Umataro Tenma is a recurring major character in the Astro Boy series. He is a legendary robotics engineer and a PhD. graduate from Nerima University. Tenma gained widespread fame for developing the Bewusstsein artificial intelligence with his roommate Hiroshi Ochanomizu. Later in his career he becomes the Minister Of Science and creates Astro, a robotic boy with human emotions and the first robot using the Kokoro AI after the sudden death of his son Tobio Tenma in a car accident. Tenma has black curly hair that he wears as a soft pompador, and a matching goatee. He has a distinct pointed nose, too, which has led to characters comparing Tenma's overall appearance to that of a rooster. He is often neglectful to his son, and after his son's death is obsessed with rebuilding him into a robot. He is initially kind and happy with Astro, but once he realizes he will never grow, he spirals into hatred and frustration of the robot, even going so far as to hit him with a broom or shovel. Once Dr. Ochanomizu takes Astro in, Tenma is obsessive with getting Astro back. He often ignores Astro's feelings and is capricious when his plans are foiled- he will apologize for his actions in one chapter, then attempt to get Astro back to him in another. However, in the manga chapter, "The Greatest Robot on Earth", Tenma and Astro appear to be on good terms with each other, and Tenma upgrades Astro to have one million horsepower. In the 2009 CGI-animated film by Imagi, William "Bill" Tenma loses his son Tobio in an accident where Toby is locked in with a berserk robot. Tenma, with the assistance of Doctor Elefun, creates a robot duplicate of Toby: the robot Toby has a complete port of all his human memories, and is outfitted with advanced defence capabilities so that he can't be harmed. However, when the robot version begins to develop his own personality, Tenma tearfully rejects him.
After Astro Boy runs away, he is captured for the power source that Tenma used on him. It is to be extracted from him and put into the Peacekeeper. Astro encourages this decision, accepting that he could never live up to Tenma's expectations. Tenma, however, refuses to have Astro deactivated, saying, "You're not Tobio, but you're still my son!" Tenma is less villainous and deranged in the film, becoming more of a returning father figure who takes back Astro as a son. He was partially designed after Nicolas Cage, his voice actor.
