‘Father of Manga’ Osamu Tezuka at the Barbican

The first major UK retrospective of the work of Japanese animator Osamu Tezuka explodes into the Barbican this week. Adam Lee Davies assesses the influence of the revered ‘Father of Manga’

Although Osamu Tezuka is revered in Japan and considered the ‘Father of Manga’ by genre aficionados worldwide, the casual British observer could be forgiven for never having come across him. But even those unaware of Tezuka’s many books, films or TV shows have undoubtedly felt his influence.

Since 1946 his output has been prolific, original and commercially prosperous, both in his homeland and abroad. Taking a cue from his hero, Walt Disney, Tezuka’s most obvious contribution to the medium was to paint his characters with huge, expressive eyes not dissimilar to those of Bambi or Mickey Mouse.

His most famous and enduring creation, Astro Boy, made the leap to TV in 1964. A surprisingly sophisticated series about an atomic Pinocchio, it went on to enjoy massive success in America. Similarly, his anthropomorphic eco-fable ‘Jungle Emperor’ (aired in Japan in 1965) would become a programming mainstay, as ‘Kimba the White Lion’, in scores of countries but our own.

Indeed, so influential was ‘Kimba’ in the US that Disney liberally drew upon many of its themes and characters for their box-office behemoth ‘The Lion King’ (1994) – a controversy big enough at the time to warrant a memorable reference in ‘The Simpsons’. Newcomers attending the
Barbican screening of 1997’s ‘Jungle Emperor Leo’ – made after ‘The Lion King’ but deliberately, and perhaps ironically, recalling many of its scenes – might therefore leave the cinema with somewhat of a ‘chicken or egg’ feeling.

Western culture had always influenced Tezuka, who translated both ‘Crime and Punishment’ and the life of Beethoven into Manga form, and it was by putting the scope of Hollywood into the service of Eastern themes that he animated some of his finest work, be it on the page or screen.

The cinematic adaptations of two chapters of his unfinished 12-volume life’s work, ‘Phoenix’, best display this marriage. Both the pre-feudal Japan epic ‘Chapter of Dawn’ (1978) and space opera ‘Phoenix 2772’ (1980) are Buddhist meditations on immortality and rebirth shot through with sweeping camera moves and snappy editing. This mixing of East and West, along with an ongoing discourse as to the place of technology within the natural world, is something he shares with celebrated director Hayao Miyazaki. ‘Marine Express’ (1979) brings together all these threads in an ecological thriller set aboard an undersea train and stars many of the characters that inhabit Tezuka’s cross-pollinated universe – Astro Boy, the dastardly Ham Egg, medical mercenary Black Jack and the nasally blighted Dr Packadermus.

Slightly worrying but nonetheless fascinating are his forays into (very) soft animated porn with ‘1001 Nights’ (1969) and ‘Cleopatra: Queen of Sex’ (1970). With these both judiciously sidestepped, it is well worth catching the collection of his films as a bone fide animator that opens the season. The marvellous, six-minute experiment ‘Jumping’ (1984) might be the pick of the bunch, but hypnotic Samurai/ nuclear-threat allegory ‘Muramasa’ (1987) runs a close second.

All of which merely scratches the surface of the treasures on show at the Barbican retrospective which, in turn, can only begin to scratch the surface of a truly extraordinary career.

The Osamu Tezuka season runs at the Barbican from Sept 18-24.

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