Astro Boy #1: First Mission

[Fauna]

It's time again for some Pocket Jeunesse Astro Boy! I've got the first book in the series now, and it's ready to be translated!



For those who need to catch up, here is Book 2 and Book 3. Here's this book's summary from the back of the book:

Professor O'Shay created the most surprising robot that ever existed: Astro Boy! Though he dreams of discovering the world and making friends, the child robot must prove he can protect humans. His first mission: stopping an overpowered monster from destroying the city of Metro City...

The book so far seems to be an expanded retelling of the first episode of the 2003 series, with more characters added and more world building. To recap, author Gilles Legardinier was given basic concepts and character art for the 2003 series, and wrote six stories around them. This has proven interesting so far, with Uran/Zoran having her own powers, and the design of the Blue Knight being used for a villain called Lord of Darkness. It's really fun to read, and I'm excited to check out what this book brings to its canon!

[Fauna]

A prologue:

Professor O'Shay is about to create the most amazing of robots: Astro Boy. This young prodigy may have the appearance of a child, but he is also the most sophisticated friend to humans, thanks to his amazing powers!

While he has only just been born, Astro will not only have to find out what he's capable of, but also protect Metro City from an ultra-powerful monster that has mysteriously popped up...


CHAPTER 1

We open with Professor O'Shay, in his laboratory staring out the window into the Metro City night skyline. He is extremely anxious, knowing that his current project will be legendary if all goes to plan. He's accompanied by a colleague, Dr. Tiro.

“You look worried, professor,” remarked Tiro, the chief engineer.

“Rightly so. So many things will change tonight...Astro Boy is far beyond what I dreamed of, and most important in my career and in my life.”

“We've worked day and night for months. Everything has been prepared in every detail. Make yourself easy.”

They head to the central development room, and Tiro does his best to put O'Shay at ease while O'Shay turns out to be worrying about Dr. Tenma finding out about the project and sabotaging it.

From the bridge, Professor O'Shay monitored the final adjustments, but his eyes often returned to the round podium installed in the centre. That was where all cables, tubes and sensors were going, connected to a plate covered with a high translucent pod. Inside, a boy was lying motionless. Arms along his body, he was more like a statue than a sleeping child. It was true that he was not quite a child...

The engineers begin trying to activate Astro. A "brain activity monitor screen" - which shows a robot's thought as a series of lines like a heart rate monitor, along with colours and shapes they're processing - shows Astro's thought processes beginning to speed up.

On the monitor screen, ripples curves ran wild. Fascinated, Professor O'Shay watched the face of the little boy. He had a look much more than the attention of a scientist regarding his masterpiece: it was one also filled with tenderness.

The child was trembling. Come on, my child, you're almost there! the professor encouraged internally. Hang on, you can do it!

The power output isn't enough to bring Astro to a fully functioning state, and O'Shay calls for more power to be poured in. However, the team is using their maximum capacity for energy. O'Shay is desperate for this project to work, and insists they call the power station (no, not the one with Tony Thompson and Robert Palmer) and have a mass flux of power defected to the lab.

A female engineer intervened: “Professor, if you ask them to send us all the energy, they'll no longer be able to supply the city. This has never been done. Who knows what damage this could cause...”

Professor O'Shay hesitated. He knew that his colleague was right, but he had no choice. He ordered: “Call Magnamite. Ask them for all the power. I'll take responsibility. The boy is almost fully charged. We cannot give up now!”

The woman sighed and picked up the phone.



So far, this book is a much more fleshed out retelling of the first episode of the first episode of the 2003 series. More scientists get individual personalities and names, and there's lots of worldbuilding again: the Ministry (known in these books as the Centre of Research) overlooks a public park called Ikaru Park, and the Ministry also has a super tight security staff. I'm excited to see what's in chapter two.

[Fauna]

CHAPTER 2

So, in this series, O'Shay is not the Minister of Science, rather, just a high-level scientist. There's an unnamed director of the research centre who, at this point in the book, is calling the power station and requesting all possible power to be directed to O'Shay's lab. The dispatcher robot warns that this will plunge the city into darkness for a moment, but everything seems to be okay with this idea, so the order is given within the power station.

In the computer room, the machine passed the order to other robot dispatchers. Day and night, there were eight of them to carefully look after each area of the city. Together, they modified the distribution programs and reoriented neutron flow to the Research Centre. One by one, they lowered the control levers, while typing in codes.

Dozens of metres under water, in the depths of a gigantic shelter dug into the ground, Magnamite received the orders. With eight huge cables that went from its armoured centre of steel and copper, the super generator was reminiscent of a gigantic spider. Each of its cables fed a zone of Metro City.

Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, the city sunk into darkness. Thousands of lights were transformed suddenly into a grey ocean of ominous recesses...

The laboratory sees this surge of energy immediately, with all the machines for reviving Astro going into overdrive, and the lights in the room getting super bright. Astro seems to be sitting up as planned under his containment dome. However, the input energy is so strong that one of the connected cables springs off and writhes, sparking, on the ground.

“No!” exclaimed O'Shay. “It must be connected at all costs!”

Without even worrying about the risk he was taking, the professor jumped to the foot of the platform. He threw himself on the cable that was continuing to writhe.

“Professor, stop! It's too dangerous!” yelled one of the engineers. “You'll get yourself killed!”

But the professor had much less fear of facing this energy monster than of losing the child robot. His glasses askew, he grabbed the loose cable. While fighting against it, he jumped onto the gondola lift that went up to the platform.

“We're too close to the goal!” he growled, breathless. “It will not be a cable that stops this project!”

With enormous effort, he managed to manoeuvre the platform, while keeping the wild cable without getting electrocuted. Showers of sparks grazed his face. Gritting his teeth, the professor brought the cable to its socket. In a cry of rage, he managed to reconnect it.

O'Shay hangs onto the gondola lift to catch his breath, and soon enough, he's able to watch Astro absorb an enormous amount of power, almost hovering in his containment dome as he receives it. O'Shay orders to cut the power and slowly remove the containment dome. Astro opens his eyes, and O'Shay begins to hurry to his side.

[Earthshine]

A cliff hanger!

I think it's interesting that this series starts out with O'shay not as the Minister of Science but rather as a very high level scientist that the current Minister seems to favor enough in order to allow a city-wide blackout for this "project". I wonder who is the current Minister and what causes O'shay to replace them?

[Fauna]

I'm not sure who the real minister is! It might be explained later in this book; I can't remember at the moment if there was a separate minister...the Ministry of Science in the French text is literally the "Centre of Research", so it's presented as an elite laboratory instead of a government department.


CHAPTER 3

As emotional as he was excited, Professor O'Shay bent over the little robot.
“Hello, Astro Boy,” he said. “Welcome to this world.”

Astro here is more humanoid than in the 2003 series: he has "big dark eyes and brown hair", and looks very cute and calm. He seems surprised to be there, and listens to O'Shay.

“Are you okay?” continued the professor. “Now that your life begins in earnest, you 'll be able to discover everything that makes up our universe. You'll see, it has many fascinating things. You'll make friends, read all the books you like, smell flowers, play in the snow! What do you say?”

The little boy grinned. The activities program seemed to please him.

The next morning, one of the lead robots working in the Magnamite power station calls the research centre director with an urgent alert: portions of energy packages haven't been flowing properly since they diverted the flow to the centre. This has built up into an energy stowaway of eight billion megawatts. The director is horrified, and launches an immediate investigation.

Meanwhile, O'Shay is teaching Astro in his own special room, filled with toys and wall-to-wall books with a perfect view of the cityscape. Astro has spent almost two hours scanning every single book he can get his hands on, from entire dictionaries to 17 volumes of a general encyclopedia. He eventually gets tired, and turns to a box of building blocks. O'Shay the entire time has been studying Astro's behaviour, and is intrigued by what Astro seems to be building. Oddly enough, the boy hasn't said a single word in the time he's been active.

“What are you doing, Astro? You're building a wall?”

The boy shook his head and pointed to the window with a quick movement, without ceasing to stack his bricks. O'Shay then realized, amazed; Astro was recreating the skyscraper he saw through the window, to the last detail and with incredible speed!

Yuko, O'Shay's assistant, comes by. In this version, she's a bit younger, and more formal and timid. She lets O'Shay know that three government scientists have arrived, and he excitedly tells her to bring them in. The three are staunch and serious-looking old men.

O'Shay introduced Astro as being the new generation of robotic "ultraperfection", and a leap forward in technology. The geezers aren't amused, and I just have to post this whole scene:

The oldest of the experts, a little bald man who looked like an old plucked owl, leaned toward Astro. “This is a technological wonder?” he said in a contemptuous voice. “He looks particularly like a big doll that plays alone. Show us a little of what you can do, child... "

Astro did not even look up from his building set. The second expert, tall and thin, grimaced: “O'Shay, is this it, the most advanced robot that science has ever created? Where are its powerful weapons? His mega lasers? His rays able to pierce any material? I don't see a little boy, and it can't even talk. You must be kidding us!”

“But, gentlemen...” protested the professor. “You haven't seen anything yet! He learns an amazing pace! And his mind works like that of a human. So saying all that will hurt him!”

Astro looked at the professor and let go of his construction set to take a silver model rocket.

“Oh yes? Well, all we see is a kid,” growled the third expert without even paying attention to the little one who held out his rocket. “Remind us when it'll do something useful!”

Mocking Astro, the three scientists left.

“I'm all too glad they left!” exclaimed Astro. “Good riddance!”

“But you talk!” exclaimed the professor, surprised. “Why didn't you say anything to them?”

“Because I didn't want to talk to these old nasty villains.”

O'Shay laughs,and promises to teach Astro a bit more about etiquette. He isn't mad at all; he's just too excited to hear Astro speak.

Yuko calls over to O'Shay on his mini videocom, warning him that he's late for one of several appointments. O'Shay wants to stay and teach Astro, but knows he can't neglect his work, so he requests for Yuko to send the teaching robot Nora.

“You'll see, Astro, Nora is a robot teacher. She is very nice and will help you discover many things. I, during this time, have to go to work. Behave well!”

“Good luck, professor, and come back soon!”

[Fauna]

CHAPTER 4

Today's installment is pretty short, so I'll post it in its entirety...


Astro watched Nora, his robot teacher. She had an odd form: it was like a cone on wheels topped with a transparent cover, under which were turning workings composed of tiny cogs.

“Lesson number one: obedience,” announced Nora, her pliers arms raised in the air like a schoolteacher.

“What is obedience?” asked Astro. “I saw the word in the dictionary, but I didn't understand what it was for.”

Just then, through the window, he saw the entrance of a huge spaceship that looked a little like his rocket. He had never seen it for real, and it was so close by that he could see the people in it through their windows! The little robot rushed to the window. Fascinated, he fixed his eyes on the huge machine. The latter was flying majestically, coasting over the park as slowly as a gliding bird – it was forbidden to fly fast in town.

“Wow! What is that?”

“You're not very attentive,” called Nora. “Come back here!”

Astro reached for the opening of the window.

“No, Astro! Don't open that!” exclaimed Nora. “Be careful, we're on the seventy-sixth floor! The professor will disassemble me if you get hurt!”

Astro turned to her: “I must go and see. This is too great!”

“But no! You're here to learn, and it is I, your teacher! Stop! Oh, you wear down my circuits...”

“Don't break your gears, Nora, I'll be right back!”

Laughing, Astro opened the window and held out his arms to better approach the ship. If he just leaned a little, he could touch his hand...a little more, just a little more ...

Suddenly, he toppled into the void.


It's worth pointing out how the way Astro says "don't break your gears" in the French text is out of concern, not out of snark. I also find Nora/Robita's new design interesting; I imagine her looking like a more conical version of herself, with translucent casing like an Atomic Purple Gameboy Colour from back in the day.

[Fauna]

Happy New Year, everyone! My family has just shot off some fireworks in the backyard, and to stop myself from getting to a Rick Sanchez level of inebriation, I've come online to share some more of the Pocket Jeunesse series.


CHAPTER 5

The director of the Magnamite power station gets on the phone with O'Shay and briefs him on the problem with Magnamite's power. Basically, it's such an enormous amount of uncirculating energy that the police have gotten involved. As soon as the call ends, O'Shay finds that a police inspector in "a night-blue uniform" has come to his office.

“Professor O'Shay, I am Inspector Tawashi, of the Metro City Police. Why did you divert the course of the entire city's power yesterday?”

Professor summarized his experience in a few words.

“You have created a robot that thinks for itself?”

“Exactly, inspector. He feels emotions like you and me. He has a mind of his own.”

“If this thing can decide what it is by itself, it could become very dangerous.”

“Astro is not a thing, and he behaves very well, I assure you.”

“Are you really sure?”

The officer saw, through the glass wall of the office, a small figure that fell like a stone.

“Astro!” exclaimed the professor.

This is, of course, Astro in the process of falling from the playroom window. He screams for help, but right before he fits the foot of the Research Centre tower, a special "integrated program" kicks in. This opens up his feet, shooting out short flames as internal reactors start up. Astro recovers some metres away from the ground and swoops into the air.

“Oof, I was hot! But...I'm flying! I can fly! Wow, it's great!”

He stretched out his arms. Yes, indeed he was flying! Laughing, he passed by the huge spaceship he had tried to touch, greeting passengers who were amazed to see a small boy flying, with reactors instead of feet!

Astro spends some time exploring the city from the air, weaving between skyscrapers, and watching the people and cars below him.

“It's like a video game! I feel like I'll score points. But I have to be careful: I have only one life!”

Astro flies down a bit closer to examine the buildings and people around him. A surprised little girl notices him, and excitedly pulls at her mom's arm. Astro is happy to see her and waves; this girl is obviously amazed: "She had seen a lot of flying vehicles, but no boy!"

Astro notices something moving up the side of a skyscraper, so he flies up to examine it. It's hundreds of robotic bees, in the process of cleaning the high rise windows. Astro asks one bee what they're doing, and upon hearing that they're cleaning, he asks if he can play too.

“Bzzz! We're cleaning the windows.” The robot-bee who answered sent a jet of cleaning product straight out of his abdomen and, immediately, he began to rub using his paws equipped with absorbent strips.

“This is not a game, it's a job.”

“A job? What is it? I haven't learned this word in the dictionary yet.”

“A job, it's our reason for existing. Robots are programmed for that. Bzzz! Each robot has its mission.”

“Really! But then I have to have a mission, too?”

“Bzzz! Affirmative!”

The little robot wondered what his mission could be. He had no idea. He shrugged his shoulders, bowed to the cleaner bees and with a fire of his reactor, went on his way.

Astro goes back to flying around, testing out some twists and loops and flying with some birds. However, he's distracted by these birds and flies headfirst into a banner saying "Metro City Grand Festival". Blinded, he loses altitude and crashes into some thorny bushes in Ikaru Park.

Slightly scratched but in one piece, Astro emerged. Phew. He brought his arm to his eyes to look at his scratches. He barely had time to see them: his skin healed visibly. Another miracle!

Meanwhile in O'Shay's office, Nora, Yuko, and O'Shay are discussing where Astro could be. Nora believes that he's flown off somewhere, since he wasn't found at the foot of the research tower. ("If he had really been hurt, I think I would have rusted on the spot!”)

O'Shay tries to put her at ease, saying that Astro has enough capabilities to survive almost any dilemma he could get into. However, he's worried that Tawashi will find Astro before they do, and has them split up to check the city for the boy.


So this chapter has one interesting new power: Astro has auto-repairing skin. O'Shay's dialogue in this book portrays him as a very wise but collected old man, and it's easy for me to imagine his Urasawa's Pluto version throughout all this.

[Fauna]

CHAPTER 6

“This is a big mystery,” said the robot controller to the director of the Magnamite Centre. “I can't find a trace of the missing energy. It's almost as if someone stole it And things are even more serious: Magnamite is refusing the instructions we give him. Our computers display each time, “System Access Forbidden.”

The power station director orders some robot repairers, theorizing that Magnamite must have just blown a circuit. Inside Magnamite's chamber, a bunch of beetle-like repairing bugs drop down to give it maintenance, but explode upon touching Magnamite' outer casing. It seems like the big robot is emitting a self-protective current. Vibrating, it breaks out of its containment attachments, and then barrels its way out of the power station. Frantic, the station director informs the army, knowing Magnamite is heading for the city.

Meanwhile, Professor O'Shay is flying over Ikaru Park, but he still can't find Astro. He gets a call from the power station director on the situation, and immediately deduces that this must be sabotage.

“Strange...it must be sabotage. Someone had to reprogram him in secret. This is surely a dirty trick from Dr. Tenma. He knew that I needed the super generator to give life to Astro. He had to try and mangle everything, as usual. It didn't work because Astro was born as planned, but it's put Magnamite out of whack.”

The director is terrified, but O'Shay decides to go and check out Magnamite himself.

At Okuna Bridge, Tawashi leading the cops and some army officials in a strike against Magnamite; they're holding the big robot off at this bridge that leads right to Metro City. There are anti-radiation shields everywhere and three huge proton rays, in addition to numerous armed people. Tawashi seems confident, but Magnamite is huge...

“Welcome to the nightmare!” yelled a police officer monitoring the progress of Magnamite through electronic binoculars.

“He's huge,” worried Tawashi.

“And you haven't seen anything yet. It's still far away. When he arrives on the bridge, he'll be three times bigger.”

A shudder of terror ran through the inspector's back.

[Fauna]

CHAPTER 7

Magnamite comes within range of the proton cannons, and Tawashi gives the order to fire. The shots don't seem to do anything but irritate Magnamite, who then knocks down some streetlights and bridge barriers. One of the proton cannons gets destroyed, but Tawashi and the army struggle to keep firing at Magnamite's energy core.

O'Shay drives by, observing the pure chaos at the front of the bridge.

The monster shook itself and reared. Its legs swept the ground before him. Its body quivered, and his eyes glowed more. Suddenly, it stretched his front legs to the police, and a huge flash of energy gushed. Some sort of blinding ball lightning split the air. In a great grinding of crushing metal, the foremost armoured vehicles were thrown into the air, and the bridge seemed to melt like butter. The police retreated and fired harder.

“The weapons aren't making a dent,” noticed the professor. “I think it's trying to absorb all the energy of the proton beams! Each shot makes it more powerful! We need to stop before it becomes invincible!”

O'Shay tries to call out to Tawashi, but his car's speaker is completely drowned out by the action below. O'Shay gets the idea to fly down between the army and Magnamite, but on his way down, his car is struck by one of Magnamite's arms.

The aircraft fell in on itself, and plunged to the ground. The impact was terrible, but protective systems allowed him to sustain any damage. When he drew himself up. he saw through his cracked cockpit the enormous tentacle of Magnamite that would befall him...

“Astro, help!”

[Fauna]

CHAPTER 8

Astro is on the other end of town, playing with pigeons in the air. O'Shay's call for help reaches Astro's computer brain, thanks to his super sensitive hearing programs. He rushes across town as fast as he can, finding the foot of the bridge being in complete chaos. Astro then pulls O'Shay's car out of Magnamite's path, and looks through the smashed dashboard to make sure O'Shay is all right.

“It's about time that I got here!” mused the child.

“You need to stop this monster, Astro. Otherwise it'll destroy the city.”

“But it's a robot designed by humans. Why would it do them harm?”

“It's been reprogrammed. It's become a destructive machine that no longer obeys anything. And its strength is colossal!”

“I'll take care of it,” said Astro as he placed the dented vehicle away from the battlefield.

“Astro, you need to know that Magnamite feeds on energy. Do not use your ray guns. This would make it even stronger.”

“Understood. You, stay here in safety. I'll go and say hello to this giant spider...”

“Take care, my child...”

Astro flies up to inspect Magnamite, easily dodging it and its energy blasts. Astro asks the military for one of their anti-radiation shields, and begins a distracting tactic with flying around Magnamite's face.

Astro gave the power of his engines and stood right in the path of energy discharge. He held the shield before him like a mirror. The first shock was very violent. The little robot had to use all his capacities to avoid losing control. The ball of light bounced and returned to Magnamite. The second impact took the same path.

“Return to sender!” exclaimed Astro.

The blasts hit Magnamite, temporarily disabling it. Astro takes this opportunity to fly under Magnamite, force open the hatch to its inner workings. It's quite a dangerous maze in there:

Astro navigated the maze of Magnamite's structure. It was huge and full of danger. There were moving parts everywhere, each of was big enough to crush the child. All of Astro's sensors were on alert to prevent him from being electrocuted or crushed by the powerful mechanisms that animated the creature.

Astro approaches Magnamite's central workings, finding a strange, distinctly-new attachment. He rips it off, which immediately brings relief to Magnamite, which collapses on itself with a groan.

Astro walks back out to the military, passing the rubble and smoking craters, with the box in hand. O'Shay runs up to him, lifting him into the air with joy, and Astro offers him the tracking box for research.

Faced with this drama, Astro had not only discovered how highly the professor regarded him, but he also understood what the was mission for him: to protect the people of Metro City.

The area is cleaned up, and the military and police officers come up to congratulate and thank Astro. Inspector Tawashi also apologizes to O'Shay for misjudging Astro previously. O'Shay suddenly gets a call on his pocket videophone, and sees Yuko on the other end.

“Professor, it's Yuko. Where are you? You're very late for your meeting...what's happening?”

“It would take too long to explain, my dear Yuko. So many things have happened...today is a historic day. Men will never look at robots as mere machines again, but like true mechanical brothers...”

“Are you all right, Professor? You seem odd.”

“I'm very well, my little Yuko, I have never been so good.”

The professor felt his heart swell with joy. In the same day, there had been both the birth of a technological dream and the one he considered his own son: Astro Boy. And that was only the first day!


FIN


This book took a super interesting turn with its adaptation of the 2003 series' episode 1. Astro is more humanoid than ever, Ochanomizu/O'Shay is even more of a father figure to Astro, and Tenma is directly responsible for Magnamite's change of behaviour - in the English version of episode 1, his involvement was considered, and in the Japanese version, he wasn't at all. I'm honestly won over by how Astro just walked calmly out of Magnamite when he found the tracking device; the mental image of this little kid walking up some smoking, torn-up pavement after saving the city is super cute and badass to me. I'll have to draw it at some point.

All in all, I had fun translating this one, and I still love this Pocket Jeunesse canon! I hope anyone reading this had fun, too! As always, send me a PM if you want the complete French or English transcript.