Astro Boy

Tezuka's robot boy ran from 1952 to 1968 and effectively set the template for what manga and anime would become. Astro is a child-shaped robot with rocket boots and human feelings, built by a scientist mourning his dead son and then abandoned for not being able to grow up. The episodes swing from slapstick adventure to surprisingly dark parables about prejudice, war, and what we owe the things we create. The art is rubbery and fast and full of Tezuka's cinematic camera tricks. It can feel dated and silly in places, but the moral seriousness under the cartoon surface is why people still read it seventy years on.