Dr. Tenma

Doctor Umataro Tenma, simply referred to as Dr. Tenma, is the main antagonist of the Astro Boy franchise and the titular character’s arch-nemesis. He is also the tritagonist of the 2009 computer-animated film adaptation of Astro Boy.

He is a brilliant roboticist, ex-minister of science, and father of the late Toby Tenma. He is a very cynical and brooding man, jaded with humanity and sees robots as tools that need to obey.

Tenma plays integral roles in all versions of the Astro Boy canon, as both Astro's creator and a reccurring villain or assisting ally. Throughout all versions, Tenma loses his young son in an accident, and reproduces the boy as a robot.

Voices[]

In the 1963 anime, he was voiced by the late Hisashi Yokomori in Japanese and by the late Ray Owens in English.
In the 1980 anime, he was voiced by the late Tamio Ōki in Japanese and by Del Lewis in English.
In the 2003 anime, he was voiced by Shinya Owada in Japanese and by Dorian Harewood in English.
In the 2009 film adaptation of the original anime series, he was voiced by Nicolas Cage.
In the 2023 anime adaptation of Pluto, he was voiced by Ezio Tsuda in the Japanese Dub and Keith David in the English Dub.

Biography[]

1963 anime[]

In the 1963 anime, Dr. Tenma, renamed as Astor Boynton II in the English dub, loses his son in a robot car accident. He then immediately advances the Ministry of Science's attempt to make a humanoid robot, which ultimately succeeds, creating a replica of his son and then taking him as his son. However, Tenma becomes increasingly frustrated with the robot Tobio's inability to grow taller, and sells him to Ringmaster Hamegg.

Tenma appears in only a few other episodes after this, in one instance appearing briefly to assist Astro like in the manga.

1980 anime[]

Dr. Tenma is constantly busy working at the Ministry, stuggling to create a humanoid robot. After Tenma rejects an offer by a mob leader named Skunk Kusai to promote the "Omega Factor", Tobio then suggests that Tenma create a robot that looks like a child, which could be considered successful.

The robot is declared too dangerous to the public; Tenma was ordered by an official to shut down the robot. However, the attempt to shut down Astro leads to Tenma going to the hospital. While there, Tenma promises Astro that they'll go on a cruise to get away from the city, most likely to hide Astro's existence.

On the cruise, Astro embarrasses himself and Tenma by accident during a dinner meeting, resulting in Tenma advising Astro to leave him alone. As Astro signed a contract by Hamegg after fighting Atlas, in the while being convinced that Tenma has disowned him, the latter is actually last seen searching the ship for Astro.

2003 anime[]

Dr. Tenma was the Minister of Science; thus, he was usually too busy to be around his son, to the point of giving Tobio a robot guardian named Robita. Tenma then took Tobio to the Ministry's robot disposal area as part of an offer to replace the female robot guardian with an entirely new and updated robot. Tobio was so disgusted with the idea of losing his friend that he ran away, later resulting in his sudden death from a truck.

After Tobio's death, Tenma became distraught and feeling guilty, and created a robot replica of his son, raising the robot version in private. However, after Tenma took Astro to the same robot disposal area in the Ministry as before, Astro rebelled and smashed a conveyor belt. This caused Tenma to attempting to electrocute Astro and stowing him away, and burn down his lab.

2009 film adaptation[]

Tenma, in it's 2009 film adaptation as the tritagonist, lost his son Toby in an accident when the latter is locked in with a berserker robot known as the Peacekeeper. He, with the assistance of Doctor Elefun, creates a robotic duplicate of Toby, later renamed Astro, with the memories of the original Toby integrated into it. When the robot version begins to develop his own personality, Tenma tearfully rejects him.

As Astro Boy leaves, Tenma was later coaxed by President Stone to retrieve the Blue Core from the robot by deactivating it, to which the former reluctantly agreed despite Doctor Elefun's efforts to turn the situation around. Following the robot's capture by Stone, Astro gets reunited with Tenma and Elefun, agreeing to be deactivated. However, Tenma realized that even though Astro isn't Toby, he's still his son, and reactivates him with a change of heart, allowing Astro to escape. The scientist soon witnessed Stone being absorbed by the Peacekeeper in horror and fled to safety with Dr. Elefun, and during the battle between Astro Boy and the Peacekeeper/Stone, Dr. Tenma finds Astro in a damaged building and informs him if the two cores unite, they will be destroyed.

Tenma later reunited with Astro after his revival by Zog from colliding into the Red Core with the Blue Core.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Dr. Tenma's surname means "pegasus", while it was literally translated as "heaven-horse" from Japanese.
The 2009 version of Dr. Tenma was designed after Nicolas Cage, the voice actor of the character.
According to his horse pun filled official profile in the Captain Atom chapter, Dr. Tenma's was born into a long line of horseradish farmers. His first name "Umataro" is a combination the Japanese word "uma"-horse and taro, a suffix for Japanese male names.

External Links[]

Dr. Tenma on the Astro Boy Wiki

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