Yamanobe, Masato (★★)

Also known as 山之辺マサト (Yamanobe Masato)

Status: Secondary Star (★★)

Yamanobe, is a straight-forward young Japanese man, clean-cut, innocent but fallable, a general straight man. He appears frequently in many series as a secondary character, often as a patient or young doctor in Black Jack, or in other common roles.

Yamanobei is best known for his role as the young protagonist of the second chapter of the Phoenix manga, Future. Now all of mankind is living in a few underground cities run by giant computers. Yamanobei, a low ranking policeman in one such city, is not interested in larger questions of life, the world, politics and power, but wants to live alone with his love Tamami, a “moopie” a creature which can turn into anything it’s owner desires, in this case a beautiful woman. It is against Yamanobei’s will that he is caught up in the final struggles of the dying human civilization and chosen by the Phoenix to be the last survivor of mankind and oversee the development of new life on earth.

Many readers feel that the selection of Yamanobei seems arbitrary or cruel, as the Phoenix chooses an innocent and almost selfish young man who does not want this task, instead of choosing the ambitious Rock or wise Saruta who have suffered so much becuase of the Phoenix in their many reincarnations. As a perfect example of the interconnectedness of all of Tezuka’s works, the answer to this puzzle might be found in Black Jack issue #127 (1976) “Devotion to Medicine”, in which Yamanobei is a young doctor from a family with a history of terminal cancer. Yamanobei is determined to become a doctor and save at least one life before he dies, and spends the entire issue discussing the fact that there is no immortality, no reincarnation and no second chances and that if we want to create or save life we have to do it now in the brief lifetime we are given. As an extra acknowledgement of the significence of this moment, it is Tezuka himself, appearing as a doctor, who diagnoses the young Yamanobei’s cancer and predicts how short a time he has left to live.

There is a great similarity between Yamanobei’s character design and that of Ryuichi, the protagonist of The Crater written two years later. The resemblance is not clear enough to make it absolutely certain that they are the same character, but if they are, then Ryuichi’s continual sufferings at the hand of fate may well be another reason for Yamanobei’s selection by the Phoenix.

Distinguishing Features

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Manga Appearances

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