What did Tobio actually look like?

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Tetsuwan Penguin
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What did Tobio actually look like?

Postby Tetsuwan Penguin » 10 years ago

We assume that Atom/Astro looks like the boy he was made to replace. Tezuka usually draws Atom with a 'metallic' or 'plastic' look to his hair, and Tobio with individual 'hairs', but I think he is only showing the viewer that one is a robot and the other is a real human boy. In fact, in the manga Atom is often mistaken for a real human boy.

But just how closely DID Tenma really copy his son? In the 2003 Anime, Tobio is shown with brown hair and light brown eyes. Astro is always drawn with dark hair, and dark brown eyes. Also the 2003 anime wasn't done by Tezuka (he had been dead for about 14 years by then). Are there any color renditions of Tobio done by Tezuka to show what he had in mind?

EDIT:
In the 1980 Anime he either has very dark brown hair, or black hair like Tenma and Astro. It's hard to tell exactly because he's always shown wearing the cap. His eyes are dark brown as is Astro's. The eye color isn't surprising at all, as that is the dominant eye color for Asians. Did Tezuka draw any color manga pages with Tobio in them? (Would have usually been in the very front of the magazine).
Last edited by Tetsuwan Penguin on Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby MrsEclipse » 10 years ago

Didn't the 1980s series have Tezuka working on it? And Tobio in the first episode of that show looked kind of like the Tobio of the 2003 series in the hair department.
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Postby Tetsuwan Penguin » 10 years ago

"MrsEclipse" wrote:Didn't the 1980s series have Tezuka working on it? And Tobio in the first episode of that show looked kind of like the Tobio of the 2003 series in the hair department.

Yes Tezuka did work on the '80 series. His hair is darker in the '80 show than in '03, but as I said it's a bit hard to tell if there is any brown in it or not because of the cap.

I've been thinking about trying to come up with a FF involving Tenma years after the '63, or '80 anime time lines. In the '03 story he clearly goes mad, there is nothing specific mentioned in the '80 story (though some have hinted that he died), and the '63 story line follows the manga that he is always hanging about eager to interact with Atom (there are two stories in the '63 series that show this, both were not dubbed into English and were only seen in Japan), there are a few in the manga. Anyway, I wanted to know more about how Tezuka probably viewed Tobio as part of the background for such a story.
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Postby MrsEclipse » 10 years ago

It's dark in some shots and lighter in others. I might just be projecting; the men on my father's side tend to have hair that looks black in most lighting, but is actually a very dark brown.

Most of the time Tobio looks like this, right (Please excuse the size, I think it necessary to the point):
Image

There are a few shots like this one:
Image

One shot's inside, in low light, and the other in a well-lit public place.

I extracted the color used for the hair as best I could, given the video quality available, and found that the first shot they used a very dark brown, while in the second shot it was black.
Image

So anyway, that's my hypothesis: Tobio's hair is a very, very dark brown that looks black under most lighting.
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Postby Juanita » 10 years ago

So anyway, that's my hypothesis: Tobio's hair is a very, very dark brown that looks black under most lighting.

That's exactly how my hair is! I feel special now.
I do like how there are little details that differentiate Toby and Astro, such as the inside of his ears, his eyes, and his little tufts of hair.

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Postby Dante69 » 10 years ago

Oh his hair is brown in that version! I did not notice, still thought it was black.
Even without the cap there seems to me that there is quite a difference between Atom and Tobio. But then again, the further down the road you go in Astro Boy, the less human he appears to be (and less advanced).
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Postby MrsEclipse » 10 years ago

"SOPikaMeowMeow" wrote:
So anyway, that's my hypothesis: Tobio's hair is a very, very dark brown that looks black under most lighting.

That's exactly how my hair is! I feel special now.


My hair is kinda the same, only lighter- it's honey blonde, so it looks light brown in most light and dark blonde in the rest, instead of black in most light and dark brown in the rest.
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Postby Earthshine » 10 years ago

I'm pretty sure that Atom and Tobio look almost identical and the only reason why Tezuka had Atom's hair as a different color/texture from his 'counterpart' was to give the audience immediate recognition of who was who.

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Postby astro-boy-2003 » 9 years ago

I have darkbrown eyes too and short darkbrown hair :D

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Postby SuwaHana » 9 years ago

"Earthshine" wrote:I'm pretty sure that Atom and Tobio look almost identical and the only reason why Tezuka had Atom's hair as a different color/texture from his 'counterpart' was to give the audience immediate recognition of who was who.


Yes, I've heard it said that Atom's more robotic appearance is just Tezuka's way of showing us that he is indeed Atom, and not Tobio. For all intents and purposes, Atom is completely identical to Tobio.

Or you could take a bit of a headcanon route (in terms of the 2003 series) and rationalize that the reason Atom looks distinctly robotic and has a different hair color than Tobio is because Tenma made those changes himself, since he always regarded Atom as a "better version of Tobio".


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