Buddha (manga)
Original manga By Osamu Tezuka
Printed in 1972
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The story is noted for not focusing on the
character who would become the “Buddha” in the beginning but rather it focuses
on side characters who would influence the Buddha in future chapters, be it in
their current incarnation or reincarnation.
·
Despite everyone being Indian as with the
origins of Buddhism, the design is reminisce of Tezuka’s other works which
makes the characters more simplistic in order to make us relate more to them.
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Sacrifice of oneself in order to have a better
reincarnation is a common theme in this manga. This is exemplified even in the
beginning of the story where the rabbit was to sacrifice himself for the
benefit of the dying hermit and thus transcended to a higher plain of
existence, which was a theme to be consistently delved into in the series.
(Buddha, Pages 22-25).
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Slaves are treated horribly in the comic, as
with the example of the slave boy in the beginning with his mother (Buddha,
Page 40).
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People have mystic powers that are not explained
well in the mythos of the manga but they serve as part of the narrative to how certain
things in the Buddha’s life came to be, Tatta exemplifies this with his powers
of going into animals like when he saved the slave mother for his friend (Buddha,
Pages 65-69).
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Death and destruction is a common theme in the
manga as people are killed, maimed, sold to slavery, etc that is less seen in
mass in any Tezuka work, like the death of entire village with Tatta’s mother
and sister dying (Pages 85-89).
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As a piece of biography, this manga follows much
of the established traditions of the Buddha’s lifestyle in the religion and
philosophy with added side characters that Tezuka incorporated.
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Tezuka does not insert himself in this work,
notable compared to his other works to stress that this is a piece of fiction. Tezuka
not being in this manga can be seen as stressing that this is NOT fiction,
making us awe inspired and lost in his work as opposed to the other works where
he tries to test our sense of reality.
·
Despite characters looking evil in the manga at
times, it turns out that looks can be deceiving as morally decent characters
actually can be good while morally deprived characters can look beautiful.
·
Characters dying in this manga are common, but
as reincarnation is the theme of Buddhism it is not necessarily the case that
we never see the character again: they can reappear as another person later on.
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In the first book, the titular Buddha character
does not even show up until the very last part, and even then he is but born.
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Animals have their own will in this manga and
tend to act rationally as people do. Given how animals can be reincarnated
people, however, this should come to no surprise.
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People are horribly mutilated in the Buddha
series.
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The only character to continue on by the series’
end was Tatta.
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Overall, this was an excellent series worthy of
Tezuka’s namesake.
Bibliography:
Tezuka, O. (2006). Buddha. New York: Vertical.
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