Forum - View topicBrain Diving - Up and Atom!
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Yeah, I've never been a huge Tezuka fan either, though like you, I absolutely adore Buddha, and I thought MW was great, as well as some of the arcs in Phoenix and Astro Boy. I think what bugs me the most is the blurbs. Every last Tezuka piece has some blurb about how Tezuka is awesome and everything he wrote was wonderful and his poo smelled like roses. So if I then read it and don't like it, I get really disappointed and sometimes really angry.
But I do love reading about the history of manga (go pick up A Drifitng Life, another Eisner winner!) so I shall probably have to check this out. |
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1529 Location: Sunny California |
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Great article! I'm going to have to get the book.
I've always liked Tezuka, but just so you don't feel dirty... I've never been a huge Miyazaki fan. I think his films are okay, but I usually smile politely and keep my mouth shut when people talk about how much they love his work. I respect what he's done, but would much rather watch something directed by Abe Yoshitoshi, Satoshi Kon, or Junichi Sato. |
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The Mad Manga Massacre
Posts: 1177 |
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Recently, I re-read through issue 1 of Weekly Astro Boy Magazine (this was, quite honestly my first experience with Tezuka's works). I'll continue purchasing the issues as I enjoyed it. But honestly, I would rather companies focused on bringing over The Rose of Versailles, Glass Mask, and some of Moto Hagio's longer works rather than releasing more of Tezuka's works.
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GATSU
Posts: 15604 |
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That's alright. Schodt admitted in the AB book that the series was initially the least favorite of his when he started getting into manga. I think I like his more adult stuff, but what they say about his art style seems to apply more to Ishinomori for me.
The only reason I was interested in those was 'cus they're smaller than the paperbacks. But I'm fine with what I got. |
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Pippin4242
Posts: 111 |
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I enjoy most of his work (I found him through Black Jack, though, so I had a pretty good feel for his range after that). If it helps - I can't stand Metropolis. Anyway, I just signed in to say that I doubt whether 'The God of Manga' would have been McCarthy's personal choice of tagline, given the concerns she was happy to address in the book. Rather, I think it's one of those things they're tagging on for people who have an interest, but not much memory for Japanese names - like how they've been trying to brand Naoki Urasawa as 'Japan's Master of Suspense.'
- Pips |
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Peroxid
 Posts: 210 |
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Great article!
I'm also not a huge Tezuka fan (as a mangaka), but this is mainly because I'm unfamiliar to most of his works, since the only manga I read by him was MW. And Although I found it great, I can't say I'm a fan of a mangaka, when I just read one work by him. Still as a Director, I can say that I'm a fan. He revolutionized not only anime technics, he also created what is today the experimental animation. Also he was the first who saw animation as a medium for not only Children, but also for adults, creating the first adult target animation, the Animerama Trilogy, which ironically, bring his studio, Mushi Productions, to bankruptcy. Still, when I see Tezuka called the "God of Manga", I believe that it's because a whole generation was amazed by his early works, and most of the famous mangaka's from the manga boom era, were inspired by Tezuka to become manga artists, although they style could differ Tezuka's. A great example of this is Yoshihiro Tatsumi, one of the co-creators of the gekiga movement (the more serious looking manga, opposing the Tezuka's comic looks). He was an a early age amazed by Tezuka's work, as they were so groundbreaking for the time, more concretely the postwar age, decades 40 and 50. This was the reason to the wanting to be a mangaka. Drifting Life is a must read. I see Tezuka as the spark for the whole manga boom, he wasn't the only one during the evolution of manga, but he was the one who started it, and as the creator, he's worthy of his alias, "The God of Manga". |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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It may interest or comfort you to know that I hold very similar sentiments to these, for reasons comparable to the those you cite. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Yeah, but reading Drifting Life makes you realize that there were dozens of other authors establishing the medium at the time. And as I read it, and see the artwork, I wonder how much Tezuka's dominance set the medium back by establishing a cartoonish style that took decades to break. (By cartoonish I mean lots of sight-gags and easy humor) Everyone emulated his style, and it was the gekiga movement that offered an alternative in more realistic storytelling and art. I mean, eventually Tezuka wrote gekiga-influenced works and a number of them are quite good (see: MW).
Which might explain why they've never gotten around to licensing Yawara! "Japan's Master of Suspense!...and Romantic-Comedy Sports Dramas...?!" |
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Treetastic
 Posts: 164 Location: Canada |
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Great article! I see what you mean about not liking Tezuka as much as you "should". I always felt that way, until I started reading Black Jack, and later Phoenix, which I really enjoyed. There is so much elitism when it comes to discussing his work, you almost forget that he was primarily an entertainer, and a good one.
That could be said of most renowned/classic authors. Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare were both in the business of entertaining the masses, and put out large volumes of work (in Dickens's case, serialized as well). Any time a writer has both breadth and depth, people initially focus on the former and end up focusing on the latter, I guess because if something was really popular, it defines the people who liked it. |
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grooven
Posts: 1429 Location: Canada |
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I love Tezuka so very much. I love his designs his stories his work and his imagination. Nothing can beat that.
I've even gone to his museum on 3 occasions on my visits to Japan. He is simply the best and we wouldn't have anime/manga today. |
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