Review by Woodrow Phoenix

Atom: The Beginning 11 finds our two geniuses Hiroshi Ochanomizu and Umataro Tenma in a shaky position, back in their run-down lab outside the main buildings at the Department of Cybernetics in Nerima after events of The Beginning 10. The radical master’s thesis they submitted for the departmental review was marked as “too wild to understand” and their research funding has been cut. If it wasn’t for their part-time job using Six to work at a construction site, they’d really be in trouble. But at least Tenma is cheered to know that they aren’t the only ones having difficulties: nobody has seen their big rival Dr Lolo since the failure of the Balt robots at the World Robot Battle in The Beginning 06 pretty much shut down the company.

A big secret about Dr Lolo was revealed to Ochanomizu during that World Robot Battle, although enough hints were dropped over the previous few issues for readers paying attention to suspect what it might be. Ochanomizu hasn’t shared what he knows with Tenma, who is desperately in love with Dr Lolo and still determined to prove his love to her in some spectacular way that will guarantee she responds with equal ardour.

Meanwhile, another rival inventor, Linda Oiishi is looking for revenge against Six after he defeated her Mohican Basso robot in his first Robot Wrestling match. She’s made some key changes to upgrade her creation, outfitting it with an electrified cowling – “a careless touch will fry your circuitry!” – and she’s installed “Electrodes on both fists! They spark with real lightning! Six doesn’t stand a chance! My Basso has no weak points!!” A second and more fundamental challenge for Ochanomizu and Tenma is the surprise arrival at their Lab 7 of one of their most despised rivals, the arrogant superstar developer Moriya Tsutsumi from Lab 1. What does he want from them? And how many of his secrets will he reveal in exchange?

Masami Yuuki and Tetsuro Kasahara give with one hand and take away with the other in this chapter, adding another layer of intrigue by answering quite a lot of questions about the events of the earlier books and then almost neutralising those answers with a deeper mystery. And how long will Ochanomizu manage to keep the secret of Dr Lolo from Tenma? Atom: The Beginning continues to be total entertainment in the Tezuka tradition, with big challenges for our heroes from new robot foes and also from the unpredictable effects of the Bewusstsein AI on U-Ran and Six. You will be counting the days till you can get your hands on Atom: The Beginning 12.