Tezuka In English Discussion Forums

I have seen about 6 episodes of the 1960's Astro Boy anime. I own Astro Boy Ultra Collecter's Edition Set 1.

I have read volume 2 of the Astro Boy manga.

I have seen the first episode of Kimba the White Lion, and I've seen the 1997 film.

I have seen one episode of the Black Jack anime series.

I have read Metropolis, and seen the film.

I have not yet finished volume 1 of Buddha.

Am I an "inexperienced" Tezuka fan?

Yes. Trust me. You saw my collection, and I'm at best a beginner. There's so much in that isn't available in English, and you're just starting on the English stuff. Really, all the bilingual members here have a serious edge.

Basically with Tezuka I still have no grasp of the amount of work he's done, but it seems every couple weeks someone brings up a new work or film or something that I'd no idea even existed.

Rather than having a sort of scaffolding where I'm filling in the parts that are missing, I simply have a bunch of disconnected pieces--I'm a LONG ways from even knowing the scope of Tezuka's work, and I think I've seen about everything avilable in english--well that isn't even true, still haven't seen amazing three or the anime of princess knight. It is really exhausting.

So both of us are probably VERY VERY far away from knowing much of Tezuka's work.

I know a lot about Tezuka's work.

I just haven't seen/read them.

I don't why crap, like Naruto and Love Hina is so popular.

I'm pretty sure that all real anime fans are familiar with Osamu Tezuka.

mod: great example of where your last post could be edited to include this second sentence.

Okay, this is really confusing me right now. My eyes are burning out of their sockets! The heated replies are hurting my eyes! Let's just be considerate of what we say, okay?

Anyway, sometimes, it depends on the country airing the anime whether you see it or not. Here in the Philippines, where I'm currently staying, there's Astro Boy and Three-Eyed One everyday on the local anime station, HERO--in 80's version. They can't be obsolete! There's no way something great like this can go down the drain just like that!

Don't assume that no one knows them either. Sure, the community is small but at least Tezuka lives on in his fans! Let those people who don't know im have that problem. If they don't know Tezuka, it's their loss. It's as simple as that.

Dude, you have Three-Eyed One on your local station? Lucky! What station is that? I should list it on the site.

As for the rest of it, I work for seven anime clubs, three different anime companies and five different anime cons and have met, I don't know, maybe 10,000 American otaku in my day, plus hundreds in Europe as well. Generally all I can say is that there is no "typical" anime fan and one of the best things about it is that people of all different ages and types watch and like all different kinds of anime, from people who've been at it for decades to the Japanese three-year-old I ran into in a market the other day who tugged his mom's pants, pointed at my astro boy T-shirt and said "Atomu! Atomu!" There are some trends, for example it's rare (but good) for younger fans to like older series, mostly because not much old stuff is shown on TV, but there are also plenty of teenagers who watch MS Gundam and plenty of people over 40 who watch Naruto (my Dad included) so I don't think anyone should be being offended by being called young or old. It is true, BTW, that 20 out of 30 fans of teen age and below don't know about Tezuka (though there are also plenty of older fans who don't), but that just makes it more exciting when younger people turn up in these forums. I think the GBA game probably did more for Tezuka's US fame than any manga or anime release.

By the way, to set the record straight, Naruto is not "crap" - despite having all the fame and overpopularity and shounen jump hallmarks of things which usually are crap. It's actually a really good show, at least starting in season 2 (episode 20 is the turning point), with exceptionally original and well-developed characters, excellent direction and production, and several episodes which will make anybody cry. I know it's tempting to knock Naruto becuase one assumes anything that popular has to be bad, and there is a lot of bad anime out there (believe me I watch and love bad anime too so I can tell the difference) but surprisingly Naruto actually deserves the fame it has, plus if you watch enough of it then you too will find your "Way of the ninja" (I'm only half kidding).

If anyone wants some recommendations of some genuine bad (but still entertaining) bad anime to try, let me know and I'll send tips - I love bad anime as well as good.