Crime and Punishment (Japan Times)

Ongoing Serial: a series of episodes, published over a span of weeks/months/years where the story plot is connected from chapter to chapter and must be read in chronological order for it to be understood properly.
Chapter Serial: a series of episodes, published over a span of weeks/months/years where the story plot is self-contained to a single chapter. There may be an overarching plot, but the stories can generally be read in any order and be understood
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Crime and Punishment (Japan Times)

English Title: Crime and Punishment
Japanese Title: 罪と罰
Publication Date: 1990
Publisher: Japan Times
No. of Volumes: 1
In Print: ✘
Digital: ✘

What you should know

Published by The Japan Times in 1990 (only one year after Tezuka’s death), this bilingual Japanese/English edition of Osamu Tezuka’s 1953 interpretation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment features a translation by Tezuka expert, Fredrik L. Schodt.

Although Fredrik L. Schodt did translate the “Karma” chapter of Phoenix for inclusion in his 1983 book, Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, Crime and Punishment holds the distinction of being the first stand-alone Osamu Tezuka manga to be published in English. As it was only published in Japan, it is arguably the rarest and hardest of all his English manga to find. It’s so rare, in fact, many people do not even know this edition exists!

This very early Tezuka series, written in a period when most of his work was sci-fi or childrens’ adventures, suffers from somewhat unbalanced pacing and many of the themes are not fully explored. However, Crime and Punishment does introduces some of the darker themes which become prominent in his later work. The rarity alone makes this a must-have for any serious Tezuka fan!

Luckily for English-speaking fans in North America, in 2015 a new edition of Crime and Punishment was secured as a stretch goal of DMP’s successful Storm Fairy Kickstarter campaign.