THE ART OF OSAMU TEZUKA

All I knew about Japanese comics or manga was that they were violent, with blood spilt left, right and centre. Something very `underground'. And a breed of violence which could also be balletic in its execution. Sample Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and O-Ren Ishii or Cottonmouth, played by Lucy Liu, in the first part.

And then came the Buddha, an eight-part graphic novel series by Osamu Tezuka. An epiphanic experience for me, who had thought Japanese works were all about blood. Here was the life story of the Buddha told for an adult. A giant leap from the world of Amar Chitra Katha, my previous window to Buddha. And figures from history made the transition from black or white to grey.

Tezuka depicts a Siddhartha battling with himself and striking free of his inner turmoil, while carving out His Path. And his teachings are visualised beautifully, through tales such as Sebu the Ox.

Unlike an Amar Chitra Katha which condensed into one Buddha's life and teachings, eight long parts gives enough and more space for other characters to stamp their presence. And Tezuka brazenly takes liberties with history, fictionalising the journey of known characters like Devadatta, Bimbisara and Ajatasatru and bringing in his own creations like Chapra, Tatta, Bandaka and Migaila. Animals too make it as flesh-and-blood characters.

At the same time, violence too finds a place with different characters either succumbing to it or overcoming the need for it. And the author reminds us of the Asterix series by making his characters spout contemporary references. There's also the occasional four-letter word. Tezuka also tries out self-deprecatory humour, with digs aimed at himself.

So far, thanks to an indulgent friend, I have got my hands on the first five and I am keenly looking forward to the remaining three.

Going further I hope Buddha is just the beginning of my tryst with Osamu Tezuka. I came across another work of his - Phoenix: A Tale of the Future. And it's one of 12 volumes in his Phoenix series (all self-contained stories). Was a trifle disappointed there as I felt Tezuka let his charcters disappear into the background as he searched for the meaning of life.

Here are two 'magnum opus' works, Buddha and the Phoenix, but stunningly, this amounts to only a small fraction of the output of a man dubbed Father of Anime (Japanese animation) and the God of Manga.

According to wikipedia, the Complete Manga Works of Tezuka Osamu (published in Japan) comprises some 400 volumes, over 80,000 pages. Even this is not comprehensive. His complete body of work includes over 700 manga with more than 150,000 pages. The vast majority of his work has never been translated from the original Japanese and hence remains inaccessible to us.

Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who was in power for more than 40 years, and Tezuka died within a month of each other in 1989. But it is said Tezuka was mourned far more by the people than the long-time Emperor. Suffice it to say Walt Disney can be labelled Osamu Tezuka of the US.