The ‘Astro Boy’ Manga Is Finished & Here’s How It Ends!

Astro Boy, originally known as Mighty Atom (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan-Atomu), is an exceptionally popular and historically important title. Although it started as a manga series, Astro Boy became a historical work because it resulted in the creation of the first modern-term anime series, which launched the anime industry. The man behind the manga and anime, Osamu Tezuka, is now considered one of the most important people in the history of animanga. In this article, we are going to tell you about the Astro Boy manga series, as you are going to find out how and when it ended, as well as what happened at the end of the manga.

“Showdown on Mt. Fuji” is the final original “episode” of Astro Boy and it is a standalone story

Now, not all readers might know that Astro Boy, while serialized in chapters like most other manga titles, never had an overarching storyline. Western comics and animation heavily inspired Osamu Tezuka, so each individual Astro Boy chapter was actually a standalone story where Astro Boy would have to save the world, most often from Dr. Foola and his silly inventions. The stories are part of a shared universe, but there was no overarching storyline like in modern manga titles, so there is some difference when talking about Astro Boy.

This actually means that there is no fixed ending of the original manga, as the final “episode” (the chapters of Astro Boy were called “episodes” by Osamu Tezuka, and are not related to the anime episodes; some were adapted from the manga, but a lot of anime episodes were wholly original) was yet another standalone story. This means that the series did not reach any proper “conclusion” – it was just another story in which Astro Boy had to fight and defeat his rival, Dr. Foola, and that is what happened.

The episode in question is “Showdown on Mt. Fuji,” and we are now going to tell you what happened in this story, which was actually #115 and was published in 1981, as per the official sources.

The story starts with Dr. Foola wanting a copy of First Grade Magazine, with the vendor mocking him that he should rather buy a Second Grade Magazine, due to his status in the story. Angry. Dr. Foola confirms that this is his last story and that he definitely wants to take out Astro Boy before the story ends; also, he had heard that the magazine contained information on a powerful superhero that could supposedly defeat Astro Boy. It was Unico, a sweet little unicorn. Seeing him, Dr. Foola came up with an idea.

Foola believe that if he were to create a strong enough unicorn robot with a horn that could extend, he would be able to defeat Astro Boy. So, he created a winged unicorn robot whose horn could extend for 25,000 miles. He then tested it out, and after a successful test, he summoned Astro Boy to Mt. Fuji for their final showdown, which Astro Boy accepted.

When Astro Boy arrived, he asked Foola about the length of the horn and then tricked him by grabbing onto the robot’s jaw, which meant that Foola could not see him. When he realized where he was, he activated the horn, which circumvented the whole planet, as 25,000 was the distance around the Earth. This meant that the horn would simply return to Foola and destroy the robot from behind, which is exactly what happened, as Foola defeated himself this time.

The robot was destroyed completely, Foola was humiliated, and Astro Boy won. And that is how the story ended and how the original Astro Boy manga ended. It is a fun and short story that shows us just how different manga titles were back in the day, but despite that, Astro Boy‘s historical importance simply cannot be ignored.

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