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Niyusu (Offline)
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Osamu Tezuka - Astro Boy Essays Book Review - 08-20-2007, 04:40 AM

Osamu Tezuka was a tireless, vastly influential Japanese manga artist without whom the anime and manga industries now propelling "cool Japan" into the hearts of young people around the world would not exist as we know them. Yet, Japan's "god of manga" has never been as well known as he deserves to be among mainstream audiences overseas and there have been no books written in English that focus on Tezuka himself. Until now.

Meticulously researched, the "Astro Boy Essays" book goes to great lengths to explain the appeal of Tezuka's mechanized Pinocchio. In Japan, Astro Boy is far more than a cartoon character. The manga has inspired countless young Japanese readers to dream big and become roboticists themselves.

The Astro Boy stories, penned by Tezuka over roughly twenty years, evolved as times changed in the '50s and '60s. Tezuka's environmentalism, humanism and pacifism were clear in the manga, but the series was, at it's core, about discrimination, not just science fiction...


Source: Osamu Tezuka: Fighting for peace with the Mighty Atom | Japan Times
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