Professor Ochanomizu

Professor Ochanomizu
Professor Ochanomizu (a.k.a. Doctor Elefun) from the 1966 episode of Astro Boy: "Time War".
First appearance	Captain Atom - April, 1951
Created by	Osamu Tezuka
Voiced by	Hisashi Katsuta (Japanese) Tomomichi Nishimura (Japanese, 2009 film) Wally Wingert (2003) Ray Owens (1963) Bill Nighy (2009 Film)

Professor Ochanomizu (お茶の水博士, Ochanomizu-hakase^?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Astro Boy, as well as all of its many adaptions, including the 1980s series, 2003 series, and the film. Created by Osamu Tezuka, the character has since appeared in many of his other works. He serves as a guardian to Astro, and sometimes also a caring family member. He is also known in various English adaptations as Dr. Packadermus Elefun, Professor Peabody, Dr. O'Shay, and Simon Elefun.

Ochanomizu determines that Astro Boy is unique from the other robots and takes in Astro Boy as a foster son. Ochanomizu gives Astro a robotic family so that Astro can experience family life.^[1]

Character Profile

Doctor Elefun from the NOW Comics version of Astro Boy

Professor Ochanomizu is generally head of the Ministry of Science in the Astro Boy series. He is relatively portly, and has a large eggplant-shaped nose which is his most sensitive area, sometimes becoming involved in nose fights or falls off. His other notable feature are the white fluffy tufts of hair that wrap around his head in a male-pattern baldness style.

Ochanomizu is portrayed as a caring father figure to Astro. After Doctor Tenma abandoned him, Ochanomizu has always gone to great lengths to retrieve him. The character is a supporter of robot rights, and believes that humans and robots can co-exist peacefully, as opposed to Tenma, and is the only major human character to support this view, with the majority opposed to it (such as Acetylene Lamp). Ochanomizu also has the belief that robots can think for themselves and can be human-like, extending Astro's robot family to include his parents, younger sister Uran and also older brother Cobalt. Although accepting the fact that Astro is indeed a robot hero, he also wants Astro to be a regular human boy. Due to this, he often sends Astro on missions and repairs him when needed.

In Astro Boy, Ochanomizu (known as "Dr. Elefun") is a colleague to Doctor Tenma. He implants the mysterious, extraterrestrial "blue core" to power Astro Boy. When Tenma decides to abandon Astro for not being human-like enough, Ochanomizu is shown to be more caring and does not share his view. He pleads on behalf of Astro every time he appears.

While the usual English version of the name Pakadermus J. Elefun is a pun related to the character's nose and appearance, the Japanese version Ochanomizu is a typical regional surname and represents no irony or hidden joke. It is unknown if his family members (which are never mentioned) has the same nose, however in Pluto he is shown to be a widower with a granddaughter, who never appeared. Much of the character's background is also left unexplored, although in the 1979 movie Marine Express, he reveals that he is from Polynesia.

References

1. ^ Yang, Jeff. "ASIAN POP / Astro Boy Forever." San Francisco Chronicle. June 6, 2007. 4 of 7. Retrieved on 8 November 2011.