Posts Tagged ‘osamu tezuka’
War is a victorious, perhaps bitter, maybe a painful playground for adults. In war, we imagine soldiers moving to shoot their enemies, nurses rushing to heal the injured, politicians and generals posing in front of battle plans, and civilians running away from the crossfire. Our memories of war are ingrained with images of adults trying to make sense out of that chaos. For years we have been surrounded by timeless photographs and movies about that war that to this day, we envision the war strongly as an adult’s world.
But what about the children? Where is the child’s place in our social memory of the Pacific war?
Finding the child’s place in social memory entails an understanding of social memory and the value of children’s experiences in relation to the grand historical World War II narrative. Their frail voices in World War II histories speak of how much their war experiences have been neglected. However, as these children find their voices as adults, the recollection of their World War II experience as children becomes unbearably loud.
These are the memories of three Japanese children during the war against the images of Japanese childhood as constructed by Japan’s propaganda machinery. The memories of Keiji Nakazawa, Osamu Tezuka, and Shigeru Mizuki present a different story of the Pacific War —providing a fresh yet powerful social memory that makes us question on how war affects people at all ages.
This chapter’s quite interesting as I’m receiving diverse reviews for the MMF! So here’s a recap on some of the things written this week!
First! Ash has reviewed Vagabond, by Inoue Takahiko, a retelling of Miyamoto Musashi’s life. He dwells on the themes found in the 3rd Omnibus of Vagabond. He is also giving away Shigeru Mizuki’s Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths. You better tell him what’s your favorite historical manga!
Terry Hong also felt the need to look into Vagabond. And in the spirit of samurais, he also looked into House of Five Leaves by Natsume Ono.
In The Beautiful World, Neko reviews MW with a historical perspective. He takes into context the tension of post-war Japan and the taboo sexualities that Tezuka explored. It’s interesting because I rarely see Tezuka contextualized so it’s a good read. I wonder why no one is looking at Buddha? Oh wait, Terry did. Anime Diet also has a look into samurais with Path of the Assassins by Kazuo Koike.
Jocelyn Allen from Brain vs. Book looks at Naoto Yamakawa’s Chokodoshujin, a manga about the life of Ryunosuke Akutagawa. I too have no knowledge about his life. And for a while I was thinking if he wrote mysteries and then I realize that it was Edogawa Ranpo. lol. But it looks like an interesting book and hopefully I get to read about it.
Speaking of authors’ lives, Terry Hong himself discovered Jiro Taniguchi’s book Times of Botchan, a look into the life of Natsume Soseki, a famous author who I sadly remember most for “I am a cat.”
Right here in Otaku Champloo, I talk about manga and memories, particularly why historical manga is relevant to us.
It’s hard to imagine Tezuka with heroines. People often associate Tezuka with heroes like Astroboy (Atom), Black Jack, and Buddha. In the last five years, the most fervent of readers would possibly have heard of Sapphire from Princess Knight. Unless you’re Japanese, she is a mystery. In many books, Sapphire is deemed as a representative of the ambiguous gender identity in Japan and she is celebrated as an icon of feminism in Japanese Popular culture.
However, Sapphire is not the only heroine that Tezuka has penned. There are many others who may shock us and they are far from the Disney ideals that we often associate with Tezuka.
This is a tale of three ladies written and drawn by Tezuka. All of them have different stories to tell but all of them present a dimension of our femininity.
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I’m stoked.
This entry would have been written a lot early if I didn’t have my tabletop game last night. Ed Chavez of Vertical really shook the American manga scene by storm by announcing Vertical’s acquisitions by bringing in manga classic Princess Knight (リボンの騎士), No Longer Human (人間失格), and the wine journey Drops of God (神の雫).
I believe the manga scene has been in want of the lovely gender-bender Tezuka title which pretty much changed and shaped manga today, for many critical reasons. For people to finally have access to this once elusive title is something to be joyous for. And what a great and lovely title to add to Vertical’s line of Tezuka titles. I think this just truly caps it off, but of course, there’s still quite a lot of Tezuka for us to enjoy.
No Longer Human is also quite a title in their roster. I’m not exactly sure what the story of this manga is, but I can trust in Ed’s choices that it’s a title that would blow us away. What I do know though is that Usamaru Furuya is the kind of author how knows how to exploit human emotions in his panels. I have read his work Suicide Club (自殺サークル) and that was a strong provocative title not only because of its theme but also because of Furuya’s own storytelling.
Perhaps what I am most excited about is Drops of God. France and even Indonesia is way ahead of US in terms of discovering the passion that comes with every page of this comic. Sure, it’s a manga about wine but the imagination that comes with every sip are not limited to a bouquet of rosemary or almonds. We’re talking about wine tastings that take you to the fields of Bourdeaux and eventually up the Mattenhorn. It’s bloody amazing and is actually one of my favorite mangas outside of BL and to see it out in English means that more of my friends will finally see why I have an obsession with Tomine and Shizuku.1
These three titles all deserve the attention and it’s great that Vertical is bringing them out in english. Collectively though, I’m excited with one more thing: the covers. I’m quite sure you guys are familiar with my obsession for Vertical’s beautiful covers and I am excited on how they will spin and repackage these comics particularly Drops of God who particularly has lovely covers already.
Yesterday was a great day for manga and I heard that Ed still has more up his sleeves. Is he going to sweep my Morning titles and grab curious fan favorite St. Oniisan? Maybe something unknown but great like Himawari Legend? Will they shock Urasawa followers with Billy Bat? God knows really, but for sure, Vertical will not disappoint.
- In the end, this fujoshi cannot help but ship this pair so bad [↩]
I have something to confess. I rarely buy English mangas. Don’t be hatin’. I have my reasons.
I rarely buy English mangas because they’re expensive in the Philippines. What would cost $8 in the U.S. might cost $15 in our bookstores. If I order Japanese mangas, it would cost me around $5 for shounen titles or $8 if they’re seinen, bl, or josei. Cost wise, I would sooner run to a Japanese online bookstore to get my stuff than go to Amazon where our customs will sniff the damn book and tax me heavily. The cost for getting my manga in English is a hassle. But there are exceptions. Vertical’s Tezuka line is always worth the hassle.
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