Having only half a year to create a 160-page story, Tezuka assembled a basic plot from elements of unpublished work, the inspiration for the central character coming from a publicity still of the female robot from "Metropolis" (even though he had never seen the film or even known what it was about). When the manga was released, the response from the public was far greater than he imagined and that many students were inspired to become manga artists because of it.