Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989)

Dare I admit that Tezuka's Deer Park is my favorite of the five Buddha books I've read so far? (I'll write it, but would never speak it aloud as my inner Rhode Islander makes an awful homonym out of those two words. :-)

While the first half of Volume 5 follows Devandatta's and Tatta's schemes for glory and retribution; and the unwitting innocents who suffer abuse and injury, it is in the second half that we begin
to experience the miracles of the newly enlightened Buddha. Two very special show more stories are told, Deer Park and The Legend of Sebu the Ox, after Buddha is rescued by the King Deer from a devastating flood. The favor is returned when a fawn stumbles into a pit of flesh-eating ants and is saved by Buddha after he incurs much injury to his body.

The 8-fold path to alleviating suffering through "right" living is articulated in this volume (in this case, meaning to be in alignment with all living beings, and not "correct" as it is frequently substituted for) and we begin to understand how it is possible for one, unarmed man to stop an elephant from crushing him despite the urging of an enraged Prince seated on its back. show less

This dark thriller surprised me. Tezuka knows how to tell a story. Rather, he lets his characters tell the story. Somehow, no matter how ridiculously he draws the caricatures, the characters come to life. There is no way to fault the way he draws out their humanity, no matter how naked and embarrassing it is. This makes him one of the boldest creators in the medium. He can encapsulate a time and a place in a few frames, and can draw you in almost effortlessly. His sparse style seems well show more thought out but completely seamless. It doesn’t matter if he’s writing about unicorns of princesses or serial killers, his mastery is as clear as day. The villain at the center of this seminal masterwork is as evil as they come. He manipulates the men and women he comes into contact with at every turn, twisting them around his finger. When it comes to his ultimate goal one can only be horrified and enthralled. It’s not difficult to see how he came to be such a monster. The demon Tezuka makes him out to be is quintessentially human in his faults and dimensions, yet one cannot help but follow his every move with riveted curiosity. show less

Reading through some of the other reviews of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha, it's clear that there's no real consensus on this series. As history, I have no doubt that Tezuka has taken some liberties with the narrative of the Buddha's life. But as a piece of writing, however, this is an excellent retelling of the life of the Buddha. In the first volume, the reader is given a general overview of some of the main characters and the background story. The Buddha himself only makes an appearance late in show more the book and even then, he's a baby. There are several narrative paths all of which converge by the end. The narrative flows smoothly and Tezuka does a great job creating between the reader and the several characters and even manages to make some of the more unappealing people rather nuanced and sympathetic.

There will be some people for whom the historical inaccuracies will get in the way of their enjoyment of the book. I would remind those people, however, that some of the most beloved works of literature are themselves gross distortions of history. Shakespeare's "history" plays border on fabrication, Mallory's Mort Darthur isn't exactly accurate and in fact literary representations of historical events have always taken a good deal of license with their subject matter. Yet somehow, there are a group of literary snobs who won't accept contemporary historical fiction and turn up their noses at all contemporary retellings of history. They have no apparent problem with their beloved cannon doing the same, but if contemporary authors do it, it's an outrage. Buddha is a literary retelling of the life of the Buddha and as such, it is most definitively not sold as nor intended to be a historical retelling of his life. It's an enjoyable introduction to this topic and has undoubtedly inspired lots of people to learn more about the life of its subject. show less

mind-blowingly amazing. how come there's no bbc-like tv miniseries based on this manga? i was stunned by the way tezuka's round, disney-like, even childish drawing style fits so well with the story, counterweighing the crude madness and violence of it all. adolf has some of the best panels i've seen in any comic, ever. the layouts, the pacing... unsurprisingly, everything in adolf shouts 'masterwork'.