The Fall of Acheron

The Fall of Acheron is the 14th episode of Astro Boy. It is a direct follow-on to The Rise of Pluto, unlike most, which are free-standing. Zoran appears in this episode due to an oversight while the episodes were re-ordered during dubbing. Additionally, these episodes are a remake of the ‘The Greatest Robot in the World’ episodes from the 1980s series, which in turn is a televised re-make of the original manga’s Volume 3.

This episode is a direct follow-on of The Rise of Pluto.

The episode begins with Astro’s fight with Pluto, and Zoran trying to intervene (see the previous episode). She is caught in the cross-fire between Pluto’s weapons and Astro’s arm cannon, resulting in her being damaged. Both robots stop, puzzling Dr. Tenma who is secretly watching on, as he believes that Pluto should only keep on fighting, eventually defeating the weakened Astro who is caring for his sister. Instead, Pluto remembers how Astro saved him, and so he stops fire. He leaves, remarking to Astro that he will only do this once, and next time he would defeat him.

Dr. O’Shay manages to fix Zoran, and Astro tells her that Pluto has to be stopped - only with her responding that he is actually quite nice (surprising Astro). Some time later, Epsilon is attempting to track Pluto, as her environmental censors are strong enough to track him. O’Shay asks Epsilon as to why she has decided to help them, and she replies that she only fights for those she protects, opening up a holographic projection of fish swimming in the sea. Epsilon tracks down Pluto’s base, and finds that it is right by the ministry of science. Breaking into it, an abandoned building, they prove that it is Tenma who is causing all the trouble. However, Shadow comes, and claims that he built Pluto, although O’Shay thinks it is impossible since Shadow’s voice is a perfect replica of Tenma’s (not knowing that Shadow is in fact a robot built by Tenma).

A robotic structure drags O’Shay underground, revealing a rocket ship shaped like a drill, which takes off. Tenma tells Astro that if he wants O’Shay back, he has to fight Pluto, but Astro refuses. While chasing the ship, Astro and Epsilon finds Pluto, and Epsilon fights him. Astro’s attempts to continue following the ship are foiled by rockets deployed from it. Epsilon goes underwater followed by Pluto, but Pluto gets trapped in an ocean current - and just as Epsilon prepares to destroy him, she is stopped by a pod of dolphins swimming nearby. Pluto discovers her weakness and goes to a highly volatile area of the ocean. Epsilon hesitates to shoot, as if she misses hundreds of marine life would be killed - and thus Pluto defeats her.

On the ship, O’Shay wakes and confronts Shadow, who takes off his mask and reveals to O’Shay that he is, in fact, a robot. O’Shay is stunned as that means that robots are now creating other robots. He also reveals that Tenma created Astro for him to evolve, just as how he created Atlas), but Atlas was the strongest robot he could build and thus, in order for Astro to become even stronger, he realised that he could build a robot which builds other robots in turn. Shadow announces to Astro to meet at the volcano, where he will fight Pluto in order to get O’Shay back.

During the intense battle, Astro and Pluto fight in a battle which could easily go both ways. It reaches a stalemate, and Pluto wonders back to Epsilon’s words and the meaning of ‘friend’, and realises that friends give people power. The robots refuse to fight. Shadow, however, unveils Acheron - an exact replica of Pluto but without Kokoro. Acheron slams Astro to the ground but Pluto starts to wrestle him, and both robots fall down into the volcano. Shadow leaves, realising his mistake, and Tenma reveals to O’Shay that he’ll be back - with even stronger robots to test Astro’s capabilities.