Osamu Tezuka (?? ??, born ?? ?, Tezuka Osamu, (1928-11-03)3 November 1928 – 9 February, 1989) was a Japanese cartoonist, animator, film producer, activist, and medical doctor who never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of the comics series Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and Black Jack. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga", "the god of comics", and "kamisama of manga". Additionally, he is often credited as the "Godfather of Anime" and is considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during Tezuka's formative years.
Kodansha Manga Award, Nihon SF Taisho Award, Order of the Sacred Treasure, Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, Eisner Award, Shogakukan Manga Award: General, Bungeishunju Manga Award
Movies
Astro Boy, Cleopatra, Metropolis, Fumoon, Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature, A Thousand and One Nights, Phoenix 2772, Jungle Emperor Leo, Undersea Super Train: Marine Express, Ravex in Tezuka World, Alakazam the Great, Broken Down Film, Astro Boy: Mighty Atom - Visitor of 100,000 Light Years, IGZA,...
TV Shows
Galaxy Boy Troop, Kimba the White Lion, Blue Blink, Leo the Lion, Goku no Daiboken, Astro Boy, In the Beginning: The Bible Stories, Marvelous Melmo
Star Sign
Scorpio
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Trademark
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He uses child-like artwork in conjunction/contrast to his often dramatic and tragic tales.
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He often uses rebirth as a plot element in his stories.
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He developed the distinctive "large eyes" characteristic of Japanese animation.
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Loves reusing a character and have he or she portray a different role in a different story.
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Wore thick glasses and often sported a black beret.
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Fact
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His mother often comforted him by telling him to look to the blue skies, giving him confidence.
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He came to the realization that he could use manga as a means of helping to convince people to care for the world.
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Tezuka is a descendant of Hattori Hanzo, a famous ninja and samurai.
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When he was younger, Tezuka's arms swelled up and he became ill. He was treated and cured by a doctor, which made him want to be a doctor. However, he began his career as a manga artist while a university student, drawing his first professional work while at school. At a crossing point, he asked his mother whether he should look into doing manga full-time or whether he should become a doctor (at the time, being a manga author was not a particularly rewarding job). The answer his mother gave was: "You should work doing the thing you like most of all." Tezuka decided to devote himself to manga creation on a full-time basis. He 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.
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His childhood nickname was "gashagasha-atama", or "messy head" ("gashagasha" is slang for "messy" and "atama" means "head").
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Tezuka grew up in Takarazuka City, Hyogo and his mother often took him to the Takarazuka Theatre. The Takarazuka Revue is performed by women, including the male characters. The Takarazuka Revue is known for its romantic musicals usually aimed at a female audience, thus having a large impact on the later works of Tezuka, including his costuming designs.
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In January 1965, Tezuka received a letter from American film director Stanley Kubrick; Kubrick had watched Astroboy (1963) and wanted to invite Tezuka to be the art director of his next movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Tezuka could not afford to leave his studio for a year to live in England, so he refused. Although he could not work on it, he loved the film, and would play its soundtrack at maximum volume in his studio to keep him awake during long nights of work.
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He cites cartoonist Walt Disney and the 1930 graphic novel "He Done Her Wrong" as a major influence on his work.
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In his childhood he kept a ground beetle named "Osamushi". He later made this name his pen name.
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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.
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Liked to make cameos in his manga.
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His hobbies were bug collecting, entomology, Walt Disney and baseball.
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The Disney film The Lion King (1994) came under controversy for being inspired by Tezuka's tale "Kimba the White Lion", about a young lion who grows into a mature ruler.
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Was an avid baseball fan, and licensed the "grown up" version of his character Kimba the White Lion as the logo for the Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional Baseball League.
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An incredibly prolific (and fast) artist, he was known to draw as many as ten pages of artwork in a single day.
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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.
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During his lifetime, over-zealous Japanese fans called him "The god of Japanese comics".
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During the US occupation of Japan after World War 2, he sold pin-up drawings of women to US troops, often trading his artwork for military rations.
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He graduated in 1960 from the Medical University of Nara (Japan) with a dissertation about the membrane structure of sea nails.
$1.7 Million
