Aims
The
aims of Focus on Tezuka are to:
1. contextualize the relationship between manga and anime to
illustrate how the latter grows from a long-standing tradition of the former
2. to site anime as part of Japan’s cultural and artistic pursuits
as derioved from the realm of prints and drawing
3. to honour and posit Osamu Tezuka as the most important postwar artist in this
field
Curatorial
statement
Perhaps the most accessible route to the fantastic world of Japan's greatest manga artist
and animator Osamu Tezuka is through the angelic face of his pre-pubescent
robot creation, Astro Boy. First aired in Japan in 1963 and redubbed in America
in 1964, ASTRO BOY has since become not only a major postwar icon for Japan but
also a strangely attractive post-baby-boomer figure in non-Oriental countries.
The fact that many westerners presume Astro Boy to be American is an indication
of how undervalued and ignored anime (Japanese animation) is within
film history, as well as a sign of how readily an American dialogue-track can
cast any production in the shadow of its accent.
The manga upon which ASTRO BOY is based - Tetsuwan Atom (Mighty
Atom)- is one of Tezuka's most well-known works, serialized in phases from 1951
to 1968. It is a fascinating tale set in the 21st century, where superminiaturization
of electronic components and advances in plastic applications for artificial
skin have facilitated the design of extremely human-like robots. And where better
to render similarities between robotics and genetics then in the highly-coded
hieroglyphics of the manga page? Just as the manga form well
suited such futuristic fantasy, so too did the idea appear molded by postwar
Japan (the Showa 20s: 1945-54) when Japan was rebuilding itself psychologically
and preparing itself for the electronics explosion of the 60s. ASTRO BOY in some
measure can be viewed as a contemplative embodiment of this postwar period -
a period of intense reflection that affected much world cinema.
In the original ASTRO BOY manga, Professor Temma aspires to create a
new wonder robot with the aid of extensive R&D by the Science Ministry. He
names the robot after his recently deceased son, Tobio. But Professor Temma becomes
disillusioned with the almost-perfect nature of the ageless boy-robot and in
a rage sells him to a circus. There he is rescued by Professor Ochanomizu who
educates Tobio and renames him Tetsuwan Atom. With new social skills, advanced
robotics and a memory bank of human-affected experiences, Tetsuwan Atom commits
himself to serving humans - but forever ponders his relationship with them. This
is Pinocchio retold through Asimov, but with a molecular explosion of themes
and dichotomies to do with the essence of soul, the imagination of children,
the gender of plastic and the morality of cuteness. And despite the TV-reduced
plots (Tezuka said they tended to be 'patternized') and an American woman's voice-over,
the context, culture and form of the animated ASTRO BOY resonates with a peculiarly
Japanese configuration of trans-gender postwar neo-human traits not usually explored
by traditional social-conscience photo-cinema.
Tezuka happens to have been remarkably articulate about his manga and anime creations,
particularly in terms of his themes and the ways in which they were acutely expressed
through the formalism of his story-imaging and what he later termed a 'semiotics
of manga': a signage system which could convey ascribed universals tied
to a dramatic flow. His published texts include historical overviews (the POSTWAR
HISTORY series of Gag, Sci-Fi and Girls comics); instructional manuals (HOW TO
DRAW COMICS: FROM PORTRAITS TO COMIC STORIES) and autobiographical ruminations
(I AM A CARTOONIST). Reinforcing his ideas, of course, are the actual works.
The afore-mentioned themes of ASTRO BOY, for example, are cris-crossed like delicate
webbing through the allegorical pasts and speculative futures of hundreds of manga he
published, and in anime based on his manga and devised as original
projects.
Tezuka seriously drew manga from 1941, but such entertainment in wartime
Japan was frowned on, so it was not until 1946 that he first received a publishing
deal. By the mid-50s, Tezuka led the first manga boom in the children
and young adult markets, inspiring many other artists and publishers to expand
the field. Tezuka by then was recognized for shifting the blockage of manga visual
formulae toward cinematic effects, and infusing his narratives with a range of
emotions and tonalities which redefined notions of children's entertainment.
Come 1977, Kodansha commenced publication of THE COMPLETE MANGA WORKS OF OSAMU
TEZUKA which has grown to 400 hardbound volumes containing over 150,000 drawn
pages. Prolific, imaginative and driven, Tezuka also wrote, directed and produced
animations from 1962 up to his death in 1989: a total of 14 TV series; 36 shorts
and TV specials; and 23 feature-length titles. Regarded in Japan as an artistic sensei (master)
and a figurehead for the manga and anime industries, his legacy
is kept alive by the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum in Takarazuka, and by the continual
trickling of his work into the west.
Taking into account (a) cultural gaps between Australia and Japan; (b) the problematic
way the cultured-West generally views comics and cartoons; (c) the paucity of
translated manga and anime from the world's largest producer
of comics and cartoons; and (d) the imposing bulk of material Tezuka produced
- Focus on Tezuka is but a slight nudge to entice film patrons
in Australia to consider the trans-global issues raised by the powerful post-nuclear
sentiments and ideas contained in Tezuka's seemingly-cute animations. Familiar
yet strange; European yet Asian; kitsch yet elegant; iconic yet distinctive -
Osamu Tezuka's anime affords the interested viewer an insight into the
perplexing formal mutations and weird narrative contortions which typify postwar
Japanese culture and define Tezuka's own fantastic world.
