i have so many thoughts but i’m still processing. all i can say in full confidence is that this is an incredible retelling. delving deep and maturely into characters and a story that already had strong groundworks (i mean, it’s astro boy. the original is literally a household name) is an impressive feat and the outcome was so so beautiful. i’m not too familiar with the original astro boy arc, but i am slightly familiar with urasawa’s work, and i could pick up on the telltale signs of his writing and it was heart wrenching. truly such an emotional work with much to consider and particularly interesting to read (and have the anime releasing soon) since the topic of artificial intelligence is quite relevant at the moment. 

i will say, i felt the ending was quite abrupt. this is not necessarily a bad thing, i can definitely see the benefits to it and i also assume this was how the arc went in the original so i’m not dwelling on it too much. but i do feel that because of this i might not be quite so satisfied? i’m not sure, i need to have a few days to think about this but currently i would rate the overall manga 4.5 stars although there were numerous 5 star moments.

not going to go into it too deeply but basically every scene with a child in it ruined me. special mention to epsilon and his kids. 

and atom. him saying “i really don’t understand either, why..” ruined me. it is understandable how his character quite literally changed the game for the anime industry. astro boy you will always be famous.