XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   On 08/25/2016 01:14 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:   
   > Hi typers and readers,   
   >   
   >     One of my other friends on a mailing list pointed   
   > this out to me.   
   >     This is a manga and it is about the creator of Astro Boy   
   > so I posted to raam as well as ram.   
   >   
   >     I have ordered a copy from Amazon and hope to   
   > post a few lines about once I have it in hand but I   
   > figured that if others know about it they might   
   > be interested in this really big 1000 page manga.   
   >   
   >     bliss   
      
   	First half of the report to rec.arts.manga.   
      
      
   > 	Well the massive volume arrived earlier today and I have   
   > read a 5th of the book already.  The translation is good of course   
   > being by Frederik L.Schodt who started translating Tezuka's work   
   > in the 1970s.  The art is excellent using lots of Tezuka's earlier   
   > efforts and detailing his genius level artistic talent and his   
   > extraordinary intellect.  The artist who did the work was in charge   
   > of Tezuka Production's work, Toshio Ban.   
   >   
   > 	I have arrived at the section where Japan has surrendered to   
   > the allies and when hope re-enters Tezuka's life and at several earlier   
   > points it made me cry.  This for me is the sin qua non of an excellent   
   > manga.  Throughout Tezuka's school years he drew and drew at least   
   > 3000 pages of manga right on through the war years despite official   
   > condemnation of such work and discouragement from his Military Drill   
   > Sargent.   
   > 	We also get to see the civilian privation of WW II as the   
   > food rations are cut and air raids drive city dwellers into the   
   > countryside.  Grave of the Fireflies it is not but everything but   
   > the ashes of soldiers and cities were in short supply.   
   >   
   > 	I mentioned last year that in the 4 volumes of Show:A History   
   > of Japan Mizuki uses "Nozumi Otoku" aka "Rat Man" a character from later   
   > work in Kitaro to explicate his creator's times.  Here a character   
   > "Shunsaku Ban" or "Mustachio", created in elementary school and used   
   > in later stories is the narrator.  Rat Man does not appear until page   
   > 93 of Showa but Mustachio is in at the beginning of the story. Mustachio   
   > looks a little like the character trademark for Monopoly.   
   >   
   > 	In one manga or another(Genshiken ?) I have read that there are   
   > manga artists who must draw as Oguie in Genshiken and Osamu Tezuka was   
   > of that class as he drew and drew then drew some more, while still a   
   > child.   
      
      
      
   	Surprised that I finished the book today.  It was a joyous effort.  It   
   is over 900 pages but the biography is over in 874 pages   
   then we have appendices in English and in Japanese.   
   	I have read other reviews of this book most of which seem to   
   think that it concentrates too much on Tezuka's strenuous work habits   
   but I have to think that these reviews fail to understand the creative   
   power that welled up within the "God of Manga and Anime".   
   	Tezuka had serious ambitions toward animation from his early   
   years creating flip-books.  He learned from ever sources and tried to   
   discard nothing of value.   
   	He customarily worked on multiple stories for multiple magazines   
   and newspapers.  He was lucky to get 2 hours per night of sleep and yet   
   he continued until he was 60 when stomach cancer cut him down.  In the   
   interval he finished Medical School and wrote a dissertation on small   
   animal in ponds.  He also produced enough manga to fill a library.   
   Toward the end of his life his earlier works filled 300 volumes in   
   a special edition but while he had to redraw some of the work to replace   
   lost pages he was constantly writing new material at the same time.   
   	But he did work hard at manga because by doing so he not only   
   was able to provide for his family but to provide funds to produce   
   anime.  Anime was truly the love of his life and his work in both manga   
   and anime brought him every award an artist could hope for.   
      
   	It might have been nice if he had taken better care of himself   
   or if someone else had managed to take better care of him but he was   
   a man determined to draw and write.   
   	He traveled all over the world to do research and to attend   
   animation festivals.  He was born some years after Shigero Mizuki and   
   had little in his early life to match the difficulties and privation   
   the Mura(Mizuki's family name) family was suffering in the run up to   
   the Pacific War (WW II).  Tezuka was too young to be drafted and sent   
   to fight. From his earliest days he studied hard and drew endlessly.   
   Even his teachers recognized his talent aside from a military drill   
   instructor.   
   	When on August 15, 1945 he learned that the war was over he   
   was immensely happy.   
   	After another year his father who had acquired malaria was   
   returned to Japan for treatment and convalescence. His first published   
   manga were for children but he went on from there to help create   
   manga for every market, children, university students and adults.   
   	Ideas seem to bubble up from within him practically on   
   demand.  He was one of the originators of the artist with assistants   
   system and not the first to pursue animation but the first Japanese   
   animator to get a weekly TV series with Tetsuwan Atomu which is commonly   
   translated as Mighty Atom but the drawing of the character   
   were from an earlier series Ambassador Atom where the diminutive   
   robot is just that a cold and heartless intellect housed in a   
   body of steel.  Tetsuwan by the way means Iron Arm.  In   
   Mighty Atom aka Astro Boy the robot is given a heart, the love   
   of a robot father and mother as well as a human creator who   
   cares for his development.   
   	When he went into TV production he originated a system   
   of multiple assistants and banks of completed drawings from which   
   portions might be reused in further productions.  The real   
   problem with a weekly show turned out not to be artists and   
   animators but the need for new material as TV uses up stories   
   nearly as fast as they can be written.  Besides the weekly   
   TV series he produced a great deal of theatrical animation   
   based on his stories and manga.  He also did experimental   
   animations of no particular commercial value but which won   
   awards sometimes year after year.   
   	I was a bit surprised to learn that Black Jack was   
   a later creation.  After his late 50s he developed a tremor   
   that slowed down his drawing but he was full of plans for more   
   shows up until he was suddenly shockingly dead at 60 years of   
   age right about the time the Showa Emperor died as well.   
      
   	One thing this book makes clear is that manga and   
   animation in Tezuka's day demanded lots of hard work and   
   pain.  Tezukza never shied away from hard work and it took   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)