Manga-ka: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: April 2009

Synopsis: “A surprisingly bleak contrast to Tezuka’s better known Astro Boy, this first of three volumes relates the horrific origin of Hyakkimaru, a teenage hero whose father sacrifices his newborn son’s bodily components to 48 demons in exchange for unstoppable military power. What remained of the child is found by a doctor who fashions him artificial limbs, including prosthetic arms that house hidden swords, and when Hyakkimaru comes of age, he embarks on a mission to kill the demons, thus reclaiming his flesh-and-blood body parts.”

Found on a river’s edge as a blind and deaf enfant with no limbs, there still managed to be something so endearing about the cursed child, easy to both pity and root for his little caterpillar-form. Through logic that I’ve only ever seen Osamu Tezuka pull off with such unapologetic grace, the child develops his own means of psychic communication and senses, ones that give his savior faith in the boy’s potential future.

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Manga-ka: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: May 2006

Synopsis: “In Buddha, originally serialized in the 1970s and one of his last works, Osamu Tezuka lavishly retells the life of Siddhartha, who isn’t even born until page 268. Instead, Tezuka introduces Chapra, a slave who attempts to escape his fate by posing as the son of a general; Tatta, a crazed wild child pariah who communes with animals; Chapra’s slave mother, who stands by him no matter what; and Naradatta, a monk attempting to discover the meaning of strange portents of the Buddha’s birth. Throughout the book, the characters engage in fresh and unexpected adventures, escapes and reverses, as they play out Tezuka’s philosophical concern with overcoming fate and the uselessness of violence.”

Though I failed to grasp the depths of which Buddha is apparently intended to symbolize, it’s still a strong prolouge to the life of a young man destined for great things in a world that suffers so strongly from its own failings.

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Manga-ka: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2007

Synopsis: “Apollo’s Song follows the tragic journey of Shogo, a young man whose abusive childhood has instilled in him a loathing for love so profound he finds himself compelled to acts of violence when he is witness to any act of intimacy or affection whether by human or beast. His hate is such that the gods intervene, cursing Shogo to experience love throughout the ages ultimately to have it ripped from his heart every time. From the Nazi atrocities of World War II to a dystopian future of human cloning, Shogo loses his heart, in so doing, healing the psychic scars of his childhood hatred.”

I had mixed feelings about this book. At the very least I can say it’s the weakest of Osamu Tezuka’s works that I’ve had the chance to read released in English, but then again Osamu was a creator of so much obvious literary abilities, that isn’t saying too much, and from someone who has only recently began really delving into his legacy, it perhaps says even less.

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Manga-ka: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: December 2008

Synopsis: “A secret U.S. chemical weapon called “MW” accidentally leaks and wipes out the population of a southern Japanese island. Though Michio Yuki survives, he emerges from the ordeal without a trace of conscience. MW is manga-god Osamu Tezuka’s controversial testament to the Machiavellian character and features his most direct engagement of themes such as transvestism and homoeroticism. MW is a chilling picaresque of evil. Steering clear of the supernatural as well as the cuddly designs and slapstick humor that enliven many of Tezuka’s better-known works, MW explores a stark modern reality where neither drive nor secular justice seems to prevail.”

A pretty far cry from the previews of Astro Boy I’ve read and my recently enjoyed copy of Black Jack, Osamu Tezuka’s MW is a much darker story that follows a conniving man of exceptional beauty and intellect as he seeks to own what could the most dangerous toxic chemical on Earth. With a goal to kill all humankind, and a thrill from the suffering caused for all stepping stones on his path, Michio Yuki is a man on a hideously twisted mission and loving nearly every moment of it.

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