Tezuka in English

• From France: BDNet's Tezuka page (fastest new releases, newsletter)
• From France: Mix-Image
• From France: Amazon.fr - also has region 2 French DVDs of Kimba/Leo, Metropolis movie and 2003 Astro Boy TV series
• From Canada: Fichtre! (has helpful bilingual service if you phone)
• From Canada: Archambault
• From Canada: Renaud-bray (best selection, slowest service)
• From Canada: Amazon.ca (fastest shipping inside Canada, early notice of upcoming releases)

French Tezuka manga releases listed by publisher

The following works by Osamu Tezuka are out in French:

Astro Boy (original)
New: Astro Boy (Akira Himekawa remake)
L'Arbre du Soleil (Tezuka's Ancestor Dr. Ryoan)
Avaler la Terre (Swallowing the Earth)
Ayako (3 vols. complete)
Barbara (2 vols complete)
Black Jack (2 editions, see below)
Black Jack Illustration Museum (art book - 1 vol)
Black Jack Kuroi Ishi manga remake by Kenji Yamamoto
Bouddha
Le Château de l'Aurore
Le Cratere (out of print)
Demain les Oiseaux (complete)
Don Dracula (complete)
Dororo (complete)
L'Enfent aux Trois Yeux (The Three-Eyed One - complete)
Les Enfants de Sapphir (Twin Knight - complete)
Ludwig B
New: Gringo
Hato
I.L (1 vol complete)
L'Histoire des 3 Adolfs (2 editions, complete)
Histoires pour Tous (short works anthology)
New: Ikki Mandara
La Legende de Songoku (coming soon)
Ludwig B (complete)
New: Kaos
Kirihito (Ode to Kirihito)
Le Roi Leo (Kimba the White Lion / Jungle Emperor Leo) (out of print)
Metropolis (1 vol., complete)
Midnight (still coming out)
MW (3 vols., complete)
Nanairo Inko (Rainbow Parakeet) (5 vols., complete)
Osamu Tezuka: Une Biographie Manga (4 vols, complete)
Phenix: L'Oiseau du Feu (9 vols., out of print)
Prince Norman (3 vols. complete)
Princesse Saphir (Princess Knight)
Ray (Black Jack manga spinoff, not by Tezuka)
Ray & Black Jack Other Side (manga spinoff, not by Tezuka)
Shumari
Tonkaradani (1 vol, complete)
Unico
Vampires (3 vols., complete)

BDNet's Tezuka page, has everything still in print. BDNet is not a general bookstore but a comics only store, so it is very easy to browse. BDNet also lets you sign up for a weekly newsletter announcing new releases. Once you have ordered part of a given series online, they will notify you by e-mail when further volumes of the same set are released.

Another good French manga export site to use is Mix-Image. Their service is not quite as efficient as BDNet, but still good. The easiest way to navigate Mix-Image is to go to the alphabetical manga listing.

Canadian bookstores often stock Tezuka manga in French, and can be a good source, but they usually get the releases a little later than the French stores do, and shipping from Canada to the US is not much less than shipping from France to the US, so is often still be more convenient to order from BDNet which stocks comics only than from a large Canadian bookstore.

Notes on individual releases:

The first French Black Jack release was printed by GLENAT MANGA. It was only twelve volumes long and contained roughly one third of the series. It matched the GLENAT MANGA Spanish edition exactly. That set is now out of print, but ASUKA has released a new French edition of Black Jack, seventeen volumes long,which matches the Japanese ASUKA edition. This is a naerly-complete release containing the entire series except for the few sealed issues not included in any edition. The first six ASUKA volumes contain the same content as the twelve GLENAT volumes, each ASUKA containing two GLENAT. Lists of the titles of issues contained in each volume of both the ASUKA and GLENAT editions is now online on our Black Jack page. The Asuka set is now complete in French and can be ordered in a complete box set or as individual issues. An accompanying art book followed the set.

Notes on series not released in the US:

Swallowing the Earth (Avaler la Terre) is another sexy title following a group of beautiful but icy women attemtping to take revenge on their male-dominated society. It focuses on Zephyrus, also seen as "The Black Queen" in Black Jack.

I.L - A sexy and adult but episodic series, following a fantastically-minded movie writer who is accosted by Count Alucard and given custody of the mysterious woman I.L, who can change shape to imitate anyone. He hires her out to impersonate people and help them in difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Ludwig B - Tezuka's story of Beethoven, one of the most highly-regarded stories in the middle of his career.

Dororo - Tezuka's great and beloved samurai series, the story of Hyakkumaru, who is born with most of his body missing, sold to demons by his father in return for power. He quests to reclaim himself. Hyakkumaru's character design was later adapted to create Black Jack.

Don Dracula - A comedy series about Dracula and his daughter Coco who move to Japan. Tezuka wrote this to fill the gap left in the monthly Shounen Champion anthology when Black Jack ended, and it was meant to be a change of pace.

Hato - Adventure story.

Histoires pour Tous - Anthology of short works.

Enfents de Sapphir - A sequel to Princess Knight following the adventures of Sapphire's twin children, a boy and a girl.

Ayako. - This is a dark, 3 volume crime drama and commentary on the social impact of WWII on the traditional Japanese family. It is similar in tone and style to Adolf and MW.

Barbara - Also a social drama similar to Ayako and MW, focusing on the connections between madness and artistic inspiration.

L'Arbre du Soleil (Tezuka's Ancestor Dr. Ryoan) - A samurai drama, set close to the battle of Sekigahara, focusing on Tezuka's ancestor who was a doctor.

Le Cratere (the Crater) is an anthology of Twilight-zone style sci-fi and fantasy short stories, each only one issue long, often morality plays.

L'Enfent aux Trois Yeux (The Three-Eyed One) - a major favorite, telling the adventures of the boy Sharaku, the last of the ancient three-eyed race who possessed terrifying magical powers. Sharaku is an ordinary, shy schoolboy when his third eye is sealed (as when he appears in the recent Black Jack TV series) but a terrifying and demonic creature when his powers are awakened (as in the Astro Boy GBS game). This is its first western language release, and just started coming out in November 2005.
MW, a Grim crime and conspiracy drama about the charisma of evil, similar to Vampires and Ayako but examining the issues homosexuality and Christianity.

Nanairo Inko (Rainbow Parakeet) - The story of a genius actor and mastor-thief, with each issue based on a different famous play. It is relesed in French its ASUKA edition.

Osamu Tezuka: Une Biographie Manga Thorough and accurate biography of Tezuka from childhood throughout his life, narrated by his characters.

Prince Norman, whose first volume was just released by the French publisher Cornelius, was written in 1968. It is the best example yet published in the West of the boys' science-fiction adventure stories for which Tezuka was so well known. Its later date means it is more intact and more polished than early works like Metropolis or Next World.

Princesse Saphir (Princess Knight) - Disney-style fairytale romance about Sapphire, a child of royalty born with both a male and female soul - this series inspired many modern shoujo manga, particularly Rose of Versailles and Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Unico - Childrens' series about a unicorn with the power to grant happiness, persecuted by the gods.

Vampires - Tezuka's first series focusing on the charisma of evil and the capacity of men to transform - a very important turning point in his career. It is relesed in French its ASUKA edition.

For more information, try the following pages:

ANIMATION IN ENGLISH
Tezuka Manga in translation OVERVIEW
Tezuka Manga in English
Tezuka manga in Italian
Tezuka manga in Spanish
General series information - descriptions and summaries of Ayako, MW, Rainbow Parakeet and more

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