This month we're going to look at some science fiction manga, and if we're going to do that we might as well start with the sci-fi manga that changed everything.
ASTRO BOY (Tetsuwan Atomu), by Osamu Tezuka. First published in 1952 and first published in North America in 2002.
PLOT:
In the not-too-distant future, humanity and robots live and work alongside one another, if not always in peace and harmony. The most advanced robot of them all is Astro, built by a genius scientist to replace his dead grandson but abandoned in a fit of pique. Taken in by the kindly Dr. Ochanomizu, Astro uses his power to help those in need, be they human or robot.
STORY:
It's always difficult to review classic manga, and that goes double for a work as mythic as Astro Boy. It's a work that literally helped define what modern manga could be, and that's a tough reputation for any critic to deal with. It's a good thing then that Astro Boy does manage to live up to its historical hype, nearly 60 years after its first publication.
The stories themselves are simple, fanciful, and suitably childlike, but they are also engaging, fun, and surprisingly deep and thoughtful for what was originally mean as just children's entertainment. Just don't go looking for a linear story. What Dark Horse has published is basically a best-of collection put together by Tezuka himself later in his life. He used that opportunity to retouch the art of earlier chapters and added introductions and other supplemental material where his cartoon avatar adds some context and interacts with the cast. It's a fun, metatextual touch, but just keep in mind that this is to the original 50s release what the 1990s special editions were to the original Star Wars trilogy.
The stories themselves are riffs on then-contemporaneous ideas from science fiction, comic books, and children's literature, along with a smattering of real-world science and a whole lot of space-age robots. Astro will fight cyborg dog soldiers one moment, then work with a robot magician investigating the theft of his tricks, and later meet a robot president on the moon struggling to keep his position. These stories are breathlessly paced, but never so much so that it's impossible to keep up.
Astro himself is a simple but highly relatable protagonist. He doesn't let his tragic past hold him down, but instead uses the empathy he learned from it to help those who need it most, be they human or robot. He's contrasted with his friend and teacher Mr. Mustachio, whose boisterous, earthy personality and courage makes both a good foil for Astro as well as a useful companion. What's truly interesting is that Astro isn't the only emotionally complex robot in the story. Many of them are dealing with surprisingly existential questions about their identity and what it means to be a sentient robot in a human world. Yet it's presented in a way that's simple enough for a child to grasp and it's woven deftly into the fabric of the adventure itself. That's the true testament of Tezuka's writing, and it more than justify its status as a classic.
ART:
As I noted before, many of these chapters were redrawn by Tezuka to make them consistent with his later works. That being said, there's still a bit of roughness around the edges of some chapters, and it does vary from chapter to chapter. Still, it has the cute, cartoony, and instantly appealing style that made Tezuka a sensation in the first place. The panels tend to be small so there often isn't room for elaborate rooms and vistas. When we do see them, they are well-rendered with sleek space-age forms and textures that really help to sell the setting.
RATING:
Astro Boy is as thrilling, lovely, and emotional as it ever was and it's truly one of those series that anyone with even the mildest interest in the history of manga should read.
This series is published by Dark Horse. This series is complete in Japan with 23 volumes available. All 23 volumes have been published and are currently out of print. This series is currently available in full digitally.
No comments:
Post a Comment