Osamu Tezuka

Tezuka Osamu (Osamu Tezuka) was born on November 3, 1928, in Toyonaka city Osaka, Japan as the first born child of Yutaka, and Fumiko Tezuka. At the age of five, Tezuka's family moved to the village of Kohama, in Hyogo prefecture (present day city of Takarazuka). When he was seven, he entered Osaka municipal Ikeda elementary school. Due to his diminutive stature, he was bullied a lot in school. His mother was a good story teller, and would tell stories to young Tezuka. His father was a big comic and animated movies fan and he would do a private showing of movies he bought at his house. These seminal influence would later make Tezuka write story length comics that was as exciting as watching a movie. He drew his first comic when he was in third grade titled "Bin Bin Namachan" a story of a balled headed boy which was modeled after himself as he had such a haircut. During those days he read comics such as Norakuro (by Suiho Tagawa), and Nakamura Manga Library. He started to wear glasses since his fifth year in school. He draws a story about martians at this time called "Kaseijin Kuru !" (Martian comes !). He also invents his famous character "Hyotantsugi" at this age featured in a story he drew titled "Fuku-chan to Uotsuri" (Fishing with Fuku-chan). He also drew a story called "Shina no yoru" (Night of China) which was passed around his school and caused quite a sensation. His other love of his life were insects, and he would roam around the fields to study insects, and he would draw his own encyclopedia about insects. Pictures of insects he drew on these were as realistic as any photographed insects. Around this time he found an insect named "Osamushi" which resembled his name, and adopted "Osamushi" as his pen name. He started to draw using pen and ink when he was 15 and his prolific comic writing starts around this time. He self published total of thirteen books that year.

He cites cartoonist Walt Disney and the 1930 graphic novel "He Done Her Wrong" as a major influence on his work.

In 1945 he enters Osaka University's medical division. The following year, he makes his professional debut with comic "Maachan no nikki-cho" (Maachan's diary) on "Shokokumin shinbun Osaka" (Children's news paper Osaka edition). Same year he meets Nanama Sakai at the Kansai manga club meeting and is asked to draw a feature length cartoon. With Sakai as story writer, Tezuka publishes "Shin Takarajima" (New Treasure Island) the following year which sold a whopping 400,000 copies. The same year he won a first place at the YMCA for his piano performance. He was also a member of university's acting club during this period and dabbled in acting in school plays. What separated Tezuka from artists before him was that his comic had a three dimensional feel to his pictures and a more lively motion to his characters.

In 1950 he starts writing "Jungle Taitei" (Jungle Emperor a. k. a. Kinba the White Lion) on magazine "Manga Shounen". Following year he graduates Osaka University. He also writes the pilot episode of "Tetsuwan Atom" (Mighty Atom a. k. a. Astro Boy) titled "Atom Taishi" (Ambassador Atom) on magazine "Shounen".

In 1952 he passes the exam to become a practicing physician.

In 1953 he moves to the now legendary Tokiwa-so apartment where many young comic talents from all over Japan found their home in to start their career. Most of them were not only younger than Tezuka, but considered him as their guru, and Tezuka became mentor to all these young talents.

In 1959 he married Etsuko Okada, and the same year "Tetsuwan Atom" gets syndication on Fuji Television network acted by live actors.

He graduated in 1960 from the Medical University of Nara (Japan) with a dissertation about the membrane structure of sea nails.

In 1961 he starts his own animation production company called "Tezuka Osamu Production Animation Department" ( changed to "Mushi pro" the following year ), and starts working on the pilot of animated version of "Tetsuwan Atom".

On January 1st of 1963 "Tetsuwan Atom" starts syndicated as a series on Fuji Television, and following year is broad casted by NBC as "Astro Boy" in United States.

He follows up with animated version of his comic "Big X" and "W 3", and in 1965 he creates his first color anime "Jungle Taitei" which later is aired in the Americas as "Kimba the White Lion". His works from late `60s such as "Magma Taishi" and `70s such as "Mitsume ga tooru" and "Black Jack" are not so well known outside Japan, but he continued to draw at a prolific pace during those years.

"Atom Taishi" ends on March of this year and is renamed "Tetsuwan Atom" and sees syndication until March of 1968. He was in a dilemma at this time as to choose which profession as his career: To be a manga artist, or a doctor as comic artists did not have very high stature at the time. He consulted his mother about his career choice, and she advised him to choose "Whichever he loves the most. " Encouraged by this, he chose manga.

In 1972 due to internal strife Mushi pro disintegrates. Tezuka later creates another production company named after himself called Tezuka pro.

In 1982 Tokiwa-so was being dismantled and Tezuka went to collect a piece of the ceiling from this apartment which housed many memories. In the `80s his work load slowly declined and he was more of a cultural icon, and becoming a guest on many social events and TV interviews. He was also busy running his production company.

He was a fan of the American comic book superhero Superman, and was made honorable chairman of the Superman Fan Club in Japan on October 6 1983.

In 1988 he felt a pain in his abdomen and goes in for a surgery. Not knowing this was due to stomach cancer due to his physician's choice not to reveal his terminal illness, being a physician himself he was heard saying "This doctor doesn't understand my question" as he asked about his condition to his doctor.

The Disney film The Lion King (1994) came under controversy for allegedly being inspired by Tezuka's tale "Kimba the White Lion", about a young lion who grows into a mature ruler.

He was accused of racism after drawing blacks in sterotypical fashion, but insisted that he was only continuing the styles he saw in American comics and films. This point has often been a source of constant soul-searching among Tezuka's publishers, especially in the USA. As of 2003, Dark Horse has begun to publish Tezuka's manga wholly unedited in the US, adding a disclaimer that states that while Tezuka held no racism himself, his artwork was a product of its time, and that further that it would be wrong to retroactively change his works without his input.