 |
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
This article is about the character in Astro Boy. For the character in Monster, see Dr. Kenzo Tenma
| Doctor Tenma | |
|---|---|
 Dr. Tenma from the 1980 Astro Boy TV Series |
|
| First appearance | Captain Atom - April, 1951 |
| Voiced by | Nicolas Cage (2009 film) Dorian Harewood (2003) |
| Profile | |
| Gender | Male |
| Species | Human |
| Occupation | Scientist |
| Known relatives | Hoshie Tenma (wife, deceased), Tobio Tenma (son, deceased), Atom ("son") |
Dr. Tenma (天馬博士 Tenma-hakase), real name Umatarō Tenma (天馬 馬太郎 Tenma Umatarō) (also known as Dr. Nagamiya Tenma, Dr. Boynton, and Dr. Balthus) is the father/creator of Astro Boy in the anime and manga series of the same name created and animated by Osamu Tezuka.
Contents |
History
Tezuka described Tenma in the manga Volume 7 as:
"Dr. Tenma: born into a long line of horseradish farmers, in the particularly unlucky year of the horse, in Gunma ("horse herd") prefecture. Real name is Taro Uma ("horse"). Graduated from the university of Nerima ("walking horse"), and though a complete dark horse, through an amazing demonstration of intellectual power rose to be the head of the ministry of science—in an area of Tokyo known as Takadanobaba, which loosely translates into a "high pasture for horses". Among those wishing to unseat him, he is known as a real horse of a different color."
Dr. Tenma (which means "Pegasus" or literally "Heaven-horse" in Japanese) was a renowned roboticist and the Japanese Minister of Science. When his nine-year-old son Tobio died in a car accident, he decided to recreate him as an invincible robot. After living happily for a while with the child automaton, Tenma realized that an artificial child could not replace his son (particularly when he found out he didn't grow like a normal child) and so kicked him away; he sold him to Hamegg, a robot salesman, and he eventually ended performing in a circus where he was found and adopted by Professor Ochanomizu, who turned him into Astro Boy.
Tenma appears several times in Astro Boy adventures. Tenma realizes that Astro is amazing and, though his affection towards him begins to return, knows he can't really make amends for his behaviour. Still, he helps Astro frequently:
- Tenma built robotic parents for Astro (only after the time-travel crisis. Originally, they were built in a factory.)
- Tenma enhanced Astro's power to one million horsepower (700 MW) when he fought Pluto
- Tenma rescued Astro, disguised as a large-hat-wearing-man when Astro was imprisoned by a Cleopatra robot.
- Tenma also rebuilt Astro Boy after he was destroyed while trying to protect Blue Knight.
Tenma's original behaviour towards Astro was considered quite brutal and inhumane even for Tezuka himself, so in a newer manga edition where Astro's history is restarted, the reader learns that Tenma acted so harshly partly because he was drunk. Still, Tenma then deliberately sold Astro to Hamegg, who in this version was a cruel circus ringmaster who abused his robot performers. Professor Ochanomizu (in this version, Tenma's arch-rival in science) goes through a lot of trouble to get the boy robot.
The protagonist of the anime Monster is also named Doctor Tenma (Tenma Kenzo).
TV series
In the 1980 cartoon series, Tenma does not really reject Astro; he dismisses him for causing a mess on a boat dinner after reminding him he was a robot. Astro then gets kidnapped by corrupt circus ringmaster Hamegg while Tenma tries to get Astro back. The circus is not as harsh and Hamegg not too evil (compared to the original version), but Professor Ochanomizu, with his assistant Chiyoko, noticing Astro Boy, has to trick Hamegg to get Astro.
In the 2003 series, Tenma (voiced by Dorian Harewood in the English dubbed version) takes the role of the main antagonist and abandons both Astro and the Ministry in a fit of insanity after Astro rebels against Tenma's unfeeling behavior in destroying old robots. When Tenma witnesses Astro's later heroics, Tenma begins to believe that Astro will be a Messiah figure who will lead robots to gain equal standing with humans, or even overthrow or kill all humans (the latter slowly takes over as the series progresses). Prior to Astro's first battle with Atlas, Tenma constantly refers to Astro as "Tobio" (the dead son he was supposed to replace) and only recognizes him as a separate entity once Astro himself corrects him.
It soon becomes apparent to Tenma that he himself cannot keep up with Astro due to his humanity, so he builds a robot to spearhead Astro's development; this robot is appropriately named "Shadow," and is eventually revealed to be a robot double of Tenma himself.
In the end of the 2003 series, Astro is very badly damaged, and Tenma rebuilds him minus his memories, only to have Astro reject Tenma for his unfeeling attitude a third time. Tenma attempts suicide, but Astro saves Tenma and explicitly forgives him. Tenma then admits he was a poor father and is arrested. The final image of Tenma in this series shows him in a jail cell, holding two photographs: one of his human son Tobio, and one of his robotic creation Astro.
Feature film
In the upcoming 2009 CG-animated feature film adaptation, Doctor Tenma was voiced by actor Nicolas Cage.[1] In the film, Dr. Tenma, head of the Ministry of Science, created Astro Boy after his son, Toby, had disappeared in a robot testing accident, due to him locking Toby in the chamber with an experimental war machine called the "Peacekeeper". Tenma, with the assistance of Dr. Elefun, created a robotic duplicate of Toby, outfitting him with advanced defence capabilities so that he couldn't be harmed, and copied Toby's memories into the robot, hoping he would be just like him. Tenma, though, begins to feel that this robot duplicate is acting strangely, and he realizes that he is not Toby, and rejects him. After Toby runs away, he is chased down for the power source that Tenma used on him, and he is ordered to extract it from the robot and put it in the Peacekeeper. Toby encourages this decision, accepting that he could not live up to Tenma's expectations, but Tenma refuses to have the robot deactivated, saying "You're not Toby, but you're still my son!"
Doctor Tenma is less villainous and mad in the film, similar to his personality in the original manga. He reacts similarly to Astro, realizing that he is not his son and rejecting him, but does not sell him to Hamegg. Another difference is that, unlike in other versions of Astro Boy, Tenma comes to accept him. Also unusual is that he gives a first name in the film: "Bill".
References
- ^ "Astro Boy" (2009) Retrieved on 2008-10-25.
|
|||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
