Atomcat (Astro Boy)

Working my way through several different manga series I deliberately set out to find a short one shot to fill my desire to make manga centric video every two weeks. The fact that Atomcat was also by Osamu Tezuka also seemed like a nice bonus as they are one of those mangaka you hear about all the time and figure you should read eventually. That said, not entirely surprisingling this book has not aged well for this social justice warrior. Oh the toxic masculinity!
Rewinding a bit, I did really enjoy the premise of this collection of shorts, that is atomcat's origin story. Which is hilarious. And minus the pretty miserable worldview presented, the book is rather well put together.
The young male protagonist even cries a lot, which was nice, even if atomcat is forever telling his owner/companion that he needs to be more of a man and grow a backbone. Thankfully the rapey cat character only appears in one of the short stories! If I never have to read another story featuring a cat rapist ever again it will be too soon. In comparison to him, the fact that the mother character is an oversized nag barely registered but should also be noted. Amusingly enough the book does include a very badly worded apology from his production company for racist caricatures. I only say amusingly because, while I am not an expert in racial representation in manga, the toxic ideas about gender were so overpowering and I didn't notice anything particularly racist so it just seemed even more clueless then the wording is just on its own. I assume this is a blanket apology that applies more specifically to other work?