[...] site writer Rob Vollmar has talked up the works of Osamu Tezuka, “God of Manga”, here before, but none of them clicked with me until now. (Big thanks [...]

[...] of the artistic successes of those two landmark works while stumbling over fewer obstacles than his Ode to Kirihito, a work begun the same year, in the process of navigating these previously uncharted narrative [...]

[...] another in their line of works by Osamu Tezuka (whose Ode to Kirihito was recently reviewed on this site). It’s 500 or so pages, due in June, priced at [...]

Thanks for your feedback! For me, the really early stuff that predates ASTRO BOY like NEXT WORLD or METROPOLIS is amusing but doesn’t hold up well in contrast to his later, better developed material. More specifically, Tezuka doesn’t seem have the same command over the flow of his story and they just seem to meander until they terminate rather than enjoying the unity of purpose that I associate with stories from the PHOENIX cycle in particular.

I enjoyed this review, by the way. You kind of hit the nail on the head with some of the things that bothered me a bit with this title. It was immensely enjoying, but there were just a few things here and there that didn’t sit right.

[...] Rob Vollmar joins the Comics Worth Reading website, with a look at Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito. [...]

An understandable mistake and not one I would take any offense from, regardless.

Thanks for the comment. Long time no see!

As I said in the review, there is no disputing Tezuka’s genius at work here. I think that it suffers some though in a context with some of his other work from this same period. I found his treatment of his female characters to be predictable and, for the most part, limited by his insistence to recycle a few otherwise successful characterizations into every woman that enters the story for whatever period of time. You can, again, directly contrast that with BUDDHA which features a much wider range of female characters, each playing her own role in the story.

[...] takes on Poison Cherry Drive and Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of 100% Perfect Girl. At Comics Worth Reading, Rob Vollmar gives Ode to Kirihito a slightly less glowing review than everyone else. And Katherine Dacey-Tsuei shows the rest of us [...]

What suprised me is how quick a read it was. I think I read the whole book in just under four hours.