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Message to Adolf (Part 2) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian
Official word of warning: this is NOT your kiddies’ manga. Both in subject matter and graphics, Message is definitely for mature audiences. So if you have younger ones in the house, be careful not to leave the book lying around. The “godfather of manga” has plenty of other titles for the young ‘uns … his iconic Astro Boy, in spite of darker undertones parents might recognize, is a great place for the kiddies to get to know manga-godpapa.
But back to Adolf: not to keep telling you what to do – but I definitely need to here … make sure you read Part 1 of this two-volume epic work before venturing forth. To start in the middle is not recommended: if nothing else, check out the orange cover for Part 1, then compare it to this pink cover here: der Führer is degenerating before your eyes, and you’re going to need to know why before you open Part 2.
Der Führer – who we clearly know to be evil incarnate – is only one of the three Adolfs in the midst of losing his humanity. Part 2 begins with Adolf Kaufmann still able to agonize over his murderous spree: “In a few years, I’ll probably be like the SS or Gestapo, able to kill Jews without batting an eye … no, with a smirk on my face!” he writes in a letter marred by tears and sweat that he will never be able to send to his Japanese mother. Holding on to what conscience he has left – and smitten for the first time in his life – he risks his own safety to send a young Jewish girl, Elisa, to Kobe, Japan, in the care of his childhood (Jewish) best friend, Adolf Kamil.
Kaufmann is handpicked by the Führer himself to be his ”Apprentice Secretary.” He rises rapidly through the ranks of the SD [the Nazi intelligence agency, Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers]; his blind loyalty gives him chilling, murderous efficiency. Meanwhile, in Japan, Kamil and his mother welcome Elisa, who becomes an integral part of their shrunken family. In spite of grave danger, Kamil and Ms. Ogi keep working to disperse the secret documents that could possibly destroy Hitler, out to the rest of the world.
Even after Hitler falls (you won’t find the the version the school books taught you here), Kaufmann and Kamil’s battles continue, moving through Europe, Japan, and finally to the Middle East. Even the end of a world war can’t sever their gruesome bond. Lies, betrayal, vengeance, rape, suicide, murder, all drive up the body count – and through it all, the indestructible Sohei Toge continues to record the tragedy: “This is the story of three men named Adolf,” the epics ends – just as it began, “They each followed a different course in their lives, but they were bound together by one thread of destiny. Now that the last Adolf lies dead, I present this tale to our descendants.”
And so the story starts again, rising from the ashes of a faraway graveyard. Dare we hope that somehow, history will not repeat itself again … and again and again …?
Readers: Adult
Published: 2012 (United States) Continue reading
Message to Adolf (Part 1) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian
Considered the “godfather of manga,” Osamu Tezuka is internationally renowned for his iconic Astro Boy. Introduced in Japan in 1951 as Tetsuwan Atom (Mighty Atom), Tezuka’s signature creation remains an international phenomenon across multiple platforms, rising off the page and landing in television, films, video games, and every product that could possibly be sold with an adorable little android decoration; in fact, the animated serial incarnation of Astro Boy is regarded as the progenitor of the pop culture genre known as anime. In spite of the charming little robot’s legions of young devotees, Tezuka’s initial creative impetus was clearly a personal response to the death and destruction associated with Nagasaki and Hiroshima which ended World War II just six years before: Tezuka baptized his robot Tetsuwan Atom – think atom bomb – for obvious reasons.
While that darkness in Astro Boy was mostly glossed over with irrepressible cuteness, Message to Adolf – which debuted in Japan in the 1980s, not long before Tezuka’s death in 1989 – has no such sugar-coating. Be warned: Message is quite possibly Tezuka’s most violent, disturbing work, and surely not meant for younger readers.
“This is the story of three men named Adolf,” the manga begins. “Now that the last of the Adolfs lies here dead, I would like to relate their tale for future generations,” the narrator offers. That narrator, Sohei Toge, is a Japanese journalist who promises to avenge his younger brother after he’s murdered in Berlin, Germany, for stumbling upon a secret so shocking it could destroy Hitler and the Nazi party. Toge willingly risks everything he has – his career, his relationships, his freedom, even his humanity – to protect his brother’s secret and seek justice.
Meanwhile, back in Japan, two younger Adolfs are coming of age in the mid-1930s, just as Hitler’s power matures. Adolf Kaufmann, in spite of a Japanese mother, is the perfect Aryan prototype; his father is a powerful German consulate official who’s been stationed in Kobe, Japan for 15 years, whose Nazi ties have turned him into a lying, cheating murderer. Adolf Kamil, who also lives in Kobe with his Jewish parents who run a bakery, whose family managed to escape Germany just in time, is Kaufmann’s best friend, but the two boys are not allowed to play together because of their vastly different backgrounds. Kaufmann is sent to Germany against his wishes to be trained as a proper Nazi. Kamil discovers the same secret that killed Toge’s brother. Meanwhile, Toge will do anything to find his brother’s papers which contain the evidence that could change history …
A previous English translation in five volumes appeared in 1995 from VIZ Media and is out of print (although Amazon has both new and used copies), but this new Vertical, Inc. edition is apparently much closer to Tezuka’s original. “Dear Readers,” an endnote explains, “Social situations have changed a lot since Osamu Tezuka’s works were written and some expressions incorporated in the works, which were accepted at the time, may seem awkward today. However, what underlies his work is his strong love of humanity … Now as we distribute his works, it is our intention to present the original materials faithfully, as we have done with his many translated books.”
At 650 pages, this is still just half the story [part 2 hits shelves in November]. At 650 pages, it’s also such an action-packed, never-pausing adventure, you’ll probably end up reading it in one sitting. Even as we know better, the hopeful thought that history might have somehow been changed keeps the pages turning swiftly; that lure of ‘what-if’ proves irresistible.
Readers: Adult
Published: 2012 (United States) Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Graphic Novel/Manga/Manwha, .Translation, European, Japanese
Princess Knight (vols. 1-2) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Maya Rosewood
With all that swashbuckling fun, Princess Knight – recently available in full, in English translation, in two volumes – is seemingly one of the godfather of manga’s more goofy stories. Up in heaven, God’s in the process of deciding gender for each about-to-be-born baby, assigning a girl heart or a boy heart just before sending them down to earth. Mischievous angel Tink (a nominal nod to Tinkerbell?) decides one such baby “look[s] like you’d be a boy anyways!” and stuffs a blue heart in its mouth … but seconds later, God decides she’s going to be a girl, and suddenly she’s both. Uh-oh. So God orders Tink earthbound with the gender-bender baby to retrieve the boy heart if she turns out to the girl God foretold.
Down in earthly Silverland, the queen is about to give birth. She needs to bear a son to carry on the royal line, or else the throne will be stolen by an evil relative. Princess Sapphire enters the world, but in a stuttering mistranslation, a prince is announced to the assembled kingdom. The young royal grows up as Prince Sapphire (at least to the public) – even though she bears an uncanny resemblance to Disney’s animated Snow White. She’s the epitome of princely power, but give her a flouncy gown and a hefty wig, and she morphs into the most graceful and elegant stranger who (of course) captures the heart of Prince Franz Charming from the nearby kingdom of (what else?) Goldland.
But all is not well in the fair lands. Duke Duralumin is determined to install his less-than-competent son (named Plastic!) on the throne. Duralumin’s henchman Lord Nylon will do anything to get rid of Sapphire. Meanwhile, Madame Hell wants Prince Franz for her own daughter, the goddess Venus decides the hapless prince should actually be hers, and a handsome young pirate falls in love with Sapphire and vows to do her bidding. Through it all, Tink must try to keep Sapphire safe, long enough to return that errant heart to heaven.
Beneath the adventurous, fast-paced, often comical façade, Tezuka adds more than a few heavy-duty layers: gender politics, equality and equity, class issues, questions of identity, definitions of morality, and more. Most interestingly, Tezuka takes on Christianity, perhaps more overtly than in any other of his works (certainly that I’ve read thus far). From gender identification as God-ordained and the possibility of ‘holy’ mistakes in the first chapter (daring!), to the mix-and-matching of a Christian God with ancient Greek deities, to crucifix-fearing evil characters (including Satan), to surprising representations of heaven and hell, Tezuka pushes one button after another … just to see what might happen. The result is a delightful, thoughtful challenge – visually, intellectually … and even spiritually.
To check out other titles by the godfather of manga on BookDragon, click here.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2011 (United States) Continue reading
Dororo: Omnibus Edition by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Dawn T. Laabs
Oh, what a plethora of choices for accessing this swashbuckling series by the godfather of manga: you could go with the original 1960s manga series in Japanese, watch the 26-part anime from 1969 or the live-action film (available dubbed in English even!) from 2007, play the video game version titled “Blood Will Tell,” or read it in English translation in three volumes.
Starting tomorrow, you have yet another option: you can pick up this hefty omnibus version of the 2009 Eisner winner for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan. Fair warning – the omnibus isn’t particularly portable being 2.5 inches thick (844 pages!), but it’s definitely the most convenient way to read the classic in a single setting (and you’ll want to, trust me).
Back in the feudal centuries (approximately 15th to 17th) of a Japan run amuck with warring samurai, Lord Daigo Kagemitsu makes an ugly pact with 48 demons: in exchange for complete rule of the land, he’s willing to offer 48 body parts from his about-to-be-born-son. Indeed, his newborn emerges unrecognizable as human – he’s little more than a limbless, blind, mute blob. The evil Lord forces his distraught wife to float the silent mass down river.
A brilliant, caring doctor rescues the partial boy, feeds and nurtures him, and even builds him prosthetic limbs (complete with hidden weapons!). Most importantly, the good doc gives the transformed boy a name, Hyakkimaru (meaning ‘a hundred demons’). When ghouls, ghosts, and goblins start to haunt the good doc’s home rather too frequently, Hyakkimaru realizes it’s time for him to venture out into the brave new world. On his first night alone, he’s warned by a mysterious voice, “you shall encounter forty-eight demons. Your body is missing forty-eight body parts. Vanquish those demons, and your body may return to normal.”
One demon, one body part at a time, Hyakkimaru embarks on his dangerous journey toward full-body reclamation. He’s aided (and occasionally hindered) by Dororo, an adorable orphan with a frightening past, who turns out to be quite a talented thief ["dororo," in Japanese, is a childish pronunciation for dorobō, meaning thief]. In spite of their bickering, the two misfits bond quickly, saving each other from one possessed adventure after another.
In spite of the high cute-factor (including Tezuka’s own signature self-insertions of comic relief), this is not a manga to take lightly. Death and destruction appears on nearly every page. Besides the bad parenting, you’ve got fratricide, countless traitors, careless murderers, not to mention the ungrateful villagers who keep throwing the dynamic duo out as soon as they vanquish their demons. That said, thanks to the original godfather, family dysfunction has never had (and most likely never will have) such exuberant, plucky presentation …
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2008 (United States), 2012 (new omnibus edition) Continue reading
Black Jack (vol. 3) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Camellia Nieh
At the rate I’m reading these, it’s a good thing I only ordered the first three volumes to get me started … although that ’1-click ‘ button sure is calling to me!
I did try to savor this final-volume-in-possession (let’s see if I can at least keep from pressing ‘buy’ long enough to finish this post!) but the pages just kept turning until Pinoko was too soon staring at me with her wildly glaring eyes, with a “WRONG WAY!” warning at volume’s end, boo hooo.
So what did our Dr. Jack Black do in his third adventurous installment? He got snowbound in a remote village and kept company with a lonely old woman waiting futilely for her too-busy sons to visit. He discovered – but couldn’t find a cure in time to save his friend – a mysterious disease that miniaturized its victims (and what a chilling comment that was on the consequences of massive human overconsumption of the world’s resources!). He operated on his own body in the wilds of the Australian outback to remove a killer parasite, all the while realizing that humans stupidly, unwittingly continue to bring death and destruction upon themselves.
He saved an unjustly accused nurse from evil hospital administrators – yet another reminder of why he chooses to remain unlicensed. He witnessed the power of a grateful bird to save a human life, even at the ultimate cost of its own. He met a father who risked everything to save his son’s life. He rescued a once status-hungry woman from losing her life to greed and the bottle.
He went head-to-head with a doctor of death. He listened to Pinoko declare her undying love to him but refused to take her kidney to save another little boy whose father was more concerned about his wallet than his child. He mourned the premature death of a young doctor who lived long enough to finally perform his first surgery. And he saved a baby abandoned in a coin-locker. Not bad for a single volume’s work, huh?
Along the way, Black Jack teaches the reader a thing or two about the human body, with excellent medical renderings thanks to the multi-talented Dr. Tezuka. More importantly, he reminds us all of our humanity, his misanthropic stance not quite able to hide his overwhelmingly caring heart.
To check out other Black Jack volumes, click here.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2009 (United States) Continue reading
Black Jack (vol. 2) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Camellia Nieh
The mysterious doctor is back to do more good with another set of miraculous adventures. Jack’s late mentor and savior lends his voice from beyond to remind him once again, “don’t underestimate the human body,” as Jack attempts to chase a needle tip gone missing inside his patient. He learns the heartbreaking secret of a seemingly money-hungry old granny whose son is willing to pay any fee to save her. He tells Pinoko the heart-wrenching story of his larger-than-life sea-friend who bought him precious treasures even as he was dying.
The doc gets trapped in a collapsed tunnel with a full schoolbus, and manages to save some of the very kids who were mocking him from the bus windows just moments before tragedy struck. He searches the world for the selfless, brave young boy who, decades before, voluntarily gave him the skin literally off his backside when everyone else turned away in fear and horror; Takashi’s hapa black and Japanese heritage gave Jack Black his distinct patchwork face.
He takes Pinoko to a foreign country where she becomes kidnapped fodder in a violent political plot. He saves the life of a belligerent doctor’s injured daughter in spite of the other doctor’s misplaced animosity. He gives new life to a man who knows too much, and is hunted by evil corporate goons trying to keep him quiet.
Out in a frozen wasteland, he survives an airplane crash, but without his medical kit, he cannot save the frostbitten fingers of a world-famous violinist who risks his whole life to chase his beloved instrument. He tries to enroll an unwilling Pinoko in kindergarten with frustrating results all around. He successfully operates in complete darkness when the power is shut off by an angry would-be gunman. And he’s saved from his own troublesome weak intestines by a blind acupuncturist.
Little by little, Jack Black is confronted with reminders that human beings are not meant to be alone. And in spite of his renegade solo attitude, Jack is in for some growing-together pains with the not-quite-human Pinoko who tenaciously showers him with unconditional love. In spite of his own sutured-together, brought-back-from-the-dead background, the good doc proves again he’s the most humane character of all.
To check out other volumes of Black Jack on BookDragon, click here.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2008 (United States) Continue reading
Black Jack (vol. 1) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Camellia Nieh
So it’s not officially the start of summer by calendar date, but when temperatures get this hot, my eyeballs turn to lighter reading to soothe the heat-addled brain. Given my later-in-life appreciation for manga, Osamu Tezuka always proves to be a reliable go-to choice. In the multi-volume Black Jack – which debuted in Japan in the 1970s to mega-success, and recently made available in full in English translation from the fabulous boutique press, Vertical, Inc. – the versatile, prolific, late ‘godfather of manga’ most certainly puts his medical degree (yes, that’s Dr. Tezuka!) to entertaining use.
Black Jack is a renegade doctor without a license, who eschews the controlling – too often corrupt – medical establishment. He charges (and receives) the most exorbitant fees to work medical miracles. With his heavily scarred face, his dramatic black cloak, his shock of black-and-white-unruly hair, he’s quite the distinctively menacing sight. But he’s also got a caring, suffering heart hidden deep within that he only shows bare glimpses of at the most unexpected moments.T
The good doctor will stop at nothing to save a life, regardless of the danger or risks (even to himself). He saves an innocent young man by giving him the face of an evil, wealthy tycoon heir. He tracks down a serial killer whose image haunts a young woman with a recent corneal transplant. He removes a talking cystoma from a young woman which proves to be her not-fully-developed twin sister; he remolds the unfinished, unwanted body pieces into an adorable little girl, who becomes his pouting, lisping, comical sidekick Pinoko.
He says a tearful goodbye to his savior and mentor – Dr. Honma who diligently saved Jack as a young boy after a horrendous accident – after learning yet another lesson in the protective powers of the human body. He reunites briefly with the love of his life, whom he was forced to save only to lose her forever. He ‘fixes’ an overzealous computer with destructive delusions of grandeur, helps a young boy with polio achieve his dream, and manages to gives new life to a talented pair of hands.
So far, Vertical has managed to publish 11 volumes (with more on the way!), each filled with about a dozen stories of Black Jack’s around-the-world, often other-worldly adventures. If you read them slowly (if you can manage a little self-control? … good luck with that!), you should be able to last out much of the summer … here’s hoping, anyway.
To check out other volumes of Black Jack on BookDragon, click here.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2008 (United States) Continue reading
Astro Boy (vols. 1-5) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Frederik L. Schodt, lettering and retouch by Digital Chameleon
Astro Boy, the little-boy-robot-who-could is probably Osamu Tezuka’s most recognizable creation. Known as the “godfather of manga,” Tezuka created Tetsuwan Atom (Mighty Atom) in Japan way back in 1951, and continued to present his manga adventures for decades. Renamed Astro Boy in the West, in 1963, American audiences welcomed the beloved bot into their living rooms in a black-and-white animated television series (the first of its kind in Japan) that bore his new name. So popoular was the android’s adventures that American manga versions were not far behind, but unfortunately, these were not Tezuka’s creations.
Not until 2002 (the legendary Tezuka died in 1989 at just age 60) were Tezuka’s original Astro Boy manga translated into English and collected into multiple volumes by publisher Dark Horse Comics. Now new generations can discover Astro Boy all over again, while we oldsters can relive a delightful piece of our youth.
The initial volumes set up Astro’s beginnings [he actually doesn't get "born" until April 7, 2003, as imagined by Tezuka when he was contemplating the future back in 1951] as the mechanized replacement for a scientist who loses his son Tobio in a car crash. Scientist Tenma is initially overjoyed to have his “son” back, but when he realizes that this new Tobio can’t grow up as his son would, he sells the android to a robot merchant who in turn sells him to a circus where he is billed as “Astro.” The kindly Professor Ochanomizu recognizes Astro’s mighty potential, saves him from circus slavery, teaches him to fly, to speak 60 languages, to sense good or bad in people, to amplify his hearing, to use his eyes as searchlights, and to harness his 100,000-horsepower-inner strength, complete with machine guns in his rear end! Tobio no more, he’s become the one and only Astro Boy!
The fearless Astro rescues his teacher Mustachio’s kidnapped dog-turned-drone-robot (vol. 1), prevents the evil Deadcross from taking over the world (vol. 2), stops the powerful-but-not-completely-evil-Pluto from killing the world’s greatest robots (vol. 3), frees the abused and enslaved robots trapped in Robot Land (vol. 4), and saves both Mustachio and Ochanomizu from various bad guys yet again (vol. 5). Thanks goodness his adventures are nearly never-ending!
For an updated, re-envisioned version of the Astro Boy story – makes for a fabulous companion series for teenage readers – do check out the Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka series, too!
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2002-2003 (United States) Continue reading
MW by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Camellia Nieh
Who knew the “godfather of manga” could be this dark? When a mysterious poison gas kills the inhabitants of a Japanese island that was once home to a foreign military base, two survivors are inextricably linked by tragedy that is sealed by an illicit relationship that cannot be severed.
The older, Garai, turns to God and takes his priestly vows. The younger, Yuki, a brilliant, charismatic, rising banker, is mired in a secret life of torturous murder. Depraved Yuki flaunts his evil-doing as he “confesses” to the tortured Garai, who can do nothing to stop him. When Yuki devises the ultimate destruction of the human race, Garai can no longer keep his bond of silence.
Review: “TBR’s Editors’ Favorites of 2007,” The Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2007
Readers: Adult
Published: 2007 (United States) Continue reading
Apollo’s Song by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Camellia Nieh
I so love Vertical, the little publishing house that could, that continues to bring us some of the very best translations from Japan. From the godfather of manga himself comes the first English translation of the bittersweet story of a wayward young man, Shogo, whose destructive life is directly related to an abusive bar-hostess mother who casts him aside for an endless parade of johns.
Having no direct experience of love, Shogo reacts with only violence when he sees even a suggestion of bonding between two beings – human or not. Brought to the hospital for electroshock therapy in hopes of “curing” his violent ways before it’s too late, Shogo meets an unnamed deity in his delusional state and is told that forever after, he will suffer loss in love, lifetime after lifetime. From Nazi Germany to a desert island to a faraway future controlled by clones, Shogo loves again and again, only to lose that love one more time.
Readers: Adult
Published: 2007 (United States) Continue reading
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