Astro Boy Wiki
Register
Advertisement


Tamami is a shape-shifting alien girl who was discovered on the moon. She lives off the power of a rare moon element called Lumanite, and without it, Earth's atmosphere turns her to stone. She only appears in episode 34 of the 2003 series. In the English dub, she is renamed as Penelope.

Phoenix: Future[]

Tamami originally appears in the second book of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix, called "Future", from 1968. She is of an alien race called Moopies, which can shapeshift into almost any living creature. She lives in an underground city with her human lover Masato, until they are forced to flee after an Moopies are outlawed. A city official named Rock tries to have her obtained and destroyed, even chasing them down in the middle of an intercity political crisis. Tamami and Masato take shelter with a hermit scientist named Dr. Saruta, who lives on the earth's barren surface with his robot companion Robita. Rock catches up with them, but the five become stranded together as the underground world falls to mutually-assured nuclear destruction.

Appearance[]

Tamami has the appearance of a soft-faced girl in her early 20s. She is very tall and limber, with long lavender hair that flows into enormous curls. As a humanoid, she wears a navy blue and purple jumpsuit with matching ankle boots. She can turn into any kind of animal, including a cocker spaniel and a swan; these animals are always the same shade of lavender as her hair. Tamami designed her human form for different reasons in either dub; in the English dub, she tailored herself after Saruta's memories of his daughter. In the Japanese version, she takes the form of the most beautiful woman Saruta can think of.

2003 series[]

Vlcsnap-2016-07-03-19h20m44s277

Tamami in her purest state, attempting to reconstruct a human form

Tamami is the last survivor of the alien species, Moopie, and originally lived in a temple-like tower on the moon that was guarded by the phoenix. A research team attempted to explore the tower, and Tamami began to form as a humanoid to greet them. As a raw Moopie, Tamami appeared as a golden-coloured plasma creature. This accidentally scared a member of the team, who instinctively shot her, and she turned to a pile of stone in self-defense.

Dr. Saruta, a colleague of Dr. O'Shay, took a sample of the "stone" from the moon tower in an attempt to study Moopies further. As the moon tower fell to pieces, Dr. Saruta fell into a crater in the moon, almost knocking him out. Tamami read his mind, transformed into a humanoid woman, and teleported him back to Earth.

Vlcsnap-2016-07-03-19h26m08s234

Tamami in a sustanence pod

In addition to shape-shifting, Tamami has healing powers. She was able to seal a gash in Astro's artificial skin by just holding her hand over it, and she uses her healing power to soothe Dr. Saruta's lingering radiation sickness. However, in order for her to survive on Earth, she can either stay in a fluid-filled sustenance pod or be powered by the rare element Lumanite. A young esper named Rock became interested in Tamami and offered to help Dr. Saruta research her. Rock uses his psychic powers on Tamami to manipulate her into shape-shifting into various animals, to steal Lumanite from museums, and to attack various people like Astro.

Vlcsnap-2016-07-03-19h37m28s503

Tamami as a dog, with Rock

Tamami was only being used by Rock in his scheme to get to the original moon tower to become a god. Tamami is extremely ashamed of the Lumanite robberies Rock has forced her into, but still needs the stolen Lumanite to live. Tamami is also used as a thread by Rock to guilt Astro to participating in the moon tower power portal summoning. Finally, Tamami is shot by Rock when she jumps in the way of a beam intended for Saruta.

Tamami turns into stone once more, with the last known piece of Lumanite in Rock's possession, with Rock falling through the power portal. Tamami's episode ends with Saruta vowing to bring Tamami back one day.

Himekawa manga[]

Tamami appears in the Akira Himekawa series, in an adaptation of her episodes with Rock. The major change in this series is how Tamami takes on a comforting motherly figure for Rock. At one point, to stop Rock from going through with the power portal, she shapeshifts into his estranged mother.

Powers and Ability[]

  • Shapeshifter : Wolf and Bird.
  • Generate Electricity
  • Heal: Treating Foster Parent Disease.
Advertisement