Ask John: Why Does Osamu Tezuka Seem To Receive Inordinate Acclaim?

Question:
Why does Tezuka get all the love and acclaim?! I don’t mean to undercut his whole “created the modern manga industry,” but whenever scholars start to pass out the dues in animanga, they always seem to go straight to him and virtually nobody else. Books get written about Tezuka, but only chapters or papers (or nothing) about Rintaro, Oshii, Takahashi Rumiko, Toriyama Akira, and others.

Answer:
I can partially appreciate why English speaking critics and historians tend to dwell upon Tezuka’s contribution to the history of manga and anime, to the exclusion of other worthy creators. I don’t think the inordinate attention is intentional or possibly even conscious. Rather, I think that English speaking historians give due credit, then emphasize Tezuka because of a lack of equal awareness of other contemporary artists. Manga creators such as Rumiko Takahashi and Akira Toriyama may be properly excluded from contextual discussion because they came to prominence decades after Tezuka’s most revolutionary period. But many of Tezuka’s influential and revolutionary contemporaries are often overlooked in discussions of the history of contemporary Japanese comics.

Osamu Tezuka’s contemporaries, including Shotaro Ishinomori, Fujio Akatsuka, “Fujio Fujiko,” Jiro Kuwata, Shigeru Mizuki, and Jiro Tsunoda, just to name a few, were less prolific than Tezuka (well, everyone was less prolific than Tezuka). But more importantly, Americans are less familiar with their works. (I humbly include myself in that statement. I don’t wish to create the impression that I’m wiser or more experienced that the American manga critics and historians I’m critiquing.) Shotaro Ishinomori’s creations included Cyborg 009 and Skull Man, but Ishinomori’s most revolutionary creation was Kamen Rider, which contributed to the birth to an entire genre of Japanese super heroes. Fujio Akatsuka is the creator of revered comedy manga series Tensai Bakabon and Osomatsu-kun, and the beloved magical girl anime series Himitsu no Akko-chan. The two man team known as “Fujio Fujiko” is most recognized as the creator of Japan’s favorite robot cat Doraemon. Jiro Kuwata co-created 8-Man, arguably Japan’s first comic superhero. Shigeru Mizuki is the acclaimed creator of Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, possibly Japan’s favorite horror manga. Jiro Tsunoda is also an influential horror manga creator. His “Kyofu Shinbun” manga was adapted into the live action horror film Yogen as recently as 2004.

Tezuka not only worked along with many of these influential creators; he inspired and advised many of them, which partially explains the reverence for his influence above that of other creators. But more importantly, Americans grew up with Tezuka’s work. Astro Boy, Jungle Emperor, and Ribon no Kishi were among the earliest anime to gain widespread recognition in America. At the same time, tremendously successful and popular Japanese manga like Tensai Bakabon, Doraemon, and Cyborg 009 have always been relatively unknown in America. American fans may know of them by name, but not by first-hand experience since many of these classic titles have never widely been available in America, if at all.

So American manga historians and critics, I think, recite Osamu Tezuka’s reputation as the “god of manga” and naturally, at the same time, concentrate on what they know more than the work and influence of manga creators that they don’t have first-hand familiarity with. In fact, I think that Osamu Tezuka’s position in the history of manga and anime is so iconic that his name is virtually synonymous with the foundation of modern manga and anime in the minds of American fans. In the same way that Americans who think about the founders of American animation immediately think of Walt Disney, then have to pause to recall other contributors, Osamu Tezuka takes the lion’s share of the respect and credit for the evolution of modern manga because casual critics and historians unconsciously gravitate toward discussion of topics they’re most familiar with, and because Tezuka did have a tremendous influence on manga and anime as we know them today.