What Did Osamu Tezuka Change in Manga?

　Osamu Tezuka—who became famous among manga-loving boys throughout Japan due to his hit work "Shin Takarajima" [New Treasure Island] (written by Shichima Sakai, drawn by Osamu Tezuka and published by Ikuei Publishing in 1947)—had a major effect on subsequent generations. However, based on research in recent years, it has been found that many of the expressive ideas and themes once thought to have been pioneered by Tezuka after the war actually already existed in the children’s manga world of the 1930s. Here, based on our understanding of the richness of children’s manga before Tezuka, we would like to consider Tezuka innovations that should be re-examined. 

In "Shin Takarajima", readers are smoothly guided from one frame to the next. In addition, as a technique to get readers to empathize with specific characters, the manga sometimes shows the protagonist finding something outside of a frame and then switches to a shot depicting the found object from the protagonist’s view in the next frame. This technique—which essentially applies the method of linking shots often found in movies—was already used in the works of Seika Nīzeki (Kennosuke), Noboru Ōshiro, and other manga Tezuka liked to read as a boy. 

Keizō Shimada—who enjoyed popularity second only to Suihō Tagawa thanks to "Bōken Dankichi" [Dankichi, an Adventurous Boy] (Dainippon Yūbenkai Kodansha, 1933-39)—did more than Tagawa to directly make the USA’s comic and cartoon/animation style his own. "Nekoshichi Sensei" [Mr. Nekoshichi]—which featured a feline protagonist similar in shape to Felix the Cat—was serialized by the "Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun" (currently known as the Mainichi Shimbun) from 1939 to 1940. This work was also released as a separate book by Dainippon Yūbenkai Kodansha, but the episodes that were not printed in the book include one where Nekoshichi Sensei meets Disney characters. 

Tezuka is sometimes said to be responsible for introducing manga-like characters who were realistically injured and sometimes even died at a time when it was far more common for manga to depict characters who immediately recovered after being flattened or walked away from massive explosions with nothing but soot on their faces and dejected expressions. However, before Tezuka, "Norakuro Sōkōgeki" [Norakuro: All-Out Attack], "Norakuro Kesshitaichō" [Norakuro: Suicide Corps Captain], and "Norakuro Buyūdan "[Norakuro: Tale of Heroism]—three Norakuro works written from 1937 to 1938—depicted injuries that were more realistic and serious than in previous manga works.

As has been discussed so far, many of the themes and expressive ideas commonly thought to have been pioneered by Tezuka actually existed in children’s manga before and during the war. At the same time, there were a number of manga elements that were extremely rare before Tezuka but that he did a great deal to firmly establish. One example is the multi-layered story structure. This is shown in "Kitarubeki Sekai" [Next World](Fuji Shobō, 1951), in which the overall framework of the story includes the arrival of aliens as well as the Cold War. Set against this backdrop, multiple protagonists act according to their own agendas, resulting in a series of intertwined episodes that advance the plot in parallel. This splendid example of storytelling had a major effect on later writers.  

In "Kitarubeki Sekai", Tezuka depicts the way the sanity of a young man is gradually threatened by the so-called “caged-bird punishment,” which involves leaving him in a space with a certain amount of light 24 hours a day, where nothing is done to him and he is not allowed to do anything except eat, and having him endure this punishment day after day. Similarly, in "Tsumi to Batsu" [Crime and Punishment](Tōkōdō, 1953)—a manga adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel of the same name—Tezuka uses various techniques in an effort to depict the complex psychology of the protagonist. Tezuka’s attempts to create works that defied the idea than manga is “for kids” laid the groundwork for the story-driven manga of post-war Japan.