Atom: The Beginning

Atom: The Beginning (Japanese: アトム ザ・ビギニング, Hepburn: Atomu za Biginingu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tetsurō Kasahara, with writing contributions by Makoto Tezuka and Masami Yuki. It was serialized in Hero's Inc.'s Monthly Hero's magazine from December 2014 to December 2020 and transferred to Comiplex online website in November 2020. Its chapters have been collected in 26 tankōbon volumes as of June 2026. An anime television series adaptation aired from April to July 2017. The manga is based on Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy series and is initially set up as a prequel, depicting the events up until the birth of Astro Boy. However, as the story progresses, discrepancies with the main story of Astro Boy emerge, and it is later revealed to be a different world with a divergent history from that of Astro Boy after an incident in 1969.