Osamu Tezuka appreciation thread

[MartyMuppets]

This is my new thread for talking about the works of the late great Japanese animator, Dr.Osamu Tezuka.

Creator of Astroboy and Kimba the White Lion.
If you like his works feel free to post in here and I shall start talking about my Tezuka collection when I post here again.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I do like Astro Boy! Has the movie come out yet? And I've always wanted to see Kimba The White Lion, too. I have herd that it is really good!

 

[Kiki]

This is a great subject for a thread.
I love Astro Boy... the show AND the comic. And I also love Kimba the White Lion... though I havn't seen that for a while. I'll try and think up s'more memories of the late Tezuka.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Astroboy and Kimba are both very good indeed. I have the DVD collections of both. I shall start endeavouring to watch them a little and comment upon them in this thread.

 

[Kiki]

That would be awesome, Marty. I'd love to hear your reviews on them. I havn't seen Kimba for a loooong while so that'll be good.
Which Astro Boy box-set do you have? The new series, the 80's series or the black and white version?

 

[MartyMuppets]

All of them actually.

I promise I will make every effort to watch them and do my reviews though it may take awhile. I loved the Sailor Moon reviews I did and these will be great too.

 

[mr3urious]

I like how Tezuka's art style looks more unique than the usual cliché anime art style.

 

[Kiki]

I like how Tezuka's art style looks more unique than the usual cliché anime art style.

Agreed. I also love Gigantor, but I know what's the different sort of thing all together.

I remember tihs thread!

 

[The Shoe Fairy]

Oh man, I Just saw the advertisment for the new Astroboy movie, but seeing as it is CGI, I have mixed feelings. I lurrvvee Tezuka, I am an Astroboy FREAK. I dunno If you guys have seen or read his interpretation of "Metropolis", but I have the dvd, and think it is Very, Very good.

 

[Drtooth]

I do like Astro Boy! Has the movie come out yet?

Oh no... no... it's been delayed because of the animation studio, Imagi... (if those guys don't go belly up by the time the film is released, it would actually shock me).

Anyway-

I like how Tezuka's art style looks more unique than the usual cliché anime art style.

Funny thing... the cliched stuff didn't come about until a little after Astroboy and Kimba. They pretty much borrowed the big eyes (which Tezuka borrowed from Disney's Bambi)... in fact, if you look at anime and manga before Tezuka, it looked generically American. I once watched this pre-War Japanese animated theatrical short on Youtube. It looked exactly like the same cartoons that were in the US at the time. It starred a Tanuki (Racoon dog) that looked very much like Mickey Mouse (or other 1930's Balck and White American cartoon characters).

But I really love styles that don't look like the same Bishonen big eyed stuff you see today... Might I also suggest gag manga artist Fujio Akatsuka for example? I've only seen bits in pieces of the animated series in raw Japanese (which means I understand 1 out of 10 words), but definately a style all it's own.

And I'm noticing a lot of Japanese series nowadays look a lot more Western... One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, and especially Shaman King (who's creator was inspired by Marvel comics, and even collaborated with Stan Lee for a brief series) drop the Bambi eyes, and go for a more American look.

As for Tezuka... apparently there's this one movie called Cleopatra (which had a dubious title in the US release to make it X rated) where the opening sequence does a reverse Clutch Cargo.... animating cartoon heads on live action human actors. Very strange and very experimental... not the best looking thing though.