a boy's backstory

[bygone_beloved]

 


Tobio spent most of his childhood being taken care of by Robita, a robot majordomo. His father, Umataro Tenma, was the head of the Ministry of Science and legendary robotics engineer, always too busy and self-centered to properly raise--or even bond--with his son.

This fissure between father and son came to a head when, on Tobio's 9th birthday, Dr. Tenma took his son to show him where he worked; specifically, where old robots were smelted and recycled. Tobio was told Robita was going to be replaced with a better robot as a birthday present. When Tobio was upset and told his father that Robita had been a friend and his real caretaker, Tenma refused to listen, citing robots as nothing but tools, and that his son should just be quiet and obey.

Tobio insisted that his father saw him as nothing but a tool himself, and that he didn't really love him at all. Tenma tried to reassure him that wasn't the case, but of course Tobio didn't believe him and fled--running and then taking the air bike his father had previously gifted him before the visit to his work.

Tobio raced away, absorbed in his thoughts of Robita being his friend, and how he hated his father.

So upset and absorbed that he didn't have time to register the truck coming his way until it was too late.

On his ninth birthday, Tobio Tenma's short life ended.



After this, his father, mad with guilt and grief, decided he would do the impossible. He would take his son's memories, he would take his son's soul, and Tobio would be reborn. As a robot.

(And this is how Astro Boy/Mighty Atom's life began.
Despite his father's wishes
despite his own soul
he was not Tobio, but himself.)