Difference between manga and anime
Tezuka's original manga centers around the artificial humanoid Mitchi, who is able to fly and change sex. She is pursued by Duke Red and his Red Party, who intend to use Mitchi for destructive purposes. Shunsaku Ban and his nephew Kenichi find Mitchi after her creator, Dr. Charles Laughton, is killed, and they protect her as they search for her parents. Unlike Tima's desire to be human, the cause for Mitchi's destructive rampage in the manga's climax is the revelation that, as a robot, she has no parents.
The 2001 film incorporates more elements from the Fritz Lang film Metropolis.[1] When making the original Metropolis manga, Tezuka said that the only inspiration he got from Fritz Lang's Metropolis was a still image from the film where a female robot was being born.[2] In addition to adopting set designs from the original film, the 2001 film has more emphasis on a theme of pervasive class struggle in a dystopian, plutocratic society and expands it to examine the relationship of robots with their human masters. (This relationship was explored by Tezuka in great detail in the series Astro Boy.) The anime adaptation also removes many of the more fanciful elements of Tezuka's manga, such as a flying, gender swapping humanoid. Here, Mitchi is replaced by "Tima", who is permanently female and cannot fly. In this version, Kenichi is an assistant to his uncle and forms a very strong friendship with Tima even though neither know she's a robot. Tima's relationship with Kenichi ends, however, when Tima accepts her identity as a robot over that of a female human, triggering a robot revolution.[3]
Rock wasn't in the original manga, and according to the writer of the film, he was added to pay homage to Tezuka's science fiction adventure style of storytelling, while also adding depth to the story's background and the world around it. Rock is meant to represent humanity's dark side, and the negative emotions associated with those aspects. He also echoes Tima's story and can be considered her foil, as they are both neglected children engineered by their father to be tools of war. Duke Red adopted Rock, but does not consider him his son, and Rock is cast aside and unwanted by Duke Red.[4] Similarly, Tima is a replacement for Duke Red's real daughter (also named Tima), but he commissioned the robot Tima's creation purely for use as a weapon, and has no affection for her. Their stories ultimately converge, coming full circle when they both lead to their father's downfall, with his legacy literally collapsing to the ground.
The film's Ziggurat combines the New Tower of Babel from Lang's original film and the manga's Cathedral.[5]
