Adventure of Rock, The (Manga)

Also known as ロック冒険記 (Rock Boukenki)

The Adventure of Rock (1952-54) was originally serialized in Shonen Club from July 1952 to April 1954, and is another of Tezuka’s explorations of the consequences of two different sentient species meeting – comparable to Zero Men (1959-60), Captain Ken (1960-61) and Astro Boy (1952-68).

What it’s about

The story begins in the year 19XX, when Dr. Dimon discovers a previously unknown planet circling the sun in the exact same orbit as the Earth.  Named after it’s discoverer, the planet had been revolving around the sun, at the same velocity, exactly opposite of Earth.  However, the planet gradually slows down and gets closer and closer to Earth.  After wreaking major havoc by causing a severe storm, it settles into orbit around Earth and becomes a second moon.  After some heated discussion among the scientific community, an exploration party is organized and rockets off.  The expedition is led by Rock, the son of the late Dr. Dimon who has inherited all legal rights to the planet.

Rock meets the Ruborooms

When the party lands on Dimon, they find that it is a planet with an Earth-like atmosphere, and set about establishing a base.  However, the expedition quickly falls victim to a strange disease that causes fever and odd swellings.  This causes a panic among the crew and they quickly abandon the planet – leaving Rock and Daisuke behind.  Rock sets off to explore the planet, and soon discovers Dimon is inhabited by intelligent forms of life totally different from humans.  He meets Mirum, one of the Ruborooms, a clay-like people who can change their shape at will, and in an instant several of them become copies of Rock.  Meanwhile, Daisuke is captured by the Epumu, the bird-like inhabitants of Dimon who treat the Ruborooms like slaves.

Rock eventually comes to adopt an injured baby Epumu chick named “Chiko” and raises him.  Along the way he learns more about the cultures of Dimon and the differences between human and Epumu civilization.  However, when Rock inadvertently teaches Chiko, how to use fire, he sets off a struggle between the bird-people and the humans.  The secret of fire sparks a technological advancement and the Epumu begin developing weapons.  Meanwhile the earthlings discover that the oceans of Dimon are actually made of crude oil, and they quickly return with a second expedition.  This is the start of an invasion of Dimon by the humans, who bring with them more potent weapons, and the Epumu are sent back to Earth in great numbers as slaves – both as a source of labour and food.

Chiko learns about fire

Fed up with the tyranny of the humans, the Epumu, led by Chiko, fight back using a form of germ warfare based on the strain of epidemic disease on Dimon, and bring the battle back to earth.  Rock, acting as an ambassador and trying to reconcile the situation between the two races, is literally caught in the crossfire and is shot.  As he lies dying, he speaks to Chiko, and says “Chiko, please listen to my request.  Neither race should have gone to the other’s planet… Return to Dimon… Take your people with you…”

With that Rock dies, but his death averts all out war and he is remembered as a hero by both sides.

What you should know

Although the shape-shifting Ruborooms do invoke Tezuka’s favourite theme of transformation, The Adventure of Rock (1952-54) is primarily concerned with the struggle against “the other”.  As in many of Tezuka’s work, humanoid aliens (or robots) are treated both as human and non-human at the same time.  A prime example of this from the text is the sentient Epumu being brought back to Earth as a source of food.  So, as Mr. Eo Takatori points out in the Asahi Journal, The Adventure of Rock (1952-54) is a work “which treats a confrontation and reconciliation with an alien culture” (Special Section, p. 42), but this “alien culture” is really one that lies within us and not beyond the horizon.

In many ways, The Adventure of Rock (1952-54) is a manga that deals with plots and themes much too serious for children.  The complicated and fantastic plot involving a struggle between human beings and the bird people of another planet is based on an idea taken from War with the Newts (1936) by the Czech novelist Karel Čapek (1890-1938).

Rock’s Tragic Death

In light of this, it’s interesting to note that the original ending, as published in Shonen Club, is significantly different than in later collected editions.  In the original version, Chiko and the Epumu invaders attack an airport and steal a rocket.  As they are about to escape back to Dimon, Chiko says to Rock “Good-bye Dad, I’ll never see you again”.  Although the inhabitants of Earth expect the Epumu to return with a much larger conquering force, by some miracle Deimon’s gravitational spin once again separates the two worlds.  With neither side able to make the journey, both sides were saved.  The story ends with Rock, alive and well, saying “Good-bye Chiko… Good Luck”.

However, Tezuka was ultimately unsatisfied with the original ending.  As he wrote in the afterword to the Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works edition (MT-008), “the serialization ended without most of the children of the time understanding the story” (1977, p. 172).  Because of this, when The Adventure of Rock (1952-54) was published as a collected edition a year after wrapping up in Shonen Club, Tezuka decided to rework the story, changing the ending into the tragic one where Rock dies.  From the perspective of Tezuka’s Star System this is significant because, unlike Tezuka’s other “boy heroes” (such as the eternally noble Kenichi and Astro Boy), Rock is transformed by his experiences – setting him on the path towards his roles in Vampires (1966-69) and Alabaster (1970-71).