11, Robot Circus

[jeffbert]

This city is in Italy.

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[jeffbert]

So, The mayor aptly named カワード / Kawādo / Coward, convinces Ochanomizu to see this circus.

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After the show, the Mayor introduces the performers.

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[jeffbert]

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Rino says he is adept at repairing robots because he is a robot himself. But atom knows better, & asks him why he pretends.

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Everyone freaks-out, because robots are forbidden to adopt children. In Urasawa's Pluto, such is not the case.

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Anyway, In my opinion, this is just too much human-robot conflict for this point in the series. I am certain that American cartoon guys demanded as much conflict as they could get.

[jeffbert]

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Atom goes to Rino's home to apologize for blurting out that fact.

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But too late! For グスタフ / Gusutafu / Gustav (Whom I had thought to be portrayed by Rommel, but learned that Tezuka actor デブン / Debun had the role when I read the actors' bios in the 6 volumes of Tezuka Character guide)

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So, Gustav (apparently the local crime lord?) demands of the mayor, that the evil robots that have kidnapped the child be destroyed, etc.

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[jeffbert]

The robot ringmaster, パンナコッタ / Pan'nakotta / Panna cotta (who resembles Groucho Marx) has given Rino a letter to deliver to Dr. Ochanomizu. This is a type of Bellerophon letter, a letter instructing the recipient to kill the bearer, though in this case, merely giving Ochanomizu custody of the boy.

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Rino is furious, he wants to stay in the circus with the only family he has ever known.

[jeffbert]

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Without human owners, these robots are outlaws, doomed to destruction. They must flee!

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Being caught, they plead to give one final performance.

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Gustav will have none of it! But Coward finally shows some fortitude, and uses his authority to make the circus a permanent feature of the city.

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[jeffbert]

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Rino will go with Ochanomizu to study robotics in school.

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-Fin

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I really liked that episode of Reno's backstory. I wondered where the robot circus had come from, and came up with this weird idea that the performers had been abandoned after the arrest of their former owner (guess who that might be!). The result was a rather strange relationship between Astro and Reno, and I wrote a story about it that was part of a past Astro April Challenge.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11908616/1 ... sed-Memory

[jeffbert]

Sorry, I was not careful when selecting images to upload, Tetsuwan Penguin. I have plenty, & most of those with the subs, too. One has Gustav telling Coward that the former owner was Bundt, who died long ago. His death automatically voided the circus robots' registration (see 42, Hurry, You Three Second-Rate Knights! / 19,
Robots Nobody Wanted in the 1980s series). Gusav goes on to say that the circus robots should have been destroyed when the owner died. I should have included some of those.

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Gustav also accused the robots of having kidnapped the boy., exacerbating the problem.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I wonder if some of those images were edited out of the ELV DVD.