Rainbow Parakeet
RAINBOW PARAKEET - Created 1981
In addition to being a cops-and-robbers action manga, the series Rainbow Parakeet is also a thorough examination of theater and film on the part of Osamu Tezuka, who was fascinated by both. The Rainbow Parakeet is an actor whose specialty is mimicry and disguise, but who is also a master thief. Each story of the series follows him through his preparation and performance of a role, often as a substitution for a famous actor, which he performs perfectly on the condition that he be allowed to steal from the audience over the course of the performance. He is pursued by detective Mariko Senri, who is trying to prove herself as a woman in the law enforcement field. Over the course of the series, an attraction develops between the two, and each must grapple with the resulting conflict. He is later followed by a small dog, Tamasaburo, who is trained in pantomime, who causes him trouble until he agrees to let the puppy join him. Through his interactions with these two, and with other characters, including appearances by Osamu Tezuka himself, the Parakeet evolves into a psychologically complex character who exhibits a startling degree of self-awareness and consciousness of his role as a fictional character.
Scroll down for more information on the Rainbow Parakeet, or follow one of these links to our Rainbow Parakeet informational pages (not all are yet complete).
Tezuka In English Character Profile for Rainbow Parakeet
Tezuka World Series Page for Rainbow Parakeet
Tezuka World summary index of the Rainbow Parakeet manga, issue-by-issue
Secondary Cast: Mariko Senri
Secondary Cast: Chief Inspector Senri
Secondary Cast: Tamasaburo
Secondary Cast: True Intentions
Secondary Cast: Osamu Tezuka
Notable Guest Stars in Rainbow Parakeet
Rainbow Parakeet's Identity and Life Story
Manga in Translation - complete French edition (5 vols.) now in print.
RAINBOW PARAKEET MANGA
The manga Rainbow Parakeet was serialized in Weekly Shonen Champion, from March 1981 to March 1983, and featured one of the original "dashing thief" characters in manga, just barely after the earliest animated appearance of Lupin III.
Each story in the manga is based upon a famous play or movie, with a wide range of source material, including Shakespeare, Noh drama, Greek tragedy, Kabuki comedy, film, theater of the absurd, and others. Tezuka was an expert in various types of drama, and therefore wove tremendous amounts of knowledge and thought on the subject into each issue of Rainbow Parakeet. Each story is named after its source material (Hamlet, for example), and the life of the Rainbow Parakeet follows various twists and turns, usually to mirror the events of the play, but with some clever twist or sudden reversal. For example, the play Twelve Angry Men features a jury in conflict, of which one man remains convinced of the defendant's innocence, and remains determined to block a guilty verdict; in the Rainbow Parakeet issue of the same name, the Parakeet has ironically been chosen to sit on a jury where he is the only man who is convinced of the defendant's guilt and remains determined to see justice done.
Tezuka's inclusion of the plays and films is masterful; each story remains unpredictable even if the reader is familiar with the source material, and comprehensible even if the material is utterly new. This is aided by the inclusion of brief summaries of the source drama at the start of each issue, complete with historical information. The variety of the source material does lead to an inconsistency in tone which some readers may find off-putting, but the consistency of the lead character of the Rainbow Parakeet, and of the action of the dashing-thief genre, do offset this problem to some degree. More unfortunate is the inherent storytelling obstacle of a thief-related series, which is the difficulty of maintaining suspense when the outcome of a given chase or action sequence is obvious to the reader from the beginning. This in turn is then alleviated by the intelligence and erudition of the dramatic commentary, but it does leave the series with some serious flaws for a reader whose interest lies more with action than with commentaries on historical drama. For the drama enthusiast, however, this series is thoroughly enjoyable.
For a Tezuka enthusiast, this series is something of a treasure trove of character appearances. Since the series concerns itself so closely with actors and the roles they play, it is an ideal setup for Tezuka's star system to show its versatility and potential. The list of major Tezuka character appearances reads like a list of his "actors," including, among many others, Astro Boy, Black Jack, Higeoyaji (Shunsaku Ban), Duke Red, several of the famous Tezuka scientists including Dr. Tenma and Dr. Hanamaru, the full complement of villains including Skunk, Lamp, Kin Sankaku, Ham Egg, and others, plus Kenichi and Rock and, of course, Tezuka himself. While the series is entertaining as an action series, or as a pastiche of theater and film, a close reading of the series while spotting Tezuka stars adds a further layer of interest for a fan.
RAINBOW PARAKEET CAMEOS IN RECENT TEZUKA-RELATED WORKS
Until after Tezuka's death, the Rainbow Parakeet remained a unique character. Though many characters from other series made guest appearances in the Rainbow Parakeet manga, the Rainbow Parakeet himself never appeared in any series other than his own. However, he has had two very notable and striking appearances in recent works sponsored or produced by Tezuka Productions, Inc., both based on Astro Boy, and both produced since the year 2000.
2003 ASTRO BOY TV SERIES
In this series, the Rainbow Parakeet appears in several episodes as the villain Kato. Kato is a terrorist who commits acts of destruction for his own personal profit, and prides himself on an artistic execution of his plans. He dresses as a clown, which is appropriate for the Parakeet (see our information on his backstory, coming soon), but uses his charisma and acting ability purely for evil purposes. Though the character design is clearly the same, Kato is different from the usual Rainbow Parakeet character in every other way.
ASTRO BOY: OMEGA FACTOR VIDEO GAME FOR GAMEBOY ADVANCE
The Rainbow Parakeet appears briefly in this video game as the detective Sherlock Homespun. In this role, he plays someone who has been experimented on against his will, and had the majority of his body parts replaced with robotic equivalents. For this reason, he harbors an intense bitterness against robots in general, and therefore shows some reluctance to help Astro. Unlike many others Astro encounters over the course of hte game, he does not help Astro out of any affection for the little robot, but because he is determined to see justice done to various villains. The Rainbow Parakeet still shows his talent for disguise and mimicry during the game, but the thieving aspect of the character is missing entirely.
It is important to note that Sherlock Homespun appeared in the original Astro Boy manga, with an identical personal history and motivation, but was not the Rainbow Parakeet. This change was a decision made by the writers of the game, and it does add a considerable amount of interest to the character of Sherlock Homespun.
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