Art Attack

What's this? A book review on an anime blog? Damn right; I consider Helen McCarthy's 2009 book The Art of Osamu Tezuka possibly the best find of my splurge at the Anime Central dealer's room, so of course I'm going to post about it here. I'll assume (maybe mistakenly) that my readers at least know of Tezuka's existence. He was one of the first great manga authors/animators, and he created a lot of stuff. Fans of anime and manga can get by just fine with that basic knowledge.

It's fans who want to dig deeper for which this book is borderline required reading.

See, TAOOT clarifies “a lot of stuff” as about 700 different manga titles and over 70 animated titles, not counting the many adaptations of Tezuka's work after his death. He also wrote many scholarly essays, traveled often giving lectures, and apparently had an extensive network of influential friends not limited to figures in comics and animation. Oh, and was a graduate of medical school. There are just so many interesting details about this man and projects he was involved in, investigating his life is a daunting task, almost certainly doomed to a flaming wreck of confusion and amazement.

That's where this book comes in.

Its strength is in its simplicity and clarity. McCarthy divides her research mostly by chronological decade, and focuses on a few key themes for each. These sections are bookended by a brief synopsis of major works during that timeframe and a preface summarizing the major events which had an impact on Tezuka's art. I get the sense that McCarthy could have squeezed more information into each chapter's body, but as casual readers would no doubt be repelled by countless anecdotes of Tezuka's contemporaries or in-depth explanations of the animation process. TAOOT shoots for the Tezuka 101 approach instead of bombarding us with little-known facts; we're helpfully informed in the text when an event will have a payoff in the far future, for instance. Captioned pictures are everywhere, and my personal favorite section would have to be the visual guide of Tezuka's star system. A lot of finer details might be lost on readers unfamiliar with anime and manga, but I think this work is captivating enough from a purely biographical standpoint.

McCarthy is careful to treat Tezuka with respect instead of the reverence many scholars take when discussing him (or his supposed modern equivalent, Hayao Miyazaki). She emphasizes the central themes that run through his stories by examining how his personal life shaped that worldview. It's pointed out that even Tezuka could not fully control his own characters; Astro Boy's first incarnation was never intended as more than a side character until Tezuka responded to positive fan response, and fan response also prevented on-again-off-again villain Rock Holmes from crossing certain moral lines more than once. Ironically, I'm a little more inclined to reverence even after hearing about the man behind the myth. He just never stopped working, drawing, producing. His bad ideas and financial bombs could have (and probably did) numbered in the dozens, and they'd barely be a drop in the bucket of his life's work.

We get a better look at the man himself via a DVD accompaniment, containing an hour-long special aired on Japanese TV before Tezuka's death. Here, we get to see Tezuka interact with fans, friends, and co-workers as a manga deadline looms ever closer. To me, it almost seemed there were two sides of Tezuka: the outgoing social butterfly with a million connections and a fascination with everything, and the eccentric, somewhat brusque creator who must hide himself away to wrestle with his art. Although much too short to get a good feel for this guy, the disc serves as an unexpected cherry on top of the release.

The Art of Osamu Tezuka is a fascinating, informative, and wholly worthwhile read regardless of if you're a diehard manga or anime fan. By far my biggest complaint is that it's not part of a series; I'd love to wade through similar breakdowns of other important industry figures. As it stands, though, Helen McCarthy has done an admirable job with this book, and I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for her titles at your next convention.