52 Facts About Osamu Tezuka

Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator.

Osamu Tezuka began what was known as the manga revolution in Japan with his New Treasure Island published in 1947.

Osamu Tezuka's death had an immediate impact on the Japanese public and other cartoonists.

The Osamu Tezuka family were prosperous and well-educated; his father Yutaka worked in management at Sumitomo Metals, his grandfather Taro was a lawyer, and his great-grandfather Ryoan and great-great-grandfather Ryosen were doctors.

Osamu Tezuka frequently took him to the Takarazuka Grand Theater, which often headlined the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theater troupe.

Osamu Tezuka said that he had a profound "spirit of nostalgia" for Takarazuka.

When Osamu Tezuka was young, his father showed him Walt Disney films and he became a Disney movie buff, seeing the films multiple times in a row, most famously seeing Bambi more than 80 times.

Osamu Tezuka started to draw comics around his second year of elementary school, in large part inspired by Disney animation; he drew so much that his mother would have to erase pages in his notebook in order to keep up with his output.

Osamu Tezuka was inspired by the works by Suiho Tagawa and Unno Juza.

Osamu Tezuka continued to develop his manga skills throughout his school career.

In 1945, Osamu Tezuka was accepted into Osaka University and began studying medicine.

Osamu Tezuka came to the realization that he could use manga as a means of helping to convince people to care for the world.

Osamu Tezuka began talks with fellow manga creator Shichima Sakai, who pitched Osamu Tezuka a story based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure novel, Treasure Island.

Sakai promised Osamu Tezuka a publishing spot from Ikuei Shuppan if he would work on the manga.

Osamu Tezuka finished the manga, only loosely basing it on the original work.

In 1951 Osamu Tezuka graduated from the Osaka School of Medicine and published Ambassador Atom, the first appearance of the Astro Boy character.

That same year Osamu Tezuka joined a group known as the Tokyo Children Manga Association, consisting of other manga artists such as Baba Noboru, Ota Jiro, Furusawa Hideo, Eiichi Fukui, Irie Shigeru, and Negishi Komichi.

In 1954 Osamu Tezuka first published what he would consider his life's work, Phoenix, which originally appeared in Mushi Production Commercial Firm.

Osamu Tezuka was eventually given the task of storyboarding the film, so that he didn't actually have to animate anything and something in the production could get done.

Osamu Tezuka did not follow Toei's deadlines, and after a year of working on the project and several weeks of threats from Toei's producers, he finally delivered his 500-page storyboard so the animators could do their job in the autumn of 1959.

That said, the crew found the storyboard to be entirely unpractical, lacking pacing and a clear plot for a 90-minute film, instead something that would be better told through an open-ended weekly comic like what Osamu Tezuka had been producing.

However, Osamu Tezuka's simplified art style made the entire animation process much more efficient.

Osamu Tezuka did not enjoy his time at Toei, and he especially did not like that he felt he had no control over "his" story or the ending.

In 1961, Osamu Tezuka entered the animation industry in Japan by founding the production company Mushi Productions as a rival of Toei Animation.

The only reason Astro Boy was able to survive its inception is because Osamu Tezuka was able to sell the foreign rights to NBC Enterprises.

Osamu Tezuka agreed to this, claiming that it would fit better with the sci-fi setting by giving the sense of a "placelessness".

In two desperate attempts to earn enough money to pay investors, Osamu Tezuka turned to the adult film market and produced A Thousand and One Nights and Cleopatra.

Osamu Tezuka stepped down as acting director in 1968 to found a new animation studio, Osamu Tezuka Productions, and continued experimenting with animation late into his life.

In 1967, in response to the magazine Garo and the gekiga movement, Osamu Tezuka created the magazine COM.

Osamu Tezuka would become a bit milder in narrative tone in the 1980s with his follow-up works such as Message to Adolf, Midnight, Ludwig B, and Neo Faust.

Osamu Tezuka died of stomach cancer on 9 February 1989 in Tokyo.

Osamu Tezuka is known for his imaginative stories and stylized Japanese adaptations of Western literature.

Osamu Tezuka read this book as a child, and its style characterized many manga artists who followed in Tezuka's footsteps.

Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis is an exemplar for his use of this technique.

Osamu Tezuka's characters were modified to appear in different works, similar to how actors modify their personality and appearance to suit different performances.

In doing so, Osamu Tezuka created space for intertextual history, references and commentary.

Osamu Tezuka invented the distinctive "large eyes" style of Japanese animation, drawing inspiration from Western cartoons and animated films of the time such as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, and other Disney movies.

Osamu Tezuka departed from the typical expectations of akahon by introducing complexity in The Mysterious Underground Man and morality in Magic House and Vampire Devils.

Osamu Tezuka's creations include Astro Boy, Black Jack, Princess Knight, Phoenix, Kimba the White Lion, Unico, Message to Adolf, The Amazing 3, Buddha, and Dororo.

Osamu Tezuka was a descendant of Hattori Hanzo, a famous ninja and samurai who faithfully served Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Sengoku period in Japan.

Osamu Tezuka was treated and cured by a doctor, which made him want to be a doctor.

Osamu Tezuka graduated from Osaka University and obtained his medical degree, but he would later use his medical and scientific knowledge to enrich his sci-fi manga, such as Black Jack.

In 1959 Osamu Tezuka married Etsuko Okada at a Takarazuka hotel.

Osamu Tezuka met Walt Disney in person at the 1964 New York World's Fair.

In January 1965, Osamu Tezuka received a letter from American film director Stanley Kubrick, who had watched Astro Boy and wanted to invite Osamu Tezuka to be the art director of his next movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Also, beginning in 2003, the Japanese toy company Kaiyodo began manufacturing a series of figurines of Osamu Tezuka's creations, including Princess Knight, Unico, the Phoenix, Dororo, Marvelous Melmo, Ambassador Magma, and many others.

Osamu Tezuka's legacy has continued to be honored among manga artists and animators.

Osamu Tezuka guided many well-known manga artists, such as Shotaro Ishinomori and Go Nagai.

Osamu Tezuka was a personal friend of Brazilian comic book artist Mauricio de Sousa.

In 2020, an AI writer-artist made by Kioxia was tasked to make a new "Osamu Tezuka" manga called Paidon, which takes place in a futuristic apocalyptic society, which was released in the magazine Morning on 27 February 2020.

Osamu Tezuka's son held a ceremony on 26 February 2020, to introduce people to the manga.

The city of Takarazuka, Hyogo, where Osamu Tezuka grew up, opened a museum in his memory.