PLUTO by Naoki Urasawa7/1/2023 It’s only fairly recently, 14 years after Tezuka’s death, that someone has finally produced a major manga work based off one of his creations. Much like Shakespeare, Tezuka left behind an enormous body of work ripe for reinterpretation, but relatively few artists have been courageous (or audacious) enough to make the attempt. One unfortunate effect of Tezuka being placed upon such a pedestal is that very few artists have attempted to touch his work outside of tribute, reference, or pastiche. While he was indeed great, he wasn’t the untouchable being some have touted him as. He was a master of page-turning action and gripping, likeable characters, but his freewheeling authorship often produced work that resembled collages of ideas more than cohesive narratives. An honest look at his body of work, however, forces a different conclusion. While he has certainly earned a great measure of respect, there is a creeping tendency among some to treat him as though he’s incapable of fault. Japanese comic circles have many such figures, the most obvious being manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka. In any artistic medium, you’ll find a certain number of incredibly successful, well-respected artists that command respect, to the point that some people have come to respect them a little too much.
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