Recently read Ayako, by Osamu Tezuka. This is one of his more serious works, from the early 1970's. By "serious", I mean that there's none of the various sight gags that the Doc tended to include even in stuff like Phoenix or Buddha. I also don't see any of Tezuka's "regulars" in here, either.
The story is one of the disintegration of a Japanese family, the Tenges, in postwar Japan from 1949 to about 1973. The family members include:
- Tokuemon, the patriarch, an absolute ruler as Japanese fathers were in the old days, he is resentful at the Allied redistribution of his feudal lands to his tenant farmers.
- Iba, his long-suffering wife
- Ichiro, the eldest son, ready to do anything in order to enure that he inherits.
- Su'e, Ichiro's wife, who is forced to do something unspeakable for her husband.
- Jiro, the returning POW, who drifts into a life of crime.
- Naoko, the daughter, who shames the family by becoming a Communist.
- Shiro, the most intelligent of the Tenge family, his sharp mind does not save him.
- Ayako, the little girl whose true parentage is the black secret that ultimately destroys the family.
The book is several hundred pages long, but it's an interesting read, and very action-packed, as the various family members scheme against society and one another. From what I've read, this was written in a period when Japanese comics had gone all "grim 'n' gritty", and Tezuka was seen as "irrelevant in the modern age. Tezuka responded by writing books that were more "adult" in tone. This is certainly not a "kid-friendly" book, and there is some sex scenes. That said, it's certainly not "hardcore", or anything like that, and I don't think there's too much in here that would be offensive to most people. Well worth a look, if you want to see Tezuka do something that's ratther a bit different from Astro Boy.
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It sounds interesting, but seriously, the next time I'm in the mood to read a long Japanese historical manga, I really must finish Lone Wolf & Cub!
This is nowhere near as long as that - but Lone Wolf & Cub is definitely a must-read.
I know... I own it and I've loved everthing I've read so far, I just haven't finished it. I also own and have not quite yet worked my way through the complete Hal Foster Prince. I'm pretty good about picking up Prince Valiant where I left off, but when I return to LW&C I'm going to have to start at the beginning and make a "project" of it. So much (too much!) of what I like to read is like that.
I've read a few Lone Wolf & Cub stories and, as wonderful as they were, there was nothing about them that made me feel I must read them all.
Oh, well, you'd better read something else, then! :)