Inspector Tawashi is a no-nonsense police detective in Metro City. Due to his gruff attitude and old-fashioned beliefs, he frequently clashes with Astro Boy. He mostly appears in various Astro Boy series, but has appeared elsewhere as a cop through the Osamu Tezuka Star System.
Appearance[]
Inspector Tawashi is a tall, lean middle-aged human man. He is bald, except for several small hairs and a full mustache. Tawashi's name means "scourer", a specific type of oval-shaped polishing brush.[1] His nose is designed to resemble this particular brush.
Tawashi is always dressed in either formal three-piece suits or police uniforms. In older series, he wears an undersized bowler hat.
Personality[]
Tawashi is, by nature, extremely standoffish and gruff. In most series, he strongly dislikes robots, in part due to his old-fashioned policing style. He has a bad habit of jumping to conclusions and blaming robots for various unsolved crimes. He believes that law and order is the only way out of a situation, though he most frequently jumps to the wrong conclusions, inevitably making the situation worse.
As opinionated as Tawashi is, he's still dedicated to solving mysteries and getting dangerous individuals off the streets. In some series, Tawashi is accompanied by the much more level-headed Chief Nakamura. Nakamura is also the only person who Tawashi lets correct him or banter with him.
Series[]
Inspector Tawashi primarily appears throughout the Astro Boy franchise. He also has a major role in Jetter Mars, reprising his role as a police detective. Tawashi has also appeared in the manga for Black Jack, Rainbow Parakeet, and Atom Cat.[2] His first appearance was in the Astro Boy chapter "Gas Humans" in 1952.[3]
1980 series[]
In the 1980 anime, Tawashi is especially gruff and serious. He is extremely quick to blame major disasters on a berserker robot, including Astro if he happens to be nearby. He has gotten into loud arguments with Ochanomizu over this.
2003 series[]
In the 2003 series, Tawashi is still distrustful of free-thinking robots, but is much more rational and level headed. He slowly comes around to trusting Astro, and comes around to trusting Delta fairly quickly. However, he still takes police work very seriously, and tends to favor the more practical solutions. As Chief Nakamura is not present in this series, Tawashi works alone, but is frequently accompanied by Ochanomizu in matters regarding robots. Tawashi has a particular distaste for Skunk Kusai and is determined to keep him behind bars. Elsewhere, Tawashi tolerates Higeoyaji as an independent detective, as long as he does not attempt to steal evidence (i.e. in "Old Dog, New Tricks").
NOW! Comics series[]
In the 1987 comic series The Original Astro Boy, Tawashi and Nakamura appear as Detective Gumshoe and Chief McLaw. They are primarily background characters in the series, but Gumshoe has a major role during Astro's return to civilian society. He supervises a large protesting crowd during Astro's first day of school, and aids in fighting the Cybersharks off from the Institute of Science.