Conscience Circuit

Oh! Tomo Machiyama! In a fine fat feature for issue 2 of OTAKU USA, “The Mach” will be making a heretical case for Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider) as a greater and more innovative manga artist than the much-lauded Osamu Tezuka. And gosh, if it’s all not rather persuasive to boot.

I’d love to post the whole thing right here, right now, but dig this: I’d like you to actually buy the dern thing itself. Call me old-fashioned if you must! Still, here’s a peek what inflammatory stuff we have in store for the next round of hit-and-run:

"The ending of Ishinomori’s original Kikaida manga was perhaps his most devastating. The android hero, Jiro decides once and for all to stop the robotic “destructoids” created by the evil organization DARK. To do this, he makes up his mind to kill every robot he can. But in the process, he also murders his own mechanical family members, including Kikaida 01 and Bijinda.

The last panel of the manga says, “Jiro did a horrible thing. He killed his own siblings. Now, he is a human being.” Jiro was an innocent, free from original sin. He had a conscience, but that wasn’t enough. It is sin and evil that defines human beings. The very last line of the story asks, “Jiro is now human…but is it good for him?” The young readers of the Kikaida manga were just like Jiro. They had no grasp of morality beyond the simple stories of good and evil usually presented in manga. With this ending, Ishinomori told them, “you are not human yet, in order to become a grown up, you have to understand the evil that exists inside of you.” Only Ishinomori could create a deeply ironic and philosophical conclusion like that. So I think he was greater than Tezuka."

More evidence for the prosecution:
Ishinomori’s experimental masterpiece JUN.

Comments

[Carl Horn]

I admit that the contrast with Tetsuwan Atom* is apparent. But am I correct that whereas Tezuka's manga first began in the early 1950s, Kikaida dates from the early 1970s? Without denying the force of Ishimori's point, it's not surprising that a work directed at a different Japanese generation of kids might take a different tone. Tezuka too was re-examining his works in that era.

For what it is worth, by the way, Takao Saito regarded Shotaro Ishinomori** as his closest personal friend, up until the latter's death in 1998.

--C.

*Or in the original less-pretentious-ese, "Astro Boy."
**I can remember when he changed his name. It seems to me that all the most important works of his career were done as "Ishimori;" on the other hand, perhaps we should respect his wish to be called "Ishinomori" posthumously--sort of like "the Showa Emperor" instead of "Bunta 'Bud' Hirohito."

[Zer0]

Hopefully there will also be a Leiji Matsumoto flashback too. More 燃え, less 萌 please!

[Patrick Macias]

The nice thing about "The Leij" is that he's still alive (hint hint).

[Patrick Macias]

You also got banned (again).

[TheBigGSN5]

Well, you'd have Tezuka even if Ishinomori was never around, but you probably wouldn't have Ishinomori if Tezuka had never kickstarted the whole manga deal.

That being written, with Ishi having created (as I recall) Kamen Rider, sentai and other tokusatsu related fun, his influence is more pervasive. You don't see something Tezuka-esque every year, but you have at least a new sentai show every season, right? Tezuka's still the kami-sama, though, and where's Go Nagai in this discussion? Super robots, ultraviolence, erotic comedy, a Devilman movie with Bob Sapp as a newscaster, etc. = a champ in my book.

[WizarDru]

Just picked up Otaku USA last night. Awesome stuff. Seriously, it's pitch-perfect. I didn't realize Brian Ashcraft would be contributing, too...that was a nice surprise.

The thing that makes it great is honest reviews and articles that aren't just about the latest thing, but turn an eye back to the awesome old stuff. Otaku USA gives off the vibe that you guys dig not just the latest and greatest, but can still dig the old Tatsunoko or Toho stuff from in the day.

For those of us fans who were paying $35 for a video-taped second-generation copy of the laser-disc version of Castle Cagliostro without subtitle when we were in high school, that's nice to see. Consider me a new subscriber.