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When Astro Boy is good, it is amazing. Some of its arcs are quite wonderful, contemplative and with clear direction over when it believes and is trying to say about the future, the present, and the ways we see the past. How we ought to shape a future with robots in it and how we ought to be living. Astro is a vehicle of idealism.

When Astro Boy is bad, it can be crushingly so. Stories which undermine those amazing arcs and moments. Ridiculous novelty nonsense and one dimensional characters. Racist caricatures against middle eastern, black, pacific islander, and southeast asians, hasbara for Israel, and ... a few cases of some dangerously strange anti-trans conflations, mostly concentrated in the volumes 18 and 19.

I highly suggest you stick around up until the arc wraps up around the point where Astro's timeline goes in something of a circle, without spoiling you'll know exactly what I mean as it exhausts most of its best work and begins dumping the really mediocre 1950s works on you.

The characters are always the highlight when Astro Boy is at its peak. Astro himself is a wonderful character, and I always found the cuteness of his sister Uran really endearing. She even gets some of her own shining moments which I reflect back on fondly. He has a brother and a grand total of four father figures. One, the teacher who's integrating him into human society who's passionate and hot tempered. The head of the ministry of science who tries to direct Astro on the path of nonviolence and peace above all. His original father and creator who occupies a deeply interesting and morally grey position, always interesting when he shows up. Lastly, a robot dad who was built for him and technically is in a lower school grade because he was made after Astro and less spectacularly. These characters all stick around pretty much most of the manga and I think they're all pretty great, all things considered.

Another character who constantly appears is Osamu Tezuka himself, reflecting on events in the story, his process and creation, that is if you're reading the Dark Horse edition. I couldn't for the life of me find anything that wasn't the Dark Horse comics. Of all the one off characters that deserve special mention, I do have to mention Pluto and Epsilon, which both appear in the spinoff adaptation written by the mangaka of Monster. They were so perfect to be chosen for a reinterpretation of Astro Boy's stories in a more serious context, because they were very three dimensional and sympathetic. Read it for them.

The art, the paneling, it has very mixed qualities. When it's not doing something racist and made in the 60s, it will have some of the best action flow and paneling you'll see for its era. Not so much with the 50s stories. Way too much explaining in those, they get so very dull. When it leans too much on dialogue without any depth of character, it can feel like a complete waste of time. Trust your gut and know when to skim here.

Overall, I'd say it's worth the read if you're really curious about retro manga or speculative robot sci fi.

It's extremely disappointing and upsetting to see a show with such a strong premise, a compelling teacher, mostly good humor and the right level of lightness, completely wrecking itself by making a supporting character who's designed to be an unrepentant child predator. It has a whole episode dedicated to her, and her past, and her interest in her students, all get addressed. Not in any meaningful way. For any narrative that is for-the-kids, it necessarily can't be making excuses for these kinds of school environments and personalities. Exploiting undeveloped minds like that is truly unforgivable, and the fact it just rolls over it so casually ... says everything. To pull a non-sequitur and turn the episode into a suicide PSA. Doubly ironic when victims of CSA are more likely to develop suicidal tendencies in the first place because of people like the teacher in question. Nobody's looking out for them kids.