WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

“Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” by Osamu Tezuka, a legendary manga master, is a collection of the first two volumes in a twenty-three-volume manga series Astro Boy. The Astro Boy series, a three-decade project that became a worldwide phenomenon and an inspiration for countless manga artists, features an extremely advanced android named Astro Boy that fights villains and their destructive creations to protect his friends, save the Earth and preserve the peace.

Five of the six stories in this book - “The Hot Dog Corps,” “Plant People,” “His Highness Deadcross,” “The Third Magician” and “White Planet” - were written in the early 1960’s, and the prequel to the whole series, “The Birth of Astro Boy,” was written in 1975. “Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” also includes a very informative introduction to the Astro Boy series and Tezuka’s work in general.

THUMBS UP:

1) Entertaining.
The stories in “Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” are action-packed, entertaining and funny in a silly-cute way.

2) Appealing artwork.
Strongly influenced by the works of Walt Disney, Tezuka’s art is very dynamic, detailed, entertaining and endearing. It is interesting to note that even though the Astro Boy series is Japanese manga, “Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” is read from left to write because the English version is printed as a mirror image of the original.

3) Thought-provoking.
Although goofy, stories in “Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” are also touching and quite thought-provoking as they raise quite a few philosophical and moral questions about technology and our shared humanity.

4) Informative introductions.
The background information on Tezuka and the Astro Boy series helps to grasp the importance of Tezuka’s work and to better understand and appreciate the Astro Boy series. In addition, most of the stories begin with a prelude in which Tezuka, the character, discusses certain aspects of that particular story or the series as a whole.

COULD BE BETTER:

1) Repetitive and predictable.
Although entertaining and action-packed, the stories in “Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” soon get kind of repetitive and easily predictable. Plus, the resolutions are often overly simplistic and the characters are rather two-dimensional.

2) Childish.
“Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” is perfect for its targeted audience, ten-year-old boys, but a little bit too childish for adults or even older teens. It is PACKED with robot fights, and the humor is sometimes overdone, as if the author’s sole purpose is not to make the story too serious, at any cost.

VERDICT: 2 out of 5

Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy, Vols. 1 & 2” is an entertaining and historically important science fiction manga for pre-teen boys. However, although skillfully drawn and occasionally thought-provoking, it is kind of repetitive, easily predictable and a little bit too goofy for my liking. ( )

I picked this up because I wanted to see what "the father of manga" had actually done and some of his influence. This book contains a collection of Astro Boy stories, and I found them decent. He has a pretty straightforward style, so typically the plot or the bad guys are clear from the beginning, and it's about the resolution. A gentle (and often slapstick) humour runs through the stories, and I felt like I recognised that influence from some later manga I've read. At the same time he deals with relatively serious topics at times, so the stories don't adhere to the child/adult distinctions Western audiences tend to expect from comics. I can see how people were confused by this at the time. I can't say it's the best thing I've read; the problem with starting a new genre is you're only starting to explore its possibilities. Nevertheless I enjoyed it a lot. ( )