Character Profile: Atlas

Atlas was originally a robot modeled after Daichi, the son of a millionaire owner whose mistreatment ended with his son being a punk biker who died at the shuttle station while attempting to go into space. The millionaire hires Dr. Tenma to build a robot modeled after his son, but Dr. Tenma added all of Daichi's memories of his father, which were mostly bad. This resulted in the android being as rebellious as his son was. The robot Daichi named himself Altas after Daichi's favorite book.

Atlas is similar in design to Astro but lacked his unique ability of compassion, being blinded by rage. During their second confrontation, in a space station, Altas ended up remembering more pleasent memories Daichi had of his father, and sacrificed himself to save Daichi's father. He is then seen floating among space debris, but in a way, he is living Daichi's dream of seeing Earth from space.

Atlas appears again sometime around episode 45 or 46, because of the war that was started. Atlas now believes that humans and robots can live together.

Editor’s Note:

Was Daichi originally a robot or was he human? In the episode in which Atlas is first introduced) there's a flashback to child Daichi celebrating his first birthday where Tokugawa says “since humans have birthdays, I figured you'd like one too”. Later on in the series, Tokugawa also states that he loved the robot Daichi/Atlas like a son. It doesn't state in the anime that the robot is modeled after anyone in particular, but rather that he keeps on getting rebuilt because he keeps acting out due to Tokugawa's mistreatment.