How many gods do you believe in? For an anime and manga fan Osamu Tezuka’s name reigns supreme. He was able to establish for himself a sanctuary for his creative drawing and writing endeavors allowing almost no one access. These endeavors number over 700 manga and 100 anime that he was able to produce, under great pressure upon his editor’s and fan’s demands.
Thirteen in 1941, war raging, the school Osamu attended focused on military training. Time was not wasted on frivolous activities like drawing. To fulfill his passion for art some of his earliest drawings were of insects he saw in the forest near his home. Disney cartoons influenced Osamu’s work with the characters cheerful faces and bright big eyes. World War II and the American occupied Japan heavily influenced his desire to incorporate peaceful resolution throughout his life’s work.
In one of the first western released manga’s, Buddha, Tezuka brings the injustice of the Indian based caste system to life. The original release does not follow the Japanese format and instead follows a western format of left to right. The story portrays the different desires of members of the caste system to stay within the societal confines while at the same time the inability of social restraint to meet the human desire to be greater than an idea of birth. In this somewhat historical fiction Osamu creates deep meanings and lessons about the human condition.
Throughout Tezuka’s work the human desire for power and greed are met with the forces for justice. Within a single character these forces can be at work accurately conveying the complexity of the human spirit. His ability to find minute details in stories from television, newspapers and daily life that translate into epic manga series and anime is nothing less than creative genius.
The book The Art of Osamu Tezuka God of Manga by Helen McCarthy details Osamu Tezuka’s life and work in concise and accurate detail.
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