Nowadays, Japanese animation is popular all over the world, Miyazaki Hayao, Akira Toriyama, and Xinghai Castle are Chinese familiar names of the gods of Japanese comics, but as the originator of modern Japanese animation - Tezuka no Bug, many young children may not know what his masterpieces are? What contribution has it made to the comic book industry? Who influenced his work?
Osamu Tezuka
Is this anime character familiar in the picture below?
Astro Boy with iron arms
Is it an anime that you squatted on the TV after elementary school and looked forward to? He is "Astro Boy"
Determination from the man
On the mainland, Mr. Lu Xun "abandoned medicine and followed literature" and used the pen as a weapon to awaken the Chinese people and fight heroically. In Japan, Osamu Tezuka "abandoned medicine and followed manga", creating a new era of modern Japanese manga!
Osamu Tezuka anime image
Osamu Tezuka was born on November 3, 1928 in Toyono-gun, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. He grew up with a wide range of interests, astronomy, musicals, insect gathering, etc., but each interest came and went in a hurry. Osamu Tezuka is a pseudonym because he likes insect gathering.
Childhood and the handzuka playing the accordion
Until 1943, in a theater in Osaka, Japan, China's first art feature animated film "Iron Fan Princess" was being screened in China's first art feature animation film "Wan Gu Toad, Wan Li Ming, Wan Chao Chen, Wan Dihuan) that he saw the Chinese Wan brothers, and the vivid images in the film jumped on the screen, flickering and dimming to reflect the face of the young man in the audience. He was inspired and determined to create comics.
Stills from "Iron Fan Princess" in 1941
Tezuka received his doctorate in medicine from Nara Prefectural Medical University for his academic thesis "Electron Microscopy of Heterosperm Cell Membrane Structure", but he resolutely gave up his medical career and devoted himself to the manga industry, embarking on his path to becoming a god.
When Osamu Tezuka studied insectology
Ushering in a new era of Japanese manga
Osamu Tezuka's father was a movie enthusiast who used a hand-cranked projector to cast wonderful images on the white wall for children in his spare time, and Tezuka was immersed in the world of movies and manga from an early age. The hobbies he has cultivated since childhood have allowed him to reserve a huge amount of knowledge, which is also reflected in his comic works.
Osamu Tezuka at work
In 1946, at the age of 18, he published his first professional comic work "Pony Diary", followed by the creation of four-frame comics "Little A Little B Adventure" and "Zhennian and Xiaojing", in the creation of his deep feeling that the four-frame routine mode is fixed, the limitations are large, compared to long-form American comics, there are many shortcomings, so he started the idea of drawing a new story comic.
Pony Diary
In 1947, the manga "Shinhojima" (the first true Japanese modern manga) composed of manga artist Nanama Sakai and drawn by Osamu Tezuka was released, and its sales in Japan exceeded 400,000, taking the first step in modern mainstream image comics and laying the foundation for the development of Japanese manga.
New Treasure Island
After that, works such as "The Lost World" and "Fist Angel" made him become the overlord of the comic book industry at the age of 22.
The Lost World
Firmly sit in the god position of the Japanese man
In April 1952, a manga that began to be serialized in the magazine "Shonen Boy" began to be serialized in Kobunsha and caused a sensation throughout Japan - "Astro Boy". The work tells the story of Astro Boy, a young robot of the future 21st century, this smart, brave and righteous little robot doll is almost loved by everyone. This work is also the first foreign series of cartoons introduced by Chinese mainland, and it is also the most well-known work of Osamu Tsukazuka in the 80s and 90s.
Astro Boy series
In 1954, another of his full-length masterpieces, Bird of Fire, was born, which is also widely regarded as the highest masterpiece in Japanese manga. During the serialization period, this work killed its serialized magazines one by one (and was eventually forced to close down in popularity), which is called a curse in the comic book industry. Because of the large amount of philosophical overtones, experimental and artistic aspects of this work, this work is regarded as "the view of Japanese manga".
"Bird of Fire"
This "Bird of Fire" has been serialized for 21 years, with a total of 12 chapters: 1. Dawn, 2. Future, 3. Yamato-Universe, 4. Phoenix, 5. Resurrection, 6. Wangxiang, 7. Troubled Times, 8. Troubled Times - Hagoromo, 9. Alien - Life, 10. Sun Up, 11. Sun Down, 12. Greece - Rome. The last chapter, "Modern Chapter", has not been written, which is an unfinished work of Osamu Tezuka during his lifetime, and it is also a great regret.
Bird of Fire
These two works have made Osamu Tezuka a god in the Japanese manga industry. There are many god-level works in the future, such as "Dororo", "Three-Eyed Prodigy", "Forest Emperor" (Japan's first color multi-episode TV animation), "Sapphire Prince" (the world's first shōjo manga), "Little Wyvern" (known as the "origin of modern Japanese animation"), "Black Jack the Strange Doctor" (the world's first commercially successful medical comic) and so on.
Osamu Tebo's work
The red and white machine game "Three-Eyed Boy", many players have an impression of this game, which was very popular back then. Are they memories of your childhood?
Game "Three-Eyed Boy"
Osamu Tezuka's Chinese complex
When it comes to Osamu Tezuka's relationship with China, there is no more than his friendship with the Wan brothers, the first generation of Chinese animation producers.
The four Wan brothers are Wangu Toad, Wan Qianming, Wan Chaochen, and Wan Dihuan
Iron Fan Princess was released in Japan, and it was this animated film that influenced him to embark on the path of animation and inspired him to later have the idea of creating animation for adults.
Astro Boy and Monkey King
In 1980, Tezuka visited China for the first time, specially met with the always revered senior Wan Qianming, and cooperated in painting Monkey King and Astro Boy holding hands.
Astro Boy and Monkey King - Osamu Tezuka and Wanlai Ming
In 1981, he was angry that his Astro Boy had been pirated in China. The reason is not a licensing problem, just because the Chinese version of the comic strip is horizontal, destroying the vertical storyboard of the original version and affecting the reader's reading experience! For this reason, Osamu Tezuka offered to revise the Chinese comic strip version himself, so the pirated version became a genuine authorized revised version.
In 1988, at the first International Animation Festival held in Shanghai, Tezuka, who was suffering from stomach cancer, accepted the invitation of the Chinese side to serve as a censor of the conference, which was his last gathering with old friends in the Chinese animation industry.
Osamu Tezuka and Mr. Manana Ming
Moreover, Tezuka's last animation work during his lifetime was the TV animation "My Monkey King", which shows Tezuka's admiration and admiration for Chinese animation artists.
My Monkey King
Leave with regret
On February 9, 1989, due to stomach cancer, he died of regret at the Hanzomon Hospital in Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, leaving his unwritten modern chapter of "Bird of Fire", and died with regret at the age of 61. His words before his death were "give me a pencil."
Osamu Tezuka and a family portrait of a manga character
From December 23, 2013 to January 5, 2014, Japan launched a mass vote for the "manga artist who best represents Japan", and Osamu Tezuka topped the list with 10,751 votes, 44%.
Osamu Tezuka
painted eggshell
In the last autobiographical animation produced by Osamu Tezuka before his death, "Osamu Tezuka Monogatari: My Monkey King", we see him meet Wasahima Senpai again and discuss the topic of Monkey King together.
Two people who meet in the anime
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