This Week in Anime

Osamu Tezuka Anime Through Time

Nicky
Ah yes, nothing makes me start posturing about the meaning of time and space than after an encounter with some really spicy chicken. Hulu and Disney+ (depending on your region) recently released a new mini-series inspired by Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix by Studio 4C, fully titled Phoenix: Eden17. Tezuka is cited as the "God of Manga" and the "Grandfather of Anime." The first domestically produced adaption of a manga was the 1962 Astro Boy series created by Mushi Productions, a studio founded and funded by Tezuka himself. Due to his lasting influence as a prolific mangaka and producer, Tezuka's properties have continued to be adapted time and time and again.

There is also a bit of a stigma about experiencing "the classics" in terms of anime. Lots of older series had poor production values. When Astroboy premiered, Mushi Pro was behind what their overseas counterpart could produce, relying on cost-cutting measures to cope with the week-to-week broadcast and being black and white when most English-speaking families had colored TVs in their homes. Besides, nowadays, many series are just not available for streaming. However, that is not universally true, and because Tezuka's ideas are so influential, plenty of iterations, new and old, are scattered around across different streaming services.

I was surprised to find the 2003 Astro Boy still around, including the old dub. Staff produced it to celebrate the original series' 40th anniversary. I caught it airing on Toonami as a kid.

It did not get good ratings when it aired, but it is solid, according to past reviews, and I enjoyed it. My favorite part is how well it adapts Tezuka's cartoony designs into very sleek and puts more of a cyberpunk element with a darker color palette to match a slightly darker tone of the story.

There is also the 1980s version by mecha and sci-fi anime director Noboru Ishiguro, which is closer to the original anime but in color. We see how much of Tezuka's work reflects the times they were made.

It depends on the series. Both the manga and anime for Atom: The Beginning is a huge departure in art style in an attempt to capture a more easy-going tone, and it works, but it is also a different kind of story. I'm not going to get over pretty boy Dr. Tenma, though.

I like it about as much as the Young Black Jack series. I don't know what makes him so uncanny compared to other anime dudes, but something about the proportions makes me feel like he botched his face surgery.

That's also probably because the Dezaki OVAs and movie spoiled me.

I remember from reading Rose Bridge's daily streaming reviews that there were many war and piss crimes. It seemed like it was trying to do a take on the nature of war, but it was mainly just unpleasant and dry in its presentation, so I could never stand to watch it. It's overall just a dull take on the character who is the best when he's doing insane medical feats and adding fun speculation.

Part of that was because the original didn't have a discernible end. The remake excelled thanks to excellent scripting from Yasuko Kobayashi.

Dororo 2019 is a real gem, too. I have a big soft spot for it. Tezuka's relationship with dark works is complicated because critics praised him for handling mature themes in a way that fascinated both children and adults. At the time, many of his competitors leaned more on the "adult" side, with upcoming stars such as Go Nagai and others producing grittier and grittier stories. Dororo was supposed to be Tezuka's entrance into the "Gekiga" movement.

As you can see from this official clip, the original anime was also pretty dark. Where the 2019 anime succeeded was injecting a lot more characterization and heart into it to balance that darkness, particularly in the relationship between Hyakkimaru and Dororo.

I thought it was trying to be like the old Phoenix: 2772 movie and make some significant changes. However, the new version is even more divergent than that. It adapts the "Nostalgia" chapter on the desert planet Eden 71. For readers who may be unaware, the manga version of Phoenix is supposed to be an anthology, telling multiple stories across space and time, often with reincarnations and recast versions of his characters, referred to as the Tezuka Star system. The Phoenix is always an observer of events. However, what makes Phoenix so unique is how it was published. Its publication history spanned decades. Tezuka would work, leave, and return to it in different eras. It is considered his life's work.

Though, I'm sure Nick knows all this because he covered the 2004 series with Steve.

Part of this is that they add the shape-shifting Moopy creature earlier in the narrative. So, this boy only has babies with a thing that looks like his mother and not like his actual mother, who has been asleep in suspended animation for 1300 years.

Yeah, there's more perspective on Cain; unfortunately, he also kills his only family, the robot, Shiva. It's fitting for his namesake.

It's a well-directed mini-series on its own. I put it in the same box as Exception, as big-brained, complex sci-fi stories are getting rarer as time goes on.

Part of that is that our ideas of science and science fiction have evolved since the almost 50 years when Tezuka wrote the story. However, the fact that you can still take it and make it a good story says something. Tezuka was prolific, which means he had to make everything quickly. He threw ideas around a lot, resulting in hits and misses. He was also pretty weird. Once you watch something like, say, Cleopatra, Queen of Sex, you do not look at his work the same way. (Though, we did get Belladonna of Sadness out of it.)

The movie can be watched on its own just fine, but it is important to look at the bigger picture when it comes to Phoenix as an anthology work and Tezuka's career. The guy made over 700 series in his 60-year lifespan.

Removing the Phoenix's role as a narrative frame is a miss, too. Almost every part of the story, including the futuristic settings, is supposed to be a part of history in the eyes of an eternal entity like the Phoenix. Many of Tezuka's star characters are missing. However, you know what they say, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." Narrative separates what we call history from just random things people do.

I completely blocked this part from my brain because it is unnecessary. I'm surprised they could get a whole movie's worth of time from just the one arc.

When encountering older works, our sensibilities clash, and sometimes, we project modern ones that do not fit the original work, or past sensibilities may reflect poorly in the future. Tezuka was both ahead of his time and of his time. Sometimes adaptations can smooth out the edges but still make mistakes. After all, no matter how many years pass, making art and telling stories has never been easy. It says a lot that I am very positive about most of the adaptations of Tezuka's work. It shows that a lot of the people making them cared.

Pluto in concept is extremely fascinating, especially now that Studio M2 is animating it. It is a manga by Naoki Urasawa, whom you may recognize as the manga creator of Monster, 20th Century Boys, and the host of the manga docuseries Manben. Pluto is supposed to be a dark and realistic noir murder mystery reimaging of Astro Boy. Tezuka's son supervised the manga.

So not only does an anime team have to take significant consideration towards Tezuka's legacy, but they also have to live up to Urasawa's prestigious reputation! That is a tall order! The staff were quiet for about five years after the anime series' existence was leaked at the MIFA film market in 2017.

While we covered many series that lean into the darker aspects of Tezuka's work, they are not total departures. There are many child-friendly Tezuka anime, too. However, Urasawa noted that Tezuka's work was mature and that the sanitization of his work is a modern phenomenon. He also acknowledged that adapting Astro Boy with the care and respect required to draw Pluto was a colossal undertaking, and he would not recommend it.

Yeah, it took some digging to find everything we discussed today, and that was only for a few titles. Still, there are others that we don't mention that are available, too. As for reading, most of what is available are his most prominent works, but there is good documentation about them if you want to get a background. I got great info from the official English site, and they also have the official Tezuka Productions YouTube channel for English speakers with full episodes, including dubs and subs.

It shows how little profit translates from other important values, like history and culture. Nevertheless, I will never stop encouraging people to try and enrich themselves through anime and manga. I'm grateful for Helen McCarthy's The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga for changing how I viewed his work when I read it in college. I don't think everyone has to like Tezuka's work, but they should at least regard it like they do an older relative or an ancestor because, without it, anime would have never been born.