3/28/2024 0 Comments Metamorphosis manga main character![]() Toshiko has gone to the doctor to ask about having an abortion – one that her husband has forbid her from having. Take for instance this panel (no, it’s not distorted by scan or photography – it actually looks like that in the book): The plot unfolds dramatically, its characters highly interesting, its visuals cinematic and fascinating. Most of her successes rely on plagiarism and blackmail, yet she is able to enjoy the results of her underhanded methods without feeling guilty for the most part. Toshiko is ruthless yet subtle, convinced that her actions are justified. ![]() The main character is the beautiful, fashionable Tomura Toshiko, likened to the haruzemi (the terpnosia vacua cicada), moves through life constantly reinventing herself amid a succession of lovers, shedding her previous identities like the cicada sheds its shell. Many of the characters even have the kanji of the insect in question in their name. Human Metamorphoses, like another famous Tezuka work called Birdman Anthology, draws parallels between humans and animals – in this case, insects. Images that some may find objectionable due to mature content will be linked to off-site. ![]() For now, you’ll have to settle with scans found on the internet. I only wish I had a scanner at the moment, as the artwork and layout in many of the page spreads is fantastic it’s hard to convey just how awesome this manga is without the images to back it up. It is unfortunately not available in English translation, but I recently finished reading it in Japanese and wanted to share my opinions. ![]() Tezuka wrote Human Metamorphoses (「人間昆虫記」 Ningen Konchuuki) in 1970-1, during this same fascinating period of experimentation. Furthermore, these works allow a glimpse into Tezuka’s true artistic talent though he stuck to “cartoony,” Disney-like characters for much of his career, he was highly skilled at more realistic rendering and at adjusting his style to different genres and situations. ![]() As a fan of 1960s and modernist aesthetics, I find it fascinating to see ’60s and ’70s styles reflected in the medium of manga. Tezuka not only began to experiment with art style, layout, content, and presentation but also integrated some of the aesthetics of the times into his work. Though I love almost all of Tezuka’s work, this period is particularly interesting to me for many reasons. At a time when many manga artists were moving towards more serious, sexually explicit, and violent subjects, Tezuka also wrote many of his most dark, mature, and psychologically profound works: Yakeppachi no Maria (a strange, sexual, pseudo-educational manga about which I will probably write another time), MW (Tezuka’s darkest work in my opinion), Barbara, Ayako, I.L., and several others were all written by Tezuka between 19. Osamu Tezuka, my favourite comic artist of all time, the father of all Japanese comics and animation, branched out a lot in the late 1960s and 1970s. **UPDATE (12/29/10): Vertical has announced at Comic-con that they are translating Human Metamorphoses (they’re calling it “Book of Human Insects”….subtle….), so you can look forward to an English version soon-ish!** ![]()
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