On October 23, an icon of Japanese pop culture and manga will make his way to the big screen. Astro Boy, product of "god of manga" Osamu Tezuka, was created in the early 1950s and has remained adored by Japan ever since. The Sci-Fi Block was able to steal some time from Tezuka expert Frederik L. Schodt for an in-depth phone interview back in August. Schodt is, among other things, a manga translator, the author of The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, and the recent recipient of Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette award. Schodt provides some insight into Tezuka, Astro Boy, and the popularity of the beloved character.

SFB: Hi, Fred. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today.

Frederik Schodt: Hi, Robert. Thanks for calling.

SFB: Astro Boy is something of a phenomenon in Japanese pop culture. Why is it that this character appeals so greatly to readers? How has he been able to last so long?

Frederik Schodt: I think there’s a lot of elements to that. In Japan of course one factor is that it was one of the first sort of nationally popular characters right after the end of World War II, so it has this sort of pioneering quality. And then it was also not only one of the first manga characters to achieve that kind of national popularity, but it also was turned into Japan’s first weekly animated thirty-minute television series, so it was also pioneering in that regard. And then above and beyond the pioneering aspect, of course, there’s the popularity of the character design; I think there’s something about the design of the character that people love. It’s really appealing, just the way it’s composed. And it’s cute, but it’s also different. It looks like a little boy, but it’s also a machine – it’s a robot – so it’s a very unique character. And then, I think, the third thing is that the story itself is very appealing to a lot of people – especially children.

And, of course its popularity has grown over the years as more and more people are exposed to the story and it’s recycled in different formats as the generations have turned over so that at this point Astro Boy – or in Japan, of course, he’s known as Tetsuwan Atomu, or “Mighty Atom” -- he’s really sort of a national icon, you might say, on the scale of Mickey Mouse, or Donald Duck, or our most popular comic and animations characters here. So, children, for example, when they go to school, they’ll often go to sporting events, and they’ll play the theme song for the Astro Boy animation and that sort of thing. It’s something that people – even if they’re not familiar with the details of the story – they know the character, and they’re very familiar with the overall construct of the story.

SFB: As you said, part of his appeal is his character. He’s a young boy, he’s a very innocent character. That highlights the fact that he was created for a very young audience, but as we’ve seen, people of all ages have fallen in love with him. Do you think that this is a character that’s best appreciated by young children and that adults sort of just like him for the cuteness factor, or is there something really there for mature audiences?

Frederik Schodt: You know, the audience was obviously boys who were around – I think Tezuka started creating the manga series around 1951-52, and the target age was probably around ten-, eleven-year-old boys, and it has broadened beyond that, of course. When it was animated for TV in 1963, then of course it became really popular not just among boys but girls and family; it became a very popular sort of family show. But I think that now there’s several elements to the popularity because it’s still very appealing to small children, but actually it goes much beyond small children just because of the longevity of the character. You have generations that have turned over, they’ve grown up with it. And there’s kind of a nostalgic component for people who were watching television as young children, or even teenagers, in 1963 or ’64. Now they’re adults, and they have their own children, and they’re passing on their like of the Astro Boy story and character to a new generation.