About

With the failure of the company he founded, Mushi Productions, much of Tezuka's work in the 1970s reflects his darker mood. Despite this, and indeed because of it, the 1970s really show Tezuka at his best.

The 1960s see Tezuka hit his artistic stride. Although throughout the decade much of his energy was devoted to getting his animation, both artistic and commercial, off the ground, in his manga work his storytelling and artwork show a maturity that only comes from years of experience.

The 1940s feature the works of Osamu Tezuka’s youthful exhuberance – those that pave the way for modern manga and show just a hint of his later genius.

From the late 1940's to the the late 1980's, Osamu Tezuka was instrumental in developing (if not downright creating) almost every genre of manga possible.

Osamu Tezuka (手塚 治虫) was born on November 3, 1928 and died on February 9, 1989, but it is what happened in between that is really important.

In 1981, after giving a talk at a medical university, a medical researcher who had been in the audience contacted Tezuka and sent him some documents detailing his own family history in medicine. In fact, Osamu Tezuka is part of a medical dynasty of sorts.

By August 1973, after fumbling along for a few years without Tezuka, Mushi Productions folded with a debt of roughly ¥400 million. While reading about it the next day in the newspaper, Tezuka was quite surprised to hear that people were saying that he was finished. He had been so closely associated with Mushi Productions, that the public's perception of its demise was Tezuka's own professional demise.

By 1965, Astro Boy (1963-66) was already entering it's third year in production, Mushi Productions had started work on a new animated television series known as Wonder 3 (1965-66), and was gearing up for it's latest ground-breaking series - the first full-colour animated television program in Japan, Jungle Emperor (1965-66).

In 1958 Tezuka had two meetings that would shape his life. The first was a visit by staff from Toei Animation who were interested in developing Tezuka's manga series, Son-Goku the Monkey (1952-59) as an animated feature film.