The world view of Astro Boy in the form of shoes: handmade leather silver sandals with arch-shaped layered rainbow coloured high heels and glistening golden circles delicately layered upon the toes, 2024.
Perhaps the arch or bridge between Astro’s light that shined in Vietnam in 1969 and us in 2023? Or between the questions Astro Boy asks us repeatedly: ‘What does it mean for humans to make thing? What is life? And those of us who live in the time of AI?’ By uncompromisingly exploring and expanding the boundaries of shoes, the ‘Astro Heel’ masterfully delivers Astro Boy’s universal message.
Inspired and with profound respect to the great manga artist Osamu Tezuka and under the slogans of ‘Next Astro boy – Our coming 20 years’ and ‘Astro Boy for the future’, this art piece commemorates the 60th anniversary of the first animation of Astro Boy in 2024.
‘However, I heard that the bomber’s pilot saw it clearly. Out of the bombardment smoke, hundreds, thousands of lights in the shape of Astro flew out and assaulted the bombers.’ When Astro finds himself in the Vietnam War, in a village about to be bombarded by the US bombers, he learns a woman is giving birth soon and saves the village using his last energy left. The baby is born safely, but Astro runs out of energy. As the very last moment, Astro asks the villagers to ship him to Japan, which they did by first bringing Astro to Saigon. The day after, bombers strike the village again, and everyone dies. However, at that moment, thousands of ‘lights’ in the shape of Astro, who is not there, fly out of the smoke to attack the bombers.
From ‘The Angel in Vietnam’ in the Astro Boy Chronicles.
This phenomenon is not explained, nor does it influence how the story develops. Unlike mighty Astro as commonly recognised, here something that resembles willpower is depicted. More than half a century has passed since this time in history, but our present is still not free from conflicts. Having been emotionally influenced by the Russia-Ukraine War, Misawa was inspired by this scene in Astro Boy and portrayed the hundreds, thousands of lights in the shape of Astro in the form of these shoes.
© Noriyuki Misawa x ‘NEXT ATOM for the future’ produced by #AAAA. A project conducted by a textile trade company Moririn under the supervision of Tezuka Productions.
