TNL Comic/Manga Club: Ode to Kirihito

**Finch** · 28 Dec 2006, 06:21 AM

Let go of your desu and ne's, your ganbattes and daijobus, your gomen nasais and haaiiii! and even your ^__^. At the beginning of it all, there were western cartoons. Windsor McKay led to Walt Disney, who was lovingly copied by Osamu Tezuka, among others. The style spun into some strange monster which is today known as anime (durr, it's not cartoons!!!! ^^;;), desu ne imo. Osamu Tezuka, in particular, created a huge amount of work, mostly unknown to western audiences. Astro Boy, of course, and if you have a good memory, there's Unico, and if you're old, there's Kimba the White Lion. If you're old and lecherous and maybe a little lucky, there's Cleopatra: Queen of Sex.
Beyond a small pool of titles, there's very little available from Osamu Tezuka. It's changed just a tiny bit thanks to Viz bringing Phoenix. However, more thanks is due to Vertical's release of Buddha, and most recently Ode to Kirihito.

The story begins with a mysterious disease that turns man into beast. ... Okay, and then a bunch of stuff happens. It's 832 pages of pure book. But don't take my word for it! dun dun dun!

From the description-
"It may or may not be contagious. There seems to be no cure for it. Yet, Monmow Disease, a life-threatening condition that transforms a person into a dog-like beast, is not the only villain in this shocking triumph of a medical thriller by manga-god Osamu Tezuka. Said to have been the personal favorite of the artist, who held a degree in medicine, and surprisingly attentive to Christian themes and imagery, Ode to Kirihito demolishes naive notions about human nature and health and likely preconceptions about the comics master himself.

From pregnant vistas of the Japanese countryside to closed rooms full of sin and redemption, Tezuka astounds for more than eight hundred continuous pages, his art in turn easefully concise and flamboyantly experimental, his inquiry into our most repugnant instincts and prospects for overcoming them unflinchingly serious. Incorporating elements of the often lurid and adult-oriented “gekiga” style for the first time, Tezuka entered into his fruitful late period with this work.

A promising young doctor, Kirihito Osanai visits a remote Japanese mountain village to investigate the source of the latest medical mystery. While he ends up traveling the world to discover what it takes to be cured of such a disease, a conspiracy back home attempts to explain away his absence. Hinging upon his fate are those of his loved ones: an unstable childhood friend and colleague trapped between factions of the medical establishment that nurtured him; a fiancée emotionally transformed by Kirihito’s mysterious disappearance; and a stranger who becomes his guardian angel, a sensual circus-act performer with volatile psychological secrets.

From plutocratic Taipei and racially divided South Africa to backwater Arabia and modern Osaka, ambition and desire beckon “normal men” to behave uglier than any beast. Riveting our attention on deformity and its acceptance like The Elephant Man by David Lynch, Ode to Kirihito examines the true worth of human beings through and beyond appearances."

Buy it here, if you love TNL! If you don't buy it, that means you hate Nick and you hate this wonderful forum board! Also you hate g0zen! and Yoshi! and ME! Do you hate ME? No! So buy it! Buy it now!

also
It looks to be more Tezuka awesomeness. I wish a dutiful group of fansubbers would fansub it.

**Bacon McShig** · 28 Dec 2006, 09:54 AM

I had this on my Amazon.com wishlist for the TNL gift exchange, but no one bought it for me. ;_;

(I got other stuff, though, so I'm not bitter. I'll buy it soon.)