Osamu Tezuka bio for site

[Saruta]

(As discussed on Twitter, I am writing a version that should be more coherent than the Wikipedia text used now. I'll do it in several installments; corrections and critique welcome. As an aside: I found that an English-language serious book about him, if not exactly a bio. does exist already. "God of comics: Osamu Tezuka and the creation of post-World War II manga" by Natsu Onoda Power; samples available on Google Books. It goes straight on my "to buy" list).

Osamu Tezuka comes from a medical dynasty. His great-great-grandfather, Ryosen Tezuka, is considered the first modern army doctor in Japan; he did much to introduce Western medical knowledge of the time to Japan. (Osamu actually drew a manga about him and his son Ryoan, "Tree in the Sun").

Osamu Tezuka was born in 1928 in Toyonaka City, Osaka. The family soon moved to Takarazuka City, Hyogo - the home of the famous all-female Takarazuka Revue. This theatre, known for its romantic musical works, has significantly influenced Tezuka's work.

Tezuka liked to draw stories from elementary school. His manga works were famous in his class. Then, in 1944, he was drafted into service at a military factory - and there, used every possible moment to hide somewhere and draw, causing much ire from his supervisors. During that time he also found a bug, named "Osamushi" in Japanese; this became his pen name.

In 1946, very soon after Japan lost the Second World War, he released his first commercial manga works, "Diary of Ma-chan" (a series of strips for a newspaper) and "New Treasure Island" (his first book). In just a few years he acquired major fame as a cartoonist. Still, he found the time to complete medical school. He was certified as a doctor, and though he never practiced, this knowledge shows in one of his masterpieces, "Black Jack".

As the first comic craze, "the golden age of manga", swept Japan, Tezuka found himself the object of a large and very creative fandom. A number of people bombarded him with letters, enclosing their own comic work. Eventually, Tezuka engaged the best of them as his assistants - thus creating a "school" of his own (one wonders if he noticed the dojo analogy himself). The assistants helped him meet the strict deadlines he had to face and achieve his notorious productivity, and then some of them went on to become famous themselves.

In 1952 Osamu Tezuka moved to Tokyo and got an apartment in a building named Tokiwa-so; soon, this building swelled with aspiring mangaka. There, he created many of his famous works, including Lost World, The Adventures of Rock Home - and, of course, Tetsuwan Atomu (the manga). Atomu became extremely popular, with crowds of fans, a TV puppet play (1957), a radio dramatization (1959), and a dedicated festival ( started 1960).

He even founded entire manga subgenres. Notably, "Ribbon no Kishi" ("Princess Knight") is recognized as the beginning of shoujo manga (that is, work created primarily for girls). It has inspired shoujo classic authors like Riyoko Ikeda.

Tezuka could perhaps rest on his laurels at this point. His influence in Japanese contemporary culture was already incredibly strong for one person. Fans turned into followers (sometimes through the stage of assistant), and the new manga scene was expanding.

In 1959, Osamu married Okada Etsuko. In 1961 his son Makoto Tezuka was born, followed some years later by daughters Rumiko and Chiiko. Other people could have perhaps slowed down to concentrate on family life; he probably had the means, as he took second place in the 1961 media list of top earners in the category of painters.

However, Tezuka would not stop. (And as for family life, he made that into a manga too - "Mako, Rumi and Chii"). Having established himself as the leading manga artist, and seeing followers (and competitors) take his lead, he wanted to expand further.

Much of Tezuka's manga style was inspired by Disney and by animation in general. Of course, he did want to try actual animation. He worked for Toei Animation for a time, and then started his own studio, Mushi ("bug") Productions. While Toei did feature movies, Mushi founded today's ubiquitous format, the TV anime series, with the famous original Tetsuwan Atomu ("Mighty Atom", licensed in the USA as "Astro Boy"). Astro Boy became even more popular, and gained international fame - though in retrospect, a robot created by "Bug Productions" sounds a tad dangerous! This series ran from 1963 to 1966, totaling 194 episodes; it did not follow the manga fully.

While Mushi was churning out Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka continued working on manga, but also forayed into another passion - experimental animation. He produced several films that were non-commerical, intended as works of art to be shown at festivals. His first (and quite interesting) animated work, "Tales of the Street Corner", was produced in 1962 along with the first Astro Boy episode. Several experimental animated pieces followed during the 60s.

With Mushi, he went on to create anime versions of his other works - including "New Treasure Island", his very first commercial manga book which became an hour long feature movie. "Princess Knight" became another series following Astro Boy (but this time in color). The famous "Jungle Emperor Leo" (also known as "Kimba teh White Lion" got both movies and a series!

Tezuka continued to be very well known and popular. He appeared in radio and TV shows, and wrote a book "I am a manga artist". At that time Tezuka's fandom was very big, and he would meet his fans at events.

And, while now an anime star, he would never stop working on manga. And now, he would not just spawn followers - he also learned from the new generation of mangaka that consisted mostly of his own devoted fans! Notably, Yohishiro Tatsumi (who was earlier thrilled to meet Tezuka after winning manga contests) has by that time created a subgenre known as "gekiga" - a more serious style of manga aimed at older teenagers and adults - and Tezuka placed his own foot firmly in it.

The late 1960s saw him start the series now known as his life's work - "Hi No Tori" ("Phoenix"). It spanned thousands of years (breaking into millions once) and covered topics of death, reincarnation, immortality and the meaning of life. The early parts of Phoenix were published in COM, a magazine for "non-standard" manga; Tezuka was involved in setting up and running it.

Unfortunately his management skills were probably not as great as his art. He withdrew from the presidency of Mushi Productions in 1971. The company fumbled on a bit, then went bankrupt in 1973 - despite the popularity of some of its works. This resulted in Tezuka losing clear copyright on some of his own characters, including Astro Boy himself, for some years! (And that even under Japan's copyright system which is less restrictive thфn the American one).

COM also folded in 1972, and Tezuka got an offer to continue Phoenix in magazined owned by Ushio Shuppansha, a publishing company connected with a controversial Buddhist sect Soka Gakkai. Instead, Tezuka created another of his long-running masterpieces for them - "Buddha", a strongly fictionalized biography of Siddhartha.

In the 1970s, Tezuka's major manga works became increasingly dark, possibly reflecting both the setbacks that he suffered himself and the uneasy issues of Japanese society. Two of his works show this change at its extreme. In 1970-71 he wrote "The Book of Human Insects", a piece about a woman whoo would not stop at any means to become famous and powerful - and would sometimes have to pay dearly for that. And in 1972-73 he serialized "Ayako", an extremely tragic (and bizarrely erotic) story of a young woman who was imprisoned and abused by her own family - then had to face the uneasy world of then-modern Japan. These works are controversial and not always liked, but reflect an important stage in Tezuka's work and life.

In a more mainstream line, his famous series "Black Jack" started in 1973 as a story of a fictional unlicensed doctor - strongly based on Tezuka's own medical background. Black Jack is a deeply good person, but no universal selfless hero like Astro Boy; he is infamous for charging incredible amounts of money and using experimental methods that earn him the ire of the medical establishment, Some licensed doctors, however, are friendly to him - most notably a certain Dr. Osamu Tezuka. (Self-insertion is sometimes frowned upon, but for the god of manga, that worked great too). Illness, cripplement, and death are a constant presence on the pages of "Black Jack", yet a sense of meaning and hope remains.

With his new manga lines doing well, and Black Jack becoming a major famous work, Tezuka would still not forsake animation either. As Mushi was defunct, he returned to Toei Animation. He wanted to try a new, coloured and more refined version of Astro Boy, but for the time being it was impossible for copyright reasons. Therefore in 1977 a new robot boy hero emerged - Jetter Mars. He was different from Astro Boy and certain features (as well as other characters, like his two fathers - yes! - and big sister Miri) were rather interesting, but the series did not get a great reception and was stopped after a season.

(As an example of the artistic versatility of Tezuka, he apparently worked on several things at the same time in 1977-78. Jetter Mars: a light-hearted, kind and gentle children's anime series. Unico: a hopeful, bright, yet tragic children's manga. And Phoenix, chapter of Nostalgia: a story of incest, brutality, lies and violence...)

Eventually, Tezuka regained his copyrights and restarted independent animation work with his new company, Tezuka Productions. A major landmark was the 1980 release of Phoenix 2772, or Space Firebird - a feature film aimed at the international market, as well as domestic; Tezuka traveled to the USA to present it.

However, from that time, Tezuka began to detach himself from commercial animation. The 1980 Astro Boy series shows signs of his decreased involvement. While he was involved in some more movies in the early 80s (two Unico movies and the much darker Baghi), his focus shifted to experimental animation again - as well as, of course, manga.

The 80s saw him create yet another famous manga, which some consider the most serious of his works - "Adolf". A historical graphic novel of epic proportions, it tackles the ever complicated topic of Hitler, using the hypothesis of his part Jewish blood - generally considered an anti-Semitic idea... and again the god of manga gets away with everything and ends up with a masterpiece, showing excellent characters and a thrilling plot.

As for experimental animation, his 80s works are extremely impressive, and show that he was not always satisfied with the mainstream anime workd that he helped create. His last film, the long and epic "Legend of the Forest", traces the story of the animal hero and the story of animation at the same time - with the "good guys" ending up animated in an idealized "Disney" way, and the enemy being rough, jerky, minimalistic figures that prevailed (and in some cases continue to prevail) in "run of the mill" anime.

Unfortunately, "Legend of the Forest" is unfinished. It is set to Chaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, but only the first and fourth (final) movements have been completed. As the 80s drew to a close Tezuka's health deterioriated. He stubbornly continued to work, creating yet another volume of Phoenix - but that series, too, remained unfinished, with the volume on the present time never drawn.

Eventually he was hospitalized with stomach cancer - and continued to work in the hospital until the doctors forced him to stop. "I'm begging you, let me work!" he cried at them... and these were, unfortunately, his last words. In February 1989, Osamu Tezuka, the artist, died.

Yet in a way, the god of manga lives on - if only as a lasting memory in the new world that he created. The fictional character, Dr. Osamu Tezuka, lives on as well, starring in new Black Jack adaptations (he also famously "played" Tezuka's real doctor ancestor, Dr. Ryosen Tezuka, in the manga "Tezuka's Ancestor Dr.Ryoan"). The two are sometimes blended as in the movie "Osamu Tezuka's Last Mystery of teh Twentieth Century". But speaking of manga representations, a strong witness to his onfluence are those in others' works; an authobiographical work by any early mangaka, like Yohishiro Tatsumi's "A Drifting Life", is bound to have a major image of Tezuka - and the unbelievable elation that the then-young author felt at meeting him.

[strobe_z]

That's great Saruta! Feel free to incorporate whatever info you think is worthy from the Wikipedia entry. Also, looking at your "to do" list, maybe it would be a good idea to conceptually split his life story from his work. I initially saw the "Osamu Tezuka's Work" page as basically a timeline and a listing of his works (I've already got a sub-page on the Complete Manga Works editions). Now that I think about it though, you raise some good points. I think maybe discussing his work in a way that gives a full picture - i.e. that he was more than just the "God of Manga" (lol... just...) would be really interesting.

[Saruta]

Sorry for delays - lots of stuff going on for me. But the bio is now edited with another installment. We should be about halfway through, possibly even more than that.

I am not sure how to write about his life without relying on his work to explain the periods in his life. I just know too little. The only English-language book I found about him is mostly about his work and its influence; and I don't even have that. I am heavily relying on the timeline on tezukaosamu.net but even that is mostly about work.

[strobe_z]

I'm not expecting the bio to be completely separated from his work... I mean the man was all about his work. I just think the bio part could focus more on the narrative of his life rather than just focusing on his work. I'm more interested in getting an understanding of the ebb and flow... from top mangaka, to early anime star to Mushi going bankrupt, to the dark period in his manga... etc..

It really is a great job so far Saruta!

[Saruta]

Here we go again. Hope to complete today in one more sitting.

[strobe_z]

Wow... Great gret work. I'm going to edit it a bit (add in some links mainly) and post it up on the site later today and the promote the page tomorrow on twitter as part of the #TezukaDay event started by the Brailian Tezuka fans. Great job.. I'm quite sure there's a Phoenix 2772 manga in your future

[strobe_z]

Thanks Saruta... it's posted on the main site now.. I'm going to edit it more later, but it's great to have something like this just in time to join in the fun with #TezukaDay on twitter...

[Saruta]

Could you put a byline in the text? By Mikhail Ramendik ("Saruta").

Also, nontrivial link: on Soka Gakkai and creation of "Buddha": http://books.google.ie/books?id=Vvw5WQ0 ... ai&f=false