History Of Osamu Tezuka
We often describe Osamu Tezuka as Japan's Walt Disney.
Actually he respected Disney's works and was inspired by them, which was a great help of forming a basis of Japanese animation.
But that's not enough.
Japanimation has had a wide range of unique works, which is enough incomparable to attain much success and evolution.
Osamu Tezuka was the very man who built up the most part of it. It cannot be summed up in "Japan's Walt Disney".
One of the most important backgrounds of Osamu Tezuka is that he once aimed at being a doctor.
At his middle school days, he experienced that his arms swelled up because of a heavy infection and a doctor saved him from amputation of his arms.
His impression at that time and influence by his grandfather who was a famous doctor made him decide to be a doctor.
And he actually obtained the medical degree. It is natural that he cited "the dignity of life" as one of his themes, and that was the reason why he didn't write "violence" that was no more than entertainment and "Poetic justice" that oversimplified human beings.
Then why Tezuka chose to be an artist instead of a doctor?
By his own account, it was "because I dislike to see blood," but you will agree that it was just a joke to read more.
In his youth days, Japan was in the one of the worst hardships. I mean World War II.
During the war, Osamu Tezuka, a junior high school student at that time, would not stop writing mangas while being punished by instructors of the military training.
He was sent to the training camp for his weak constitution and came up against the air raid "Bombing of Osaka" there.
While more than 10,000 civilians died, he had a hairsbreadth escape from death to witness a veritable hell where the bodies laid in heaps.
This experience must be a trigger to set his heart on becoming a manga artist but doctor.
When seeing the terrible scene, he probably thought that "If I live as a doctor, I will not be able to remove pain of everyone who was engulfed in this war."
In addition, he could not find the way to attain salvation from religion too.
Practically he revealed that he has no religious belief though he wrote the religious manga such as “Buddha”.
All of those show how he found a great potential of manga that had had a lowbrow reputation for long, I guess.
After the war, Osamu Tezuka made his debut as a manga artist with "Diary of Ma-chan" in 1946 at the age of 18 while a medical student.
In 1947, he published a long comic entitled "New Treasure Island" which went to the best sellers list.
Dynamic layout of frames and novel plots & characters had great effects on many people, from various kinds of artists down. Heroes in his comics always worry or fail, sometimes vibes on the enemies and hate oversimplified conclusions, which make readers take a second thought.
They are completely diffrent from other heroes in flat works.
In 1989, Osamu Tezuka passed away at the age of 60. He received much praise at his death, but there was massive criticism while he was alive.
People who considered manga as lowbrow entertainment made him a target for the brunt of criticism all the time.
Now Japan promotes overseas advancement of manga and animation as a global strategy.
Critics who had attacked him for long now praises him sky-high as a man of cultural merit; in this connection, he has not yet received a “National Honor Award” that is bestowed on those who are loved by citizens and have made remarkable contribution to society by showing hopes for a bright future.
Originators often get such a rough deal all over the world.
With thanks for reading through this article, I would like you to start with his lifework “Phoenix” series besides Astro Boy to have a better understanding of him.
Notable works:
Phoenix (1967-1988)
Buddha (1972-1983)
Next author (Katsuhiro Otomo)