Who's finished BUDDHA?

[putrocca]

Now that Buddha is all out in English, I figure it's time to kick off a discussion. What do people think of it, in the context of the rest of the Tezuka corpus?

My initial thoughts:

Tezuka made it clear that he worked on Buddha during periods when he was frustrated by publication difficulties with Phoenix which prevented him from working on it instead. Thus Buddha must be read as a close companion piece to Phoenix, the two working off each other to more fully explore life/death/universe/reincarnation etc.

In terms of the Tezuka recincarnation system, Buddha seems to me to make the most sense as a moment of exception in the universe, in which the presence of the Buddha gives all those who are incarnated with him a one time opportunity to escape the normal recurring patterns of their lives and have things turn out differently for once, respite from their normal fate. Saruta, for example, begins his stint in Buddha as his usual self, scientifically-minded, wise, authoritative and engaged on a frustrating unfulfilled quest to understand the universe (as he was sentenced to do in all his lives by the Phoenix in the "Space" or "Universe" chapter) but with the arrival of Buddha he is able to abandon both science and his pursuit of the universe and live a happier, more fulfilling life as a desciple of a more complete wisdom. Sharaku, Rock and others similarly have a chance here to be something different from what they inevitably are. The characters then, perhaps, have the opportunity to learn important lessons from Buddha which they can keep in their other lives.

Putting off individual character-by-character discussions for now (though I'm eager to discuss Rock, Sharaku and BJ), what do people think of interpreting Buddha as a one-time respite from the Tezuka reincarnation cycle?

Also, does anyone else think that Devedatta looks an awful lot like Yuki from MW?

[strobe_z]

I was a bit surprised that Saruta didn't have a larger role after he'd been introduced. I guess though, he wasn't meant to me the main focus... it's just that he's so recognizable (that nose!) that he instantly draws attention to himself.

Now that I'm reading MW... it's freaking me out about the whole Devedatta/Yuki thing. I didn't think that Devedatta was all that bad a "bad guy"... but if you consider that Tezuka might've been thinking "Yuki" under the surface... well it puts Devedatta's character in a whole new light.

One thing that I felt though was that Buddha was warpped up pretty fast - especially when you consider how long and carefully Tezuka set the whole story up in the begining. I almost felt like he might've been under a deadline to get the whole thing finished.

[putrocca]

I agree Buddha seemed to end too abruptly. I agree it was probably a publishing issue.

As for Saruta, it is somewhat odd that his presence was so small, but on the other hand if you think of Buddha as the other half of Phoenix he has so much presence in Phoenix that he doesn't need to be in Buddha much - just enough for us to understand.

[cmoon]

I've read Buddha, but was a little hestiant to take you up on this challenge since I think I'd have to reread it--I'm sure I've missed things.

Reading the later Tezuka is definitely very different than the older stuff. Especially Phoenix and Buddha...they are definitely more difficult works. Not that they aren't easy to approach, but I feel they are at the end of a career built upon a foundation of other stuff that most westerners haven't read. There's probably a ton of stuff I missed in my first reading *sighs*

[strobe_z]

I was going to say that one thing I love about finding/founding this Tezuka community is that through the discussion we can pick up things we might've missed the first go-round.

I too was a bit hesitant to jump into this conversation 'cause I don't feel like enough of a "Tezuka expert" to really bring any deep thoughts on the subject. So I decided just to splash around in the shallow end for a bit first.

I agree with you though that Buddha and Phoenix are quite complex and do build upon things most of us haven't had the chance to read. As I mentioned, now that I'm going through MW... the fact that I'd lay odds that Yuki and Devedatta are one and the same gives a whole new level to Devedatta that I didn't pick up on during the first read.

A bit off topic here, but I really think MW should be the next project for Vertical after Kirihito. It's perfectly within their 'mandate' and it gives a whole side of Tezuka I (for one) never knew existed.

To quote David.. There's rooms within rooms with Tezuka - and if that's the case... then MW is somewhere in the dark corner of the basement (right next to Alabaster... or so I hear).

[cmoon]

This is stupid of me and I'm sure you've mentioned it, but what is MW???

[strobe_z]

I might've mentioned it, but probably not in any coherent form.

MW is probably the darkest Tezuka manga (although Ada says Alabaster would give it a run for its money). There's a ton of information about the series .

Be warned though there's some spoliers (I'm not finished the series yet, so I haven't given that page more than a cursory look so far). But without ruining anything, there's some really cold-blooded murders and a gay relationship between two of the main characters (one of which is a catholic priest). So this can come as a bit of a shock to the system for someone who's only seen Tezuka as "Astro Boy".

As it mentions on the series page, Yuki is not a recuring Tezuka cast member... however there's a good picture on the "preview" page on the Tezuka World website (
) If you look at the image of Yuki in the bottom-most frame you can see Devedatta (albeit with sideburns).

As I mentioned before, using Yuki as a reference it ads quite a bit of depth to Devedatta. I think that made a huge impact on me because I kept waiting for Devedatta to get "really bad" in the Buddha series... but it doesn't really pan out (aside from that final ill-fated attempt to scratch the Buddha).

I'm hoping Vertical will tackle MW or Ayako after Kirihito.. but if they don't I'll probably take a crack at translating it from the French.

[Ataru Moroboshi]

OH! I thought I was the only one that thought that Devadatta is no other than Yuki!!! So, was I right? Great!!!

I noticed it when Devadatta tries to, someway, "seduce" Buddha using some kind of femenine charm and Buddha rejects him. I was travelling by bus in my way to work, and i've had just finished reading the Spanish version of MW (a big one-shot which costed me 18

[putrocca]

I'm glad to hear someone else came to the same conclusion. I am still not certain that Devadatta is Yuki, it's just my conclusion looking at how similar they are - it was also the seduction scene that led me to recognize him.

Usually when I try to identify a recurring character I double-check it against the Tezuka character index, but Buddha is not indexed in the character index, and neither is Yuki, so we can't rely on that.

It sure looks like him, though, and if there's anyone in Tezuka who would be determined to kill Buddha it's Yuki.

[Ataru Moroboshi]

Now that we're talking about this, there's another curiosity I found in Buddha referring to Tezuka's Star System: Higeoyagi/Ban Shunsaku/ Prof. Moustache/ Daddy Walrus (pick the name you prefer) appears twice as two (apparently) different charachters: first as a referee in a fight tournament (I don't remember if it was the one with Chapra and Mighera in it or the one with Tatta) and second as the rusty detective who tries to catch Ananda and Litha (and compares himself with Lee Harvey Oswald in an ironic commentary, at least in the Spanish edition).

[putrocca]

[Ataru Moroboshi]

[putrocca]

[strobe_z]

[putrocca]