Doing right in the world with 100,000 horsepower

Abstract

This chapter argues that that the original manga Tetsuwan Atomu presents a way of doing right for the emergent posthuman. Tetsuwan Atomu is the defining creation of the grandfather of Japanese manga and anime, Dr Osamu Tezuka. Atomu is definitely Japanese, yet suggestive of the West, and has fought and flown to become a global icon. The chapter looks at 'programming' in Tetsuwan Atomu and how some of the robots and humans eclipse their limits. Robots can be genderless and some aliens are hyper-gendered. But most importantly, the robots created as tools for wrongdoing by villains are often talked around by Atomu into breaking with their programing and programmer. The chapter reflects on the failure of programming in Tetsuwan Atomu to identify what could be characterised as a techno-humanist 'law of love', but more properly is a suggestion to nurture life through engagement, play and laughter. Tezuka's 'humanism', as critics have called it, intercedes at this point.