Atom: The Beginning (Manga Discussion)

[Little Brown Fox]

Is that freaking Atom Cat

[Earthshine]

It's a little weird seeing Ochanomizu so thin but then again I guess that hints to how stressful his job is (stress eating!) His overall character design looks a little "off" to me though, the hair doesn't seem to look right at all and has an incredibly jarring inorganic shape - even for manga. I was rather pleased though with the general direction this series seems to be going in though, can't wait for more.

[Shiyonasan]

The preview for Chapter 7 is now available. They gave us 17 pages this time around, with the first four being in color. The fighting tournament from the last few chapters appears to be done.

[url]http://www.heros-web.com/works/viewer/atom_1507/index.html[/url]

There's a few pretty good expressions from Ran's cat in this chapter as well.

Ran Cat 1.png (104.59 KiB) Viewed 1665 times

Ran Cat 2.png (86.16 KiB) Viewed 1874 times

Ran Cat 3.png (39.93 KiB) Viewed 1675 times

[Little Brown Fox]

That last one kind of reminds me of Invader Zim.

Also, I'm kind of sad that I can't read these...

[Fauna]

My copy of Atom: The Beginning vl.1 arrived today! It's such a relief to finally see all the chapters in full. I don't want to talk about them in too much depth, since it could detract from sales of the official release.

Some observations:
1. Much of the story focuses on 19 year old Hiroshi Ochanomizu and Umataro Tenma trying to research A-106, mostly by testing "Six"'s abilities. They enroll him in a robot battle competition, get him a job as a mover, and have him do housework.

2. Shunsaku Ban and his nephew run an independent moving service called Maruhige Shipping; Hiroshi, Umataro, and A-106 get a job there in chapter three.

3. Ran has a crush on A-106! Hiroshi Ochanomizu is in love with Motoko Tsutsumi. Meanwhile, Umataro Tenma has a really bad rivalry with Makoto's brother, boy genius Moriya Tsutsumi. Meanwhile-meanwhile, Shunsaku Ban's nephew is in love with Ran.

4. Hiroshi and Umataro get along like brothers in this manga. They have a running joke with each other where they pinch each others' nose, and they hug and throttle each other as much as real brothers. This only makes their future academic split more heartbreaking.

5. I'm not pleased with how Tetsuro Kasahara portrays young women. Motoko seems to only wear outfits that emphasize her boobs (and her panels are staged so as to showcase said boobs). In chapter two, Ran falls down in a skirt in a lot of really exploitative ways, one position being a clear pantyshot with her legs spread, which is really gross because she's aged 13/14. (Luckily, so far, Ran's exploitation seems to have stopped.) In chapter four, the pilot of Mohican Basso, Linda, is a young woman wearing a really tight plastic bikini top and jean micro-shorts. As a female reader, it just makes me really uncomfortable to see teenage girls being drawn like this, but I've seen this trend in a lot of recent manga and anime.

6. On the upside for female representation, there is Dr. Lolo, the elegant young researcher who created the battle android Mars. Mars is her prize creation and happens to be the robot that attacked Ran earlier, and he has two antennae on the sides of his head that look exactly like Jetter Mars's. Mars is basically A-106's greatest match.

The volume ends with a cliffhanger at the climax of Mars and A-106's battle, and I can't wait to see more!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

So this A-106 is Atom's prototype? Maybe he becomes Cobalt (like in the anime)? I wonder if Ochanomizu eventually marries Motoko, IIRC he was later mentioned as being a widower. That and his first name are missing details from the canon.

[Fauna]

So this A-106 is Atom's prototype? Maybe he becomes Cobalt (like in the anime)? I wonder if Ochanomizu eventually marries Motoko, IIRC he was later mentioned as being a widower. That and his first name are missing details from the canon.

A-106 isn't directly Astro's prototype, but he's the first emotive humanoid robot that Tenma and Ochanomizu successfully built, so the technology in 6 would eventually go into Astro. In a way, 6 can be seen as his distant older brother.

And it looks like Ochanomizu may have a chance with Motoko, but it's also heavily implied that she's a sort of "double agent" for her brother. Tenma in this manga seems incredibly uncomfortable with having her hang out in their lab, as if she's going to leak their work to Moriya.

[Little Brown Fox]

I don't suppose someone could grab a picture of this "Mars" character? That'd be an interesting nod, if that is indeed what it's supposed to be. Could be a coincidence, especially since officially he has nothing to do with Atom and his universe (although this might not have supposed to have been the case originally?); I don't even know who rightfully owns the rights to the characters and/or the series...

[Fauna]

Mars incoming! I only took phone photos since I don't want to break my book's spine:







As well, as far as I know, the Jetter Mars anime is officially seen as an Osamu Tezuka property, but the animation credit and broadcasting rights belong to Toei.

[Little Brown Fox]

Hm, this might well be... I mean, it does sort of look like it, from certain angles. But it also has what looks like a goatee...

Eh. I dunno.

Also, that's interesting! Explains how he was able to show up in the GBA game, Omega Factor. I kinda wish he would make more appearances, though; he's really an underrated character from an underdeveloped property, that was basically turned into a clone, as I understand it, because what the people really wanted was Astro Boy, so Tezuka was pressured into making it into even more of a self-ripoff than it already was. Although as I understand it, the character of Mars existed before the copy-right trouble started; is that right?