Recent posts tagged Osamu Tezuka
2012
Black Jack. Vol. #17 (Osamu Tezuka)
The end. And it’s a fitting end to a manga series that’s always stood poised on the knife-edge between sweet fairy-tale simplicity and the tougher sensibilities of stories for mature audiences. Black Jack might well have been Osamu Tezuka’s finest...
Princess Knight: Vols. #1-2 (Osamu Tezuka)
Osamu Tezuka's gender-bending fairy tale, now in English, was worth the wait.
2011
Black Jack Vol. 16 (Osamu Tezuka)
The penultimate Black Jacking, with a final installment that's to Tezuka what a side-long song is to a Krautrock band.
The Book of Human Insects (Osamu Tezuka)
Tezuka explores darkness once more, in the story of a woman apparently unaware of her capacity for evil.
A Caring Man (Akira Arai)
A loner takes revenge on all of Japan. Efficient thrills but a bit hollow.
Black Jack Vol. 15 (Osamu Tezuka)
Volume 15 of this series continues to assemble pieces that ran after Black Jack’s original run ended, and in some ways this is the best of the “pick-up” volumes yet....
Black Jack Vol. 14 (Osamu Tezuka)
The closet-cleaning for the Black Jack series continues, since everything after volume 11 has been bonus material. But this being Black Jack and this also being Osamu Tezuka, it’s a fascinating closet: Tezuka’s throwaways are better than what most other...
Black Jack Vol. #13 (Osamu Tezuka)
Vertical’s continued English translation of Black Jack (we’re now at volume 13) is proof of two things. One: even when Osamu Tezuka was doing comparatively minor work, he was still beating the pants off his manga-creating contemporaries. Two: Even when...
2010
Ayako (Osamu Tezuka)
I once read that there were two François Truffauts—one being a filmmaker of life, light and laughter (Day for Night, Love on the Run, etc.) and the other a director fascinated with death and stark emotional horror (The Bride Wore...
MW
When I heard work had started on live-action film version of Osamu Tezuka’s MW—easily the bleakest, most nihilistic work ever produced by a man not conventionally known for his dark side—I was skeptical. How were they going to do justice...
News You Can Use Dept.
Bits and pieces from this week's AICN Anime, including a couple of shout-outs to yours truly (thank you, Mr. Green). Somerset, New Jersey's AnimeNext will host Kenji Kamiyama, director of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex and the to...
Black Jack Vol. #11 (Osamu Tezuka)
This is the last volume of Black Jack, the manga. It is also not the last volume of Black Jack, the manga. Not the last volume that Vertical, Inc. will be publishing in English; and not the last of such...
Astro-Boy (2009)
There are two ways to talk about Astro-Boy, each a little incomplete, so I must speak of both. Way #1 is as an Osamu Tezuka fan, seeing his work adapted for the big screen for a primarily English-speaking audience. Way...
Black Jack Vol. #10 (Osamu Tezuka)
The timing of this book could not be more, well, timely. I spent most of last week, from the Sunday of the 7th through the following Sunday, nursemaiding my missus and her broken ankle. Despite that, she was determined to...
Black Jack Vol. #8
So why, you might ask, am I now reviewing volume 8 of Black Jack when I was only just reviewing volume 9? Happenstance, mostly. Somehow I ended up missing volume 7 in a mail mix-up, although when that comes in...
Black Jack Vol. #9
I’ll put this part behind me right away. As Black Jacks go, volume 9 is only fair. That makes it an okay part of a great whole—but that doesn’t dilute the quality of the whole. It simply makes the good...
2009
The Astonishing Work of Tezuka Osamu
Somehow in between drawing enough manga to fill an entire bookshelf—and that’s no figure of speech—Osamu Tezuka also found the time to create animated films. What’s probably most surprising to learn is that they were not adaptations of his manga...
Disappearing And Re-appearing Act Dept.
The bad news: Vertical's excellent edition of Osamu Tezuka's MW is now out of print. My rave about it is here, and I still smile at this part: ... [in] those last couple of pages, where having already yanked the...
Jungle Emperor Leo
They called Osamu Tezuka the God-Emperor of Manga for a reason: he produced a whole bookshelf's full of work in his lifetime, and had as much impact on the art of comics as any one man has had in any...
Noted Dept.
AICN Anime gave me a shout-out for my piece about the very, very bad Black Jack remake manga. (Search on "Serdar") and you'll find it on that page. Thanks, Scott!...
Gross Anatomy: Black Jack Butchered In The Remaking
Truth in advertising. Ever get the feeling you’d been cheated? There’s a clutch of words that when uttered in the presence of fans can elicit near-homicidal reactions. One of them is censorship: if there’s even the suggestion that a title...
Hurtin' Dept.
Roger Ebert's Journal: Archives"The Hurt Locker" represents a return to strong, exciting narrative. Here is a film about a bomb disposal expert that depends on character, dialogue and situation to develop almost unbearable suspense. It contains explosions, but only...
Black Jack Vol. #6
In a fight between you and the world, bet on the world.—Attributed to Franz KafkaExcept that some people like that sort of thing. They get a charge out of bucking the odds—the worse the odds, the bigger the thrill. They’re...
Gulp Dept.
Or file this under "How'd I Miss This?" if you will. Another of Osamu Tezuka's creations, Swallowing the Earth, is coming out Stateside thanks to Digital Manga. I'd expected Vertical, Inc. to pick this one up -- they've become a...
Black Jack Vol. #5
There are moments when volume 5 of Black Jack is unbelievably disappointing. There are also as many moments, if not more so, when it is elating and exciting and challenging. In short, when it is the Black Jack—and the Osamu...
