used their personal shields to ward off the missiles being thrown at them, and they fought back with tasers and clubs.

“Looks like you guys could use some help!”, Atlas said, as he fired his own lasers into the mix. One of the protesters kept in the background, and busied himself by siphoning a bottle full of gasoline out of the tank of a parked car. He stuffed a rag into the bottle as a fuse and then wedged it into the back of the drill rig without being noticed. After touching a lighted match to the rag, the man ran back towards the crowd on the park side of the street.

Atlas concentrated his laser fire on the private police force, thereby leaving the way open for the protesters to advance on the workers. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Toshi. The boy was playing sidewalk superintendent, watching the drilling operation. Suddenly the Molotov cocktail that had been planted near the rig's gas tank exploded, sending a huge fireball into the sky. The blast shifted the rig's center of gravity, and it began to topple over, just as the saboteur had intended.

Toshi heard the blast and fell towards the ground from the vibration. He looked up to see the machine falling in his direction. The boy tried to run, but he wasn't fast enough.

Atlas was at first pleased at the work of sabotage, and then horrified. While he often bragged about his pleasure in seeing the 'flesh bags' destroy themselves, the sight of the nine year old kid about to be pulverized by the falling derrick caused a reflex reaction in his autonomic nervous system. Atlas's first instinct was to use his surge cannons to blast the machine into smithereens, but that only sent a tidal wave of metal shrapnel towards the youth who was now spread eagle on the ground, in the way of the blast. Atlas rocketed towards the ground, placing himself in the middle as a shield. He lay down on top of the boy as a ton of metal bounced off of his back.


Astro arrived on site just as the delta force returned from the wild goose chase that Atlas had them sent on. He helped the police search through the wreckage of several machines that had been damaged, some by robotic serge cannon blasts, undoubtedly from Atlas, and a few home made explosives rigged up by the protesters. His eyes spotted an IR signature underneath a rather large pile of metal from a wrecked drill rig, and he quickly grabbed at the steel, tossing the heavy junk out of the way. After a few minutes of digging though the wreckage, he came upon Atlas's body.

The red and blue battle bot, slowly picked himself up. “You OK kid?” he asked placing a finger gently on the boy's neck to feel for a pulse.

Toshi coughed a few times, and wiped the blood from his face that had been dribbling from his nose. “I think so,” he said, looking up into Atlas's face. “Arigatōgozaimashita, you saved my life!”, he sobbed grabbing Atlas in a bear hug.

“Looks like the bit pain in the ass is a hero for a change,” Inspector Tawashi laughed. “I guess we won't be hauling him off to jail for a change.”

Ieyasu Tokugawa glared at the inspector. “Aren't you going to arrest that damn robot!”

“Not today,” Tawashi told him. “I'm not going to put a hero in jail, the press would be all over me if I did.”

“He's no hero,” the industrialist argued. “Atlas was preventing my own police force from protecting the workers from the protesters. How do you think they managed to plant a bomb on that rig?”

“Atlas wasn't anywhere near the rig that nearly fell on me,” Toshi yelled. “And if it hadn't been for him, I'd have been crushed!”

“Let's get you out of here,” Astro told Atlas, “before you do something stupid.”

“I feel like a fool,” Atlas laughed. “I came here to help those people stop the destruction of this country by greedy polluters such as Tokugawa, and instead of my making the usual martyr of myself, I've become a hero like you. Baka!”

“Yeah, well you did pick the right day for it,” Astro laughed.

Atlas face palmed. “Yeah, I did, didn't I?”

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:37 pm
by DCookie
So happy the day has come! Here's some Atlas for the first day :lol:

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 2:09 pm
by Tetsuwan Penguin
That's a new look for Atlas. :lol:

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 3:21 pm
by Juanita
Looks good!

Daydream

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:44 pm
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Inspector Tawashi looked over the mornings reports and noticed that Skunk Kuasa's name appeared more than once on the crime reports. Just outside his window a car backfired, making a sound like a police issue flash-bang stun weapon. Suddenly, the senior detective found his mind drifting back in time.



The rookie fidgeted as he stood at attention waiting to hear his name called out. The chief Sargent was paring the tyro cops with existing teams for their first assignments on the force. Tawashi rubbed the peach fuzz between his upper lip and nose, he'd been trying to grow a decent mustache for nearly a week now, but he still looked like a teenager who hadn't yet really started to shave. Suddenly, he snapped to attention and eked out a sloppy salute as his name was called. The recent academy graduate had just been given his first assignment with a pair of veteran cops.

Kato Isamu carefully looked over the young officer that had just been placed under his wing. He glanced at Oshiro Katsu, his partner of ten years and immediately read the mans opinion of their new charge from the expression n his face. “Tawashi San,” Isamu said, “Are you nervous?”

“Nervous? Me?” Tawashi replied, “Certainly not! I'm anxious to begin my first day on the force.”

“Then perhaps you should begin by fixing the buttons on your shirt,” Isamu laughed.

Tawashi glanced down at his chest and noticed that he'd cross buttoned the shirt, leaving his collar twisted. Trying to avoid looking clumsy, he quickly unbuttoned and re-buttoned the shirt, and carefully laid it straight. “I guess I was a little anxious this morning to get started,” he laughed.

“We've drawn foot patrol this morning,” Katsu said, looking at the daily roster posted on the wall of the squad room. “We'll grab a bus from here, and get off in the downtown area to begin our patrol.”

“We don't get a squad car?”, Tawashi asked.

“Not every day,” Isamu explained. “The police force believes that having cops hidden inside of patrol cars isolates us from the public we protect. Of course when we are assigned to highway traffic duty, or need to support crowd control, we will draw a car from the motor pool. And as far as transportation to our assignments, we use the same public transportation that all our citizens use, again, the purpose is to mingle among the people we serve and protect.”

“Someday I'm going to get promoted to Inspector,” the young Tawashi spoke up, “I joined the force to become a detective, not just a patrolman.”

Kato frowned for an instant, but his partner quickly spoke up. “There is nothing wrong with ambition,” Oshiro voiced, “If one has a definite goal in life, he will perform his current duties faithfully realizing that he is on a path to obtain his goals.”

“Yes, of course,” Isamu agreed. “Just bear in mind Patrolman Tawashi, that Oshiro and I will be grading you on your performance. If you want to be considered for detective school, you will first have to get a good record as a rookie cop under your belt.”
Tawashi nodded, then bowed to his partners. “I will make you proud of me,” he agreed.



Skunk Kuasa followed the three policemen onto the Yamanote line train. Two of the officers were seasoned policemen, but the third was clearly a rookie, possibly on his first assignment in the force. The juvenile delinquent teen was now operating on a dare, trying to pull off a prank that would gain him some standing in the gang he'd just joined. Kuasa tread silently though the car, following his targets, hiding behind other riders in the crowded car to keep out of sight. In his pocket he had the weapon that he was supposed to attach to one of the officers, a low yield flash-bang inside of a plastic bottle filled with indelible ink.

Skunk had already picked his target, the rookie cop who was carefully observing the actions of his senior partners. He waited until the elder officers had turned their backs on him to look out the window at the approaching station platform before he moved in.
Patrolman Tawashi watched as the platform of the Takadanobaba station slid into view. He observed the actions of the passengers waiting for the train to arrive, keeping a sharp eye out for pickpockets, as the police had been warned of thieves operating the rail lines during the morning rush hour.

Skunk saw his chance and used his nimble fingers to clip the device onto Tawashi's belt loop. He pulled the arming pin out of the bomb, and started to mentally count down the seconds before it would detonate.

Tawashi followed Kato and Oshiro out of the railway car onto the platform. Skunk remained in the train, standing near the now open doorway, just out of the way of his fellow passengers exiting and entering the car. Suddenly there was a loud blast as the flash-bang went off. As Skunk had planned, the detonation was harmless to its victim, at least as far as the concussion force was concerned. Tawashi nearly leaped out of his skin from the noise, which left his ears ringing, and he now found himself covered with dye that had colored his uniform and skin a bright yellow. The timing was perfect, the doors of the railway car started to close the instant that the device went off, and as Tawashi turned to face the departing train he could see Kuasa laughing at him though the windows of the railway car.

Kato Isamu made a quick call to HQ on his radio, before coming to Tawashi's aid. “Look at me!” Tawashi wailed, “I'm a mess!”

“Don't worry,” the senior officer replied, “I've radioed that punk kid's description, someone will be waiting for him at the next station.”

“I'm never going to forget that face,” Tawashi said with determination. “I'm going to make that punks life hell.”



Tawashi's brief daydream was interrupted by Delta banging on the door frame to his office. The inspector sighed and motioned to the robot policeman to head out and that he'd be right along. “One of these days,” he thought, “I'll finally put that Kuasa away for life.” A few minutes later the detective was once again out in the middle of the city, loving his job.

Ochanomizu

Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:22 am
by Tetsuwan Penguin
This one was inspired by 'Atom the beginning'

Ran sat on a blanket that she had thoughtfully brought with her. The ground in the middle of the junk yard was quite muddy from the previous night's rain, and she didn't want to get herself dirty as she worked testing the various robot parts.

Hiroshi watched as his sister tested the small pile of electronic parts that he'd dropped onto the blanket. The girl in the short blue dress adjusted her glasses to fit comfortably on her nose, and made sure that her white hat was still seated squarely on her head so it wouldn't blow away. The senior Ochanomizu was amazed at how quickly his younger sibling worked, she quickly separated the collection of discarded robotic odds and ends into two piles, one that could be reused, and another that would be thrown away again. She quickly probed the circuit boards with her test instrument, pausing only now and then to rub her cat's fur between its ears. The kitten purred each time it was petted.

“Your kid sister is smarter than you are,” Umataro laughed.

Hiroshi glanced back and forth between Ran and Tenma. “She's probably brighter than both of us,” he laughed. “Ran proofread the last physics paper I submitted for the midterm exams. Not only did she catch my numerous spelling errors, but she even found that few of my equations had been written out wrong.”

Ran slowly got up, holding the cat close to her under her left arm, the test meter in her right hand. “You guys can figure out which of these parts you want to use, they will all work,” she said, glancing at her brother, “I'll see you at home later.”



The professor stared out the window while sipping the cup of hot green tea. He could see the vacant lot down the block from his vantage point in the corner of the Ministry's main building where his office was located. The debris piled up on the ground where the now demolished building once stood reminded him of the old junk yard that he and Ran had rummaged through so many years ago. The sight had stirred the memories he'd just recalled in his pleasant day dream. Pleasant, but also bitter sweet.

Hiroshi pulled out his wallet and flipped through the photographs that were tucked away in the hidden flap that he rarely opened. Tears came to his eyes as he gazed upon his sister's face again.

“Twenty years,” he thought, “Has it already been that long since you left us, Ran?”

“Hakase!”

Ochanomizu turned to see that Atom had entered the office and had noticed him staring out the window. “O genki desuka?”, the boy robot asked.

“Genki desu,” he heard himself answer. “I was just a bit deep in my thoughts, kinda like you were a few days ago.”

Atom quickly realized what was going on, “You were thinking about Ran, weren't you?”

“Hai,” Hiroshi nodded. “I miss her, just like you do Hoshi.”

The two of them shared a brief embrace, and then the professor sighed. “It's getting late, why don't we head home?”