Review of "The Astro Boy Essays"

Review Type: Book (non-manga)
AdaPalmerPutrocca's Rating: 5 of 5

You will not believe me when I try to tell you about Osamu Tezuka.  He drew over 150,000 pages of manga in his lifetime, more than 700 separate series, and more than 70 anime, films and movies.  He was a pioneer every genre, from hard sci-fi to mahou shoujo to adult films.  He developed the drawing and animation techniques that still dominate the industry today.  Today's greats, from Rintaro to Yoshiyuki Tomino, worked and studied with him.  He was a political activist, writing against war, racism, environmental exploitation, medical corruption.  He was a national hero of Japan, and under consideration for the Nobel Prize in literature when he passed away in 1989.  Astro Boy, Black Jack, Kimba the White Lion, Metropolis, Phoenix, Buddha and Princess Knight are only the best known of literally hundreds of creations which have impacted every corner of the manga world.  If you think this sounds like too much for one man to plausibly accomplish in a lifetime, you're far from the only one who finds Osamu Tezuka a little superhuman.

Fred Schodt, author of Dreamland Japan Manga! Manga!: the World of Japanese Comics and translator of Phoenix, Astro Boy and more, was a personal friend of the "God of Comics" and his translator when Tezuka visited America.  In his long-awaited Astro Boy Essays, Schodt gives a concise and detailed introduction to the life, influence and significance of Tezuka in the history of Japan and the international comics world.  Focusing on Tezuka's best known work, the anti-racist children's classic Astro Boy, it gives efficient, approachable portraits of Osamu Tezuka's life and personality, the atmosphere in Japan during and after WWII and their effect on the manga industry, the nightmarish behind-the-scenes production schedule that birthed Japan's first animated TV series, and the spread of Astro Boy as a Japanese, and later an international symbol of peace, technology, hope for the future, and above all of Japan itself.  The rocky history of Astro Boy's American distribution gives a fascinating look at the beginnings of American anime fandom, and how many barriers had to be broken to achieve the comparatively-smooth licensing and distribution system in place today.  All the material is presented in a format beginners can understand, but with enough details that even experts will find themselves learning more with every page.  The Astro Boy Essays is an invaluable contribution to manga scholarship, and provides a window for American otaku to finally learn about the "God" who made anime what it is today.

For more information about the book, see:
        www.stonebridge.com/AstroBoy/AstroBoy.html

For more information about Osamu Tezuka, his life and works, see:
        TezukaInEnglish.com