How does Astro Boy fit into the history of the pervasive robot culture of Japan?
I wrote an entire book about the Japanese interest in robots called Inside the Robot Kingdom (it’s out of print right now). The Japanese have long had a fascination with gadgets. They had ‘automata’ early in the past century, and more recently with industrial robots. So Astro Boy is just a part of all this. You could say that he established the genre of the cute, friendly robot pal, and planted the seed in children’s minds that robots could be cute and friendly. There are actually many roboticists in Japan who say that Astro Boy had a huge influence on them in terms of what they are trying to develop. When I say ‘robotocists’ I not referring so much to people who work in industry as to those who are in research and development and who are trying to develop mobile, bipedal robots. Tell us your impression of working on Astro Boy; does it still have the charm for you that it had when you first read it? It’s still absolutely delightful and when I’m translating it, I am quite frankly enjoyi
