Tezuka In English Discussion Forums

Well, I've been visiting these forums for a couple months, but finally decided to register. I'm also probably one of the younger members here (I'm 15). I first encountered Tezuka's works when I became interested Astro Boy Omega Factor for the GBA (I love Treasure), and got it for my birthday, along with the first volume of Astro Boy in case I couldn't understand the story. I read through the volume and loved every page, and I played through the game twice just so I could meet the awesome characters again. I eventually bought twelve volumes of Astro Boy, along with Nextworld and Metropolis.
Then, I bought Black Jack: Two Fisted Surgeon (the second BJ volume in the US) and found that I liked Black Jack even more than astro boy. After a mad search on the web, I bought the first volume for twenty dollars, just so I could read it. Then, I even read works like Pluto inspired by Tezuka, and watched a dozen episodes of the Black Jack anime, much of the 80s Astro boy series, and Marine Express. Now, I'm moving on the later works. I've read three volumes of Buddha, and am about to start Phoenix (I'm planning to buy Ode to Kirihito with a 25 dollar gift card I have lying around). However, my favorite series I've read so far remains Black Jack. Last month, I bought six volumes of BJ in a language I'm not fluent in, French. There's so much I want to read, but I sadly don't have the money. Now, I'm going through them with a dictionary at hand. If only they'd publish Tezuka manga in Farsi...

Sorry for the long-winded post, and hi, everyone.

Welcome UnluckyLukeGR!

I'm always glad when one of our lurkers turns "pro". As you probably know if you've been hanging around, we've got quite a few Black Jack fans here, so you're not alone. It's amazing sometimes how many people discover Tezuka through Astro Boy. It's almost like it's a test... if you can just get enough interest to dig a little deeper past Astro Boy, you can find just hot deep the rabbit hole goes with Tezuka.

For me it was a combo of the Astro Boy manga and Buddha. I kept thinking "wow... THIS is the by the same guy who did ASTRO BOY?!"

Good luck on building your Black Jack collection, we've got quite a few French-speakers around here (including me), so feel free to post if you've got some questions or need some help understanding something. Black Jack could be a bit of a challenge given all the medical terms.

Thanks a lot. But for me, the biggest challenge in Black Jack that can't be solved with a pocket dictionary isn't the medical terms (they're thankfully mostly cognates), but trying to understand what Pinoko is saying.

yeah... good luck with that! Trust me, you're not the first to complain about that.

Welcome! I'm always happy to hear of people moving on from the GBA game to the manga - that's exactly what one hopes would happen. Glad you've read Pluto too... everyone should.

Yes, Pinoko's french is very difficult to understand. Hang in there. Reading BJ in French really improved my French reading fast.

Despite it all, Black Jack is definitely still my favorite Tezuka manga too.

I have to admit, I don't like French. It really is annoying But I like it since I can use it for all those great manga and comics haha So I always fought it and yeah! Take that, I even understand Pinoko now!! (At least most times...)