This question again? OK, I love to tell tall tales.
This years marks my first decade as a Tezuka fan. I doscovered him when I was very young. My actual first contact was when I saw a Kimba beta tape at a froend of my mother's place. That was around 1987-1989.
At the same time, Princess Knight aired on TV. The eighties were at its peak, and this was the awesome ED of the Spanish TV version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isiDha8zPXU Dead catchy, but the singer looks like he's trying to clear the smoke from him at the beginning instead of justa waving (I happen to be that "bigladiesman" who has the second most popular comment, BTW).
Then I didn't know who Osamu Tezuka was, but in 1990 Dragon Ball came along, and with that the otaku phenomenon started in Spain after some moderate sucesses (Mazinger Z, Miyazaki's Heidi and 3000 Leagues in the Search of Mother, Harlock, Dr. Slump or Captain Tsubasa). In 1993 the manga started being publiushed in Spain, and in 1992, the Olympic year in my hometown, an article about Astro appeared. I was 9 years old and laugh at that "old drawings". The first manga buffs in my country already were hailing anf lauding Tezuja as a genius... I didn't care, and, of course, I completely ignored the fact that Princess Knight (which I really loved) and Astroboy were from the same author, and as a child I found series like "Kimba" and "Triton of the Sea" too serious and competely awful (in fact, I still think that "Jungle Taitei" is terrible; the lowest point on Manga No Kami-Sama's career).
But years passed by and while a teenager I found an old fanzine in one of my local libraries. It was the same fanzine used as a basis for that old article about Astroboy, and at last I had the chance to read some Astroboy. I went nuts: Man, it was funny, with all that 4th wall breaking. Years later I found out that actually taht traslation was made up, but my opinion about Tezuka changed.
When I was 19, i started reading Buddha; got hooked and started with Astro. When I got my first job, I started my collection. Now I'm 29, turning 30 in December. And from then on and the rest of my life I'll be a Tezuka and Astroboy buff. Jusst spare me
Jungle Taitei.
