THE IMPACT OF TEZUKA - TALKING TO FREDERIK SCHODT

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Osamu Tezuka was a creative genius of supernatural standards. To some he's Japan's Walt Disney, or Japan's Stan Lee & Jack Kirby all rolled into one… but once you immerse yourself in his work, you realize he's Osamu Tezuka – "the" Osamu Tezuka. During his life, he produced a prodigious amount of work in all styles, varieties and formats in both manga and anime… but he is best known as the author of Astro Boy.

For those unaware, Astro Boy is a long-running comic series featuring a diminutive android in a 1951's vision of a futuristic world where androids live side-by-side with humans. Created initially as a replacement for an inventor's recently departed son, Astro Boy went on to fight crime in what Americans might call "superheroics". But central to the comic is Astro Boy's passion to be more than robot – to be human.

Released this past July, The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution by noted manga/anime historian Frederik L. Schodt covers Tezuka's life, the art of animation, the connections between anime/manga-style machines and technology, and the cultural impact of Astro Boy himself.

Author Frederik L. Schodt is an American writer, who's worked as a translator and interpreter specializing in the realm of manga and anime, and worked as Tezuka's personal translator on a number of occasions. As a manga/anime expert, he has also penned several books on the subject including Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, what some consider one of the opening trumpet call of manga and anime on American shores.

Newsarama: Frederik, how did you come to know Osamu Tezuka?

Frederik L. Schodt: When I was attending university in Tokyo, around 1970-72, a Japanese friend of mine told me about Tezuka's Phoenix. I had just started reading some manga, and he indicated to me that the Phoenix was truly something special. He was willing to lend me his treasured copies, but he made it clear that they were to be treated with great care, that they might help unlock the secrets of the universe. When I read them, I became hooked.

Years later, around 1977, I was again living in Tokyo. Since the beginning of the 70s, I had dreamed of one day translating or doing something related to manga, helping to introduce them to the outside world. It was a dream shared by my good friend, Jared Cook, and two Japanese friends named Shinji Sakamoto and Midori Ueda. Together, we formed an informal group named Dadakai, to translate some manga into English, and the first work we decided to translate was the Phoenix. After considerable effort,
Sakamoto-san, who was our "business manager," was able to secure an appointment at Tezuka Productions so we could obtain permission. Tezuka was terribly famous in Japan at the time, but we were terribly young and idealistic and ignorant, and thus had decided to start at the top of the manga hierarchy. As I recall it, we visited the Tezuka Productions office to explain our position to the manager, Mr. Matsutani, and were quite surprised when none other than the always-ultra-busy Dr. Tezuka showed up to greet us directly.

Dadakai was a short-lived affair, but that was the beginning of a very long relationship with Dr. Tezuka for me (and for Jared Cook) that continued until his death. Both Jared and I worked for Dr. Tezuka off and on, as translators and interpreters, and in fact this spring we finally completed translating the Phoenix series that we had began translating in 1977. For a variety of reasons, all-in-all, it took over thirty years to translate it and get it published!

NRAMA: One of the key points in the book is your in-depth analysis of Astro Boy from a historical standpoint, not just in manga, but in Japanese life and culture. Can you compare or reference any American benchmarks that people unaware of Japanese culture could compare it to?

FLS: It's probably hard to find a direct analogy to Astro Boy, or Tetsuwan Atomu, in American culture. In the sense that Astro Boy helped kick start the manga and anime revolution in Japan, and is now an almost universally recognized character, I suppose he might be close to Mickey Mouse. Astro Boy is still widely visible in Japan, through merchandising of manga, anime, and licensed goods such as toys, stationary, and so forth. He is also used in the advertising of everything from bank securities to home security systems. And at sports events in most Japanese schools, the theme song to the original 1963 Astro Boy anime series is usually played to liven things up. Astro Boy is by no means a dead or moribund character. In 2009, as many already fans know, the Hong Kong and Hollywood-based company, Imagi, is also scheduled to bring out an all CG Astro Boy feature film.

NRAMA: One of the things that struck me from reading your book was the knowledge that Tezuka often adjusted and revised his manga with each new printing. Is that a common practice in Japan, and can you relate that to what Tezuka's feelings on that were?

FLS: It is a fairly common practice in Japan, but Tezuka definitely took it to extremes. He was a perfectionist, so every time he went back and revisited his work, there was always something that he wanted to change. Sometimes he was embarrassed by the original art work or what he thought were errors. Sometimes he wanted to remove what had become politically incorrect or out-of-date references. And sometimes he just wanted to make things more current. Some people have suggested that to Tezuka, the original magazine stories were almost like rough drafts, meant to be refined when paperbacks were reissued.

NRAMA: Why do you think it was Astro Boy that has become Osamu's most popular work and ot one of his others, such as Phoenix?

FLS:I have thought a lot about this, and I think it has to do with Astro's character design. With Astro Boy, Tezuka found the perfect balance between a character that is both cute and provocative. Astro is cute, in the sense that small children and furry animals are cute, but he is also a machine, and a robot with superpowers. As is true with Americans and their favorite Disney characters today, many children in Japan are far more familiar with Astro Boy as a character than they are with the Astro Boy stories themselves. It is easy to see why Phoenix never became as popular as Astro Boy. The only consistent main character in the story is the phoenix bird, itself, and it is obviously not as cuddly or marketable as the "Cupie"-doll styled Astro. Also, the Phoenix story was designed for a higher age of readers, and thus has never enjoyed the broad-based publishing, animation, or merchandising success that Astro Boy has. Of all of Tezuka's many characters, it is interesting to note that one of the few that does rival Astro in popularity is Black Jack, the unlicensed rogue physician. Tezuka's Black Jack story has done very well in both animation and in manga paperback form, despite the fact that the Black Jack character is obviously much harder to merchandise than Astro Boy..

NRAMA: You had an extensive relationship with Mr. Tezuka, becoming his personal translator and translating the 23-volume Astro Boy series as it appears in America. Can you tell us about your role as his translator?

FLS: As with most professionals, I like to make a distinction between interpreting and translating, which deal respectively with the spoken, and written, word. Both Jared Cook and I worked off and on as Tezuka's interpreter when he visited the United States. I went around the U.S. with him a couple of times, and accompanied him to Canada as well. At the end of the seventies and in the eighties, he did quite a bit of traveling, and loved to meet fans, give presentations, see new people and places, and get away from the daily grind that always confronted him in Japan. So when he came to North America, usually Jared or I would meet him and his entourage, and interpret for him whenever he needed to speak with Americans. Sometimes when he was in Los Angeles or San Diego (Comic-Con), we would also make some of the ground arrangements, and act as coordinators, too, as I recall. Jared later formed a production company that specialized in helping Japanese firms shoot commercials in the U.S., and before Tezuka died he was also helping Tezuka dub his animation series, the Bible Stories, into English, from which it was then translated into a variety of other languages as well.

In terms of written translation, especially of manga, Jared and I had worked on vols. 1-5 of the Phoenix together in 1977-78, but as mentioned earlier, our work from that time was not published until over two decades later, by the San Francisco-based company, Viz. We just translated volumes 6-12 in the last year or so. On my own, I also translated Tezuka's Crime and Punishment, which was published in English by the Japan Times, in 1990, but it unfortunately only appeared in Japan. Between 2001-2004, I also worked on Tezuka's 23 volume Astro Boy series, which was published in the United States by Dark Horse Comics. This work was of course done long after Tezuka had passed away. And today it's important to note that there are several other translators of Tezuka's work around. Yuji Oniki did a fabulous job on Tezuka's Adolf series for Viz in San Francisco. Camillia Nieh has also done some great work with Tezuka's more adult-themed works, such as MW, for Vertical, in New York.

NRAMA: As an aside, what are your thoughts of Naoki Urasawa's reenvisioning of Astro Boy with Pluto?

FLS: I love Urasawa's re-envisioning of Astro Boy in his Pluto series. I think it's a truly creative interpretation of a character that is such a national icon, and much credit has to be given to Dr. Tezuka's son, Makoto Tezuka, who not only approved of the adaptation, but encouraged Urasawa to be bold. I think it is one of the best manga of recent years, and I can't wait to see it made into a feature film.

NRAMA: Do you have any appearances or signings planned in relation to this book?

FLS: I've been doing a lot of local talks related to my new book in the San Francisco Bay area. In what was very nice timing, we were able to bring the book out during the first week of the "Osamu Tezuka: Marvel of Manga" exhibit in San Francisco's Asian Art museum this summer. This was really due in large part to the very hard work of Nina Wegner and Linda Ronan, the editor and designer, respectively, at my intrepid publisher, Stone Bridge Press. They really helped speed the book through the production process in record time. I love the Astro Boy story, and have a personal involvement with it and Tezuka, so I consider it an honor to be able to talk to people about both of them. My publisher is very small, so we're not in the position of doing national tours or anything, but time permitted, I will be giving some talks outside of the San Francisco area. Nothing solid yet, but I'm also hoping to go to Japan this spring, and perhaps do some appearances there.

NRAMA: You've done two previous books on manga - Dreamland Japan and Manga! Manga! - both being must-have for the serious manga fan. The latter though, is especially hard to come by - do you have any plans to reprint this book?

FLS: Actually, both were reprinted this year, so there should be no problem obtaining them. My books are often too exotic for mainstream bookstores to carry, but with the exception of the now-out-of-print, Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics, and the Coming Robotopia (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1987), I believe they can all be ordered from most bookstores. And of course now-a-days many people simply purchase my books through on-line bookstores. For better or worse, it's probably the easiest way to obtain them quickly today.

NRAMA: What was your most memorable exchange with Mr. Tezuka?

FLS: There were many memorable exchanges, and there are many powerful memories. I remember being astounded, on a tour with him once in the U.S., to see him sit down at a piano and play a very difficult classical piece with amazing skill and artistry. I hadn't known that he was such a good musician. I also have many memories of his extraordinary energy. He was always working or doing something, and it was often hard for much younger people to keep up with him. Once, in Florida, we had been working on a documentary, adhering to a typically inhuman schedule. The TV crew, which had flown from Japan, was exhausted, and I actually remember seeing a young man in charge of lighting for an instant fall asleep on his feet on the shoot (I had heard this was possible, but never actually seen it before, so it made a big impression on me). When the work was all over and everyone stumbled back to their hotel rooms exhausted, I remember saying goodnight to Tezuka. In the morning, when I met him, he handed me the manga pages he had been working on. It was extraordinary. He hadn't slept, and had completed about fifteen or twenty pages, with panels and balloons with dialog indicated in pencil, main characters penciled and inked, and directions for his assistants back in Japan to fill in the backgrounds. Some people find it hard to believe that Tezuka could do so much of his own work, but I can attest to the fact that he did. In terms of his productivity, he was super-human.

For more, visit Schodt's website at www.jai2.com.

[Northstar04]

I didn't know about this book. I'll check it out.

Anyone who has a real passion for comic books should give him a try if you haven't already.

Buddha, Apollo's Song, Ode to Kirihito, are all wonderful, patient stories. And The Phoenix is now available on itunes TV.

Worth digging into.

[vbartilucci]

My love for the work of Tezuka is why I will never see, own or buy merchandise related to The Lion King.

[Amoebas]

Originally Posted by vbartilucci

My love for the work of Tezuka is why I will never see, own or buy merchandise related to The Lion King.

Doubled. Disney forever has a black eye in my book for having the gall to say that 'thier' movie was "not based on any existing tale or legend". I read those (paraphrased) words from the paper before that movie came out and have pretty much boycotted the company since.

I first met Astroboy from an LP I had when I was 5 or 6 (1968ish). Like old time radio - I could only close my eyes and imagine Astro Boy in action, and I loved it. Then came the actual cartoon. Wow. Kimba and Speed Racer were part of those days too. I loved and absored then all, especially Kimba (the 4th import, 8th Man never interested me tho).

For all that love tho - I've never really gotten into the comic book work of Tezuka. That should change. This book can be that start.

[adamcasey]

I wish I had been able to get out to the exhibition in San Francisco of the original Tezuka pages.

I picked up Astro Boy volume 1 from Dark Horse on a lark and haven't looked back. Some of his pages make me want to cry because they are so beautiful.

[CitC]

For those unaware, Astro Boy

I find this a little funny, because since the cable boxes we could rent in rural New Brunswick in the mid 80's had a station with Astro Boy on everyday after school, everyone knew who he was. We weren't exactly in a hotspot for manga and anime, but we knew him (go-bots too).

[Reliant]

Originally Posted by Amoebas

Doubled. Disney forever has a black eye in my book for having the gall to say that 'thier' movie was "not based on any existing tale or legend". I read those (paraphrased) words from the paper before that movie came out and have pretty much boycotted the company since.

Ironically though, Tezuka was said to have been a fan of Disney like many manga creators emerging during postwar Japan. Some have attributed the "wide-eyed" character designs so common in many manga and anime as to have originated with Disney. Still, it's probably not the first time Disney has produced something very similar to an earlier work, changed a few things here and there, and then passed it off as an original concept. Shoot, that describes most superhero comics in the U.S., I imagine...

[Evilomar]

I grew up watching Astro Boy, Kimba, Unico, Ambassador Magma, and Princess Knight. I remember reading an article stating that more people went to his funeral than the last emperor of Japan's funeral. The man was a legend and I will make sure to pick up this book.

[Sesshomaru]

Sure tezuka has been largely inspired by Disney , but still came up with drawings and concepts of his own . Anyone would find hard to come up with Disney stories even close to Tezuka's stories and themes , except well the blatant theft that is Lion King .

Still i cant say i'd boycott Disney's Lion King . I cant blame such a crafty piece of art , with marvellous designs and animation , an awesome soundtrack , plus the great themes stolen from Tezuka . I'd just blame instead the executives from Disney or anyone who didnt see fit to drop his name in the credits or the movie's Poster .
From what i' believe , he himself would be too insterested by the work itself , to bother hating the damn Disney for stealing his work .

I was much more pissed at Disney for some alterations and changes to their international releases of Ghibli movies .

[DJ Sloofus]

I just finished Tezuka's MW, and was blown away. What a great book! It was definitely much darker in tone than anything I'd ever read by him before, but also stuck together very tightly. Compared to Ode to Kirihito or Apollo's Song, it was actually very fast-paced.

Schodt also wrote a great book about more contemporary manga artists called "Japan's Dreaming," or something like that. It was a great read; spotlighted many lesser known artists.

[Sambo253]

Originally Posted by Amoebas

For all that love tho - I've never really gotten into the comic book work of Tezuka. That should change. This book can be that start.

Yes it very much should change. As good as his stories are, the technique and storytelling craft is, in my mind, unequalled. I think he was using avant garde techniques before Chris Ware had picked up a pen.





And of course he was doing "cinematic" storytelling before Moore or Bendis.

[scottmdavis]

As much as I respect the mans catalogue of work, I absolutely cannot stand anything he actually draws.

[Cartoon Jay]

Excellent interview. There's been some debate online recently about wether Tezuka is worthy of idolization or if he's just a poster-boy for comics literati to hold up when talking about "important" manga. Wether the kids are reading it or not, Tezuka's manga is the foundation that modern manga is built upon. I'll be looking for this book...

[LikeaPhoenix]

Astro Boy is so darn cute!!!

I really do believe that Osamu Tezuka is Japan's Walt Disney, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby all rolled into one. And speaking of Walt Disney, I do notice the Mickey Mouse ears inspiration in Astro Boy's spiky hair. And speaking of Astro Boy, I'm going to go to Japantown and pick up som Astro Boy toys!

[Toneloak]

Between Cyborg 009, Kikaider, Lupin III, and '03 Astroboy. I've been all over Tezuka's styled anime. Thanks to this article I've developed more appreciation for the man and I'll continue my journey. Who knows, along the way I might even pick up some manga.

[Jack_Bauer]

Now I really want to find some volumes of Phoenix.

[Elliot Mears]

I second the recommendation for PLUTO. It's brilliant. You're in for a treat when the English edition eventually turns up.

[beta-ray]

Tezuka was a prolific genius.

I understand why some may find his style distasteful, but that is a shame.

I never thought of Atom being a mix of Mickey Mouse and Superman, but I guess it kind of fits.

[D-ski]

I wish somebody would tanslate and release Jungle Taitei (Emperor Leo) over here.

Dark Horse? Viz? Tokyo Pop? Del Rey?

Anybody?

Please?

[strobe_z]

Anyone who wants to know more about Tezuka should visit http://tezukainenglish.com - It's got a huge amount of information. And don't miss the forums - they're a great place to meet other English-speaking Tezuka fans and get questions answered.