Date of Birth

3 November 1928, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan

Date of Death

9 February 1989, Tokyo, Japan (stomach cancer)

Mini Biography

Tezuka wrote/animated the Japanese TV Series "Jangaru Taitei" that was turned into a USA syndicated series in the 60s called "Kimba The White Lion". This story was then plagiarized by The Disney Company in 1994 and became "The Lion King", the most profitable film of all time, and Tezuka has never received due credit from Disney for his creation, much less any money.

Mini Biography

Remembered by many in Japan as the "god" of manga, no one has ever influenced the realm of anime and manga as has Osamu Tezuka, the man who pioneered the famous anime "puppy dog eyes". Born on November 3, 1928, in Toyonaka, Osaka, he initially set out to become a medical doctor. He received his M.D. from Osaku University in 1946 but continued to focus instead on his comic books. Heavilly influenced by Walt Disney, it is said by many that he saw Disney's Bambi (1942) 80 times, although he held much disdain for the company due to its heavy commercialism. His first production company was formed in 1961 under the name Mushi Productions, laster changed to Tezuka Productions. He made his manga debut with "Tetsuwan Atom", one of the first comic books (manga) in Japan. Still remembered as his most famous series, it was turned into a television series in 1963 and quickly gained a huge following of all ages. It was later brought to the U.S. and aired on NBC with heavy editing under the title "Shin Tetsuwan Atom" (1980) ("Astro Boy"). He quickly wrote many other series throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, gaining a huge following. Most notable were "Jungle Taitei" (Jungle Emperor), later brought to the U.S. as "Kimba The White Lion", which many say Disney plagiarized as "The Lion King", "Ribon No Kishi" known in the U.S. as "Princess Knight", "Black Jack", and "Adolph", a manga series about two friends named Adolph, a German and a Jew, torn between duty and friendship during World War II, which won numerous awards. Tezuka died on February 9, 1989, in Osaka, Honshu. His death, which came two weeks after the Japaneese emperor's, received almost as much attention as the emperor's. The National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo held a public exhibit of Dr. Tezuka's works in 1990 -- the first ever for a "commercial manga artist." April 24, 1994, became a hallmark in manga and anime history: The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum was opened in his hometown of Takarazuka, in memory of the prolific artist. Tezuka remains the most legendary animator in Japaneese history. He remains largely unappreciated, however, in the U.S. due to the fact that most of his works that did reach there were severely edited and changed to be more appealing to children. That is too bad, as his influence in animation was large.

with comic "Maachan no nikki-cho" (Maachan's diary) on "Shokokumin shinbun Osaka" (Children's news paper Osaka edition). Same year he meets Nanama Sakai at the Kansai manga club meeting and is asked to draw a feature length cartoon. With Sakai as story writer, Tezuka publishes "Shin Takarajima" (New Treasure Island) the following year which sold a whopping 400,000 copies. The same year he won a first place at the YMCA for his piano performance. He was also a member of university's acting club during this period and dabbled in acting in school plays. What separated Tezuka from artists before him was that his comic had a three dimensional feel to his pictures and a more lively motion to his characters. In 1950 he starts writing "Jungle Taitei" (Jungle Emperor a.k.a. Kinba the White Lion) on magazine "Manga Shounen". Following year he graduates Osaka University. He also writes the pilot episode of "Tetsuwan Atom" (Mighty Atom a.k.a. Astro Boy) titled "Atom Taishi" (Ambassador Atom) on magazine "Shounen". In 1952 he passes the exam to become a practicing physician. "Atom Taishi" ends on March of this year and is renamed "Tetsuwan Atom" and sees syndication until March of 1968. He was in a dilemma at this time as to choose which profession as his career: To be a manga artist, or a doctor as comic artists did not have very high stature at the time. He consulted his mother about his career choice, and she advised him to choose "Whichever he loves the most." Encouraged by this, he chose manga. In 1953 he moves to the now legendary Tokiwa-so apartment where many young comic talents from all over Japan found their home in to start their career. Most of them were not only younger than Tezuka, but considered him as their guru, and Tezuka became mentor to all these young talents. In 1959 he married Etsuko Okada, and the same year "Tetsuwan Atom" gets syndication on Fuji Television network acted by live actors. In 1961 he starts his own animation production company called "Tezuka Osamu Production Animation Department" ( changed to "Mushi pro" the following year ), and starts working on the pilot of animated version of "Tetsuwan Atom". On January 1st of 1963 "Tetsuwan Atom" starts syndicated as a series on Fuji Television, and following year is broad casted by NBC as "Astro Boy" in United States. He follows up with animated version of his comic "Big X" and "W 3", and in 1965 he creates his first color anime "Jungle Taitei" which later is aired in the Americas as "Kimba the White Lion". His works from late `60s such as "Magma Taishi" and `70s such as "Mitsume ga tooru" and "Black Jack" are not so well known outside Japan, but he continued to draw at a prolific pace during those years. In 1972 due to internal strife Mushi pro disintegrates. Tezuka later creates another production company named after himself called Tezuka pro. In 1982 Tokiwa-so was being dismantled and Tezuka went to collect a piece of the ceiling from this apartment which housed many memories. In the `80s his work load slowly declined and he was more of a cultural icon, and becoming a guest on many social events and TV interviews. He was also busy running his production company. In 1988 he felt a pain in his abdomen and goes in for a surgery. Not knowing this was due to stomach cancer due to his physician's choice not to reveal his terminal illness, being a physician himself he was heard saying "This doctor doesn't understand my question" as he asked about his condition to his doctor. Tezuka passed away on February 9, 1989, and magazine shot headlines saying "Manga Taitei iku" (Manga emperor goes). Now Tezuka is remembered as the greatest "manga" artist of all time, he is recognized as single handedly jump starting both genre of modern day manga, and anime. Many manga artist had their seminal influence by Tezuka's works, and it is also recognized that in every manga, there's little bit of Tezuka in it. He was also one of the most prolific artist in the field with over 700 stories to his credit spanning over 170,000 pages. His impact on the entire social culture of Japan is also seen as immeasurable as he influenced so many different areas of art and society through his comics. Never in history has a comic artist influenced the society of a single country in the way Tezuka did. And he will be remembered as the founding father of modern day "manga".

Spouse

Etsuko Okada

(4 October 1959 - 9 February 1989) (his death) 3 children

Trade Mark

Wore thick glasses and often sported a black beret.

Trivia

Gave guidance to many known cartoonists such as Shotaro Ishinomori and Go Nagai.

Father of Macoto Tezuka.

He graduated in 1960 from the Medical University of Nara (Japan) with a dissertation about the membrane structure of sea nails.

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.

During his lifetime, over-zealous Japanese fans called him "The god of Japanese comics".

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.

An incredibly prolific (and fast) artist, he was known to draw as many as ten pages of artwork in a single day.

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.

Originated the "big eyes" look that is now commonly used in Japanese animation and manga.

Walt Disney's movies were his seminal influence, but 40 years later, Disney creates "Lion King" based on his work "Kimba the White Lion" where circle of influence came around full circle.

Often writes comics about rebirth. Astro Boy was a robot rebirth of his creator's son. The entire "Hi no tori" (Firebird) series is about rebirth. Character Pinoko in his comic "Black Jack" is a rebirth of body-less embryo taken out of his sister's body.

His hobbies are Bug Collecting and Entomology.

Liked to make cameos in his manga.