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Earthshine wrote:"Bemo" otherwise known as Bem who appears in the episode Attack from Space adapted from the story "Earth's Last Day" in the manga. I really love this particular character for a lot of reasons. Tezuka pulls no punches in his story telling about the selfishness of sentience and the evil anyone can inflict - having it span even across stars as Bem's people created them for the sole purpose to die should they be deemed necessary. It is made very clear that Bem is no volunteer; they are a bomb with sentient thought with a strong sense of self preservation. Tezuka goes into a lot of details with Bem's story that tells many different opinions that I also really enjoyed; such as Dr. Ochanomizu handing Bem back over to his abusers despite Atom's pleading because in his particular situation what other choice did he have?

Bem has a lot of anger for their situation and rightfully so; created just to die... and to save the Earth from their own people means to also die. Bem as they first show up is not that selfless or righteous but grows to eventually make the decision to save Earth. The English 1960s adaption of this story makes their end much more appealing but it looses the impact of what the full scope of their situation was; in the ELV Bem was simply not helping Earth because they didn't want to, not that they would DIE if they did so. So in this version Bem was said to have just been "taken home and de-weaponized." A happier end but it makes the whole story seem a bit more lackluster and rudimentary.

One detail about Bem that I do like that the ELV also did not reveal was that Bem was technically non-binary; a gender nonconforming to either man or woman. Tezuka often loved playing with gender and physical sex, writing characters like Princess Sapphire, Tima from Metropolis, Kei from Black Jack (and many others that I am forgetting atm) but he typically stayed within the range of man or woman, it was a rare thing for him to write a character that was purely outside either as Bem made it generally clear that both options was not accurate to what they were really.

And gosh I love the designs of the Norikans/Nicolans... Wings on their HEADS! Physics, what physics?