How did you discover Astro Boy?

[WingedSerpent]

Hmm, how I came across Astro Boy?

Well, back in 1993 or so, when I was ten years old, I was looking voraciously for any manga at all in used bookstores, comic book stores, and anywhere else I could look after my mom's best friend Yumi gave me an original copy of Magic Knight Rayearth. By sheer luck, I came across a copy of Black Jack translated into Chinese while in a bookstore in Vancouver, B.C.'s Chinatown. (I think that it was Vol. 8). I rather liked it and looked up Tezuka-sensei's name in a Japanese pop-culture glossary at the local library. It mentioned Astro Boy and Phoenix, both of which I made my purpose in life to hunt down and read.

It took three years to find Astro Boy in manga form, and I did at some point convince my parents to rent both parts of the 1960s and the 1980s series from Blockbuster. As for Phoenix, I only finished reading that in 2006.

For several years, I saw and heard nothing much of Astro or anything of Tezuka-sensei's except in random references (see History of Manga presented by nmp International). Then when I moved to Japan in 2006, I went on a trip to Kyoto and saw the interesting statues of Tezuka characters outside the main entrance - including Astro flying. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/48/155720662_eb877a47cf.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/nwhills/155720662/&usg=__k6ohRxiM1NH8i33FIQdeKfmhTm4=&h=375&w=500&sz=111&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=PAnas1kuWr3kOM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3DKyoto%2BStation:%2BAstro%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DG.

I got back into Astro Boy and other Tezuka works, borrowing some from the library and reading some at Book Off. (That was neat because I was able to finally finish Phoenix after over ten years of looking for it, and because I got to read Buddha). Strangely, what kept me interested in Astro was seeing an advertisement display in the local bookstore for Urasawa Naoki's Pluto. I had already read Monster and was reading 20th Century Boys, both which I greatly enjoyed. I really wanted to see what Urasawa-san would do with the story given his usual style of storytelling. (And I'll admit I always liked Tezuka-sensei's writing but was never much for his art style. Since Urasawa's style is much more realistic-looking, I was interested to see what Astro might look like in a more real style).

I recently finished the 2003 series and was surprised to see how much was different from the manga, yet could be extrapolated from some events and from subtext. (Dr. Tenma = awesome/scary/insane stalker dad in the 2003 series - I could see that being possible). Combined with hunting down information about Pluto, I found this site and forum.

If anything, Astro Boy has always been something of a classic of classics for me, on top of serving as a sort of Holy Grail of manga during my childhood/teen years. So many aspects of the medium (the same for anime) came from Tezuka-sensei that I can't help but try to read and watch as much as I can of what he wrote.

[Hikari Tail]

when i was at a little bookshop checking out the small comic book collection i saw Astroboy volume 3 and 4 at first i ignored it because it looked to 'old school for me untill i got it because it started looking intreseting and i wanted more it looked kinda oldschool yet modern at the same time to me and to see cute characters to have such cruel fates was fresh compared to other comic books that i have seen.

[Astro Forever]

Welcome WingedSerpent! Interesting story!

[jeffbert]

Interesting story, WingedSerpent. Welcome to the forum!

[AstroBoyGF]

you know...its kind of nice...i mean reading these stories of people that know the story of astro boy and are some how connected to it...some people connect to the story then some people connect to the characters...its really cool how for a glimpse you get to see how one person found this character and another person found astro boy too...so its like we were all drawn together some how by this story...and its characters and the author of course....but i find it pretty cool that were sharing our own personal stories...

[Existential Warrior]

I actually knew about Astro Boy when I was 10, due to his influence on Mega Man. About 4 years ago, at the age of 14, I decided to pick up Astro Boy Omega Factor based off good reviews and awesome 2d beat-em-up action. I was amazed by the art and snippets of history on Tezuka's creations such as Phoenix. About 4 years later, in 2009, I felt nostalgic and decided to watch the 1980's series. Boy, was I amazed. I wasn't expecting something filled with... so much soul. Some episodes even made me teary-eyed. Besides the spiritual and emotional appeal, Astro Boy also brought up many interesting cyberpunk themes + questions. I was surprised by Tezuka's vision, and felt obligated to buy Tezuka's other masterpieced. I bought the first 4 volumes of Phoenix, MW, Ode to Kirihito, and Apollo's Song. As of now, I only have Ode to Kirihito to finish. MW, Phoenix, and Apollo's Song were amazing.

I'll buy the rest of Phoenix when I have the dough. I also want to check out Buddha soon, but I want to get that around the same time I start Siddhartha for my existentialism course.

This quote by Tezuka is amazing:

What I try to appeal through my works is simple. The opinion is just a simple message that follows: "Love all the creatures! Love everything that has life"! I have been trying to express this message in every one of my works. Though it has taken the different forms like "the presentation of nature," "the blessing of life," "the suspicion of too much science-oriented civilisation," anti-war and so on.

source:
http://www.japan-zone.com/modern/tezuka_osamu.shtml

[Sailor Kitty]

Hmm.

Uh, this could get lengthy, I apologize...

I learnt to read when I was around three years old, and I was bilingual(Swedish-english). I'd been playing computer games for as long as I could remember(Not every day, just evry-now-and-then), and had lots of play-to-learn games in english. At the age of six, my father made the big mistake of introducing me to the internet.

Sailor Moon was at the time playing as part of the summer-cartoon lineup on TV. I saw it, loved it, and looked it up on the internet. I found out it was "anime" and based off a "manga". It went pretty much downhill from there...

During my quest for animes on the internet, I ended up knowing lots about different anime without ever having seen them-There was no anime/manga in Sweden by that time. Astro Boy, however, I found nothing about, perhaps because I wasn't really interested in spoiling it for me. It was like a relic that I'd probably never see for real- Yes, Astro Boy was, in an anime-starved seven-year-olds eyes, holy.

My first real encounter with Osamu Tezuka, though, was Metropolis, a movie I made dad rent under the premises "It's ANIME11!!" and "Look! It's from the guy who made Astro Boy!". (That movie was loved, impersonated, acted-out with paperdolls, and traumatized me deeply.)

Then anime and manga hit Sweden. At first I was happy and ecxited over the translations, buying everything avadible. They translated the Astro Boy 2003 manga, since they were obviously too cheapskate to translate the original series(It had to look the part of manga so the weaboos would buy it... Sweden was teeming with them.). I was really happy, 'cause even if it wasn't the original, it was still Astro. And it was one of the best comics I'd ever read(at that point), making me laugh, cry, and, well.. It just really made me happy.

Now, though, I've managed to find my own volumes of the manga. I don't have much yet, but my collection grows day-by-day. :'3 And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of how Kitty discovered Astro Boy.

[Astro Forever]

I wasn't lengthy, it was enjoyable.

I'm always happy to read how our members discovered Astroboy.

[Uran-chan]

Well totaly i discover astro through gameboy

cause my brother download roms for gameboy in to the computer
for some reason I like to search for new games...sooo i spoted astroboy
omega factor....well in the first time iam confused...just because i see my angel(Zoran)
In there and beacuse of a great story and astro s power i am convience to watch it
i first watch 1980 s in youtube and next 2003 in veoh by Luti; Iam little upset cause Dragonridder don t have a complete epesode of astroboy japanese version with english
and now iam force by my self to buy a manga...but the problem i can t buy in ebay cause i cant register.....

[Reno]

I don't quite remember when I first heard Astro Boy being mentioned but I do remember when the 2003 version aired on KidsWB. I took interest in it out of curiosity and because I knew a little of it's reputation. I watched a few episodes of it and thought "not bad". But it wasn't long until it was taken off the air.

Several years later I happened to stay up late enough to catch a black-and-white episode of the 1960's series. I can't recall which episode I saw but I really liked it. I wanted to watch more. I watched the 80's series' episode "The Greatest Robot in the World" on youtube and I also REALLY liked that.

Later my friend let me borrow her manga of Astro Boy and I was blown away from reading two volumes. After that I became a big Astro boy fan ^^!