Thursday February 9th, 1989

[dannavy85]

I was in my 3rd year of my first tour in Japan, based with VA-115 out of Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Sagami Prefecture. I was taking two work days off for leave and planned a 4-day trip around the Tokyo area.

A week before, Emperor Hirohito had passed away after a long illness with cancer and we in the military were ordered to "tread lightly" in talking about his majesty, given the sensitive history attached to him. After all, Hirohito had presided over Japan's rise as a military power in the early 20th century, presided over the catastrophy that was World War II and lived to see his nation reborn as an economic powerhouse.

Hirohito had lived a long tumult of a life but he had lived a full life so the expectation of his passing resulted in very few displays of grief from the people I encountered in my walk abouts the past week. No tearful displays, no somber emotional expressions.

The morning of the 9th, I had taken the train to Yamato City to where I normally changed my dollars to yen, I got better rates at the Hotel Yamato than on Atusgi base so as usual I walked into the front lobby.

Immediatly to the left as you walked into the hotel, there's a small reception lounge with coffee tables, sofa and so forth. It was 9am and the small space was packed with Japanese, men in business suits, women and some children. I noted a few of them were wiping their eyes, a few were sobbing.

Obviously something had happened of local significance. I walked up to the counter and pointed to the lounge as I started talking to Nakaoka, the man who normally handled Yen transactions at that time. "Something serious Nanao?" I asked.

"Yes." He replied. "Astro boy's artist has died."

I walked up to where the television was and looked past the gathered people to see the NHK announcers sitting with a black drape picture of Tezuka between them and changing pictures of his characters behind him.

And these people...real tears, real emotions...I was under preconcieved notions that Japanese never showed emotion in public but Tezuka, unlike the Emperor, was still rather young by their culture, still had plenty of life to give and he had died so sudden, so abrupt and it was of course made so because the illness he had suffered for two years was kept private. Even in his last month, his work-a-holic nature hadn't slowed a beat.

Here was a exceptional moment of contrast, when you look at how Hirohito's death and funeral was treated vice Tezuka's, it truely brought forth the phrase...And the lesser shall be greater and the great brought lesser. Tezuka's mark on post war Japan affected everything from the country's national education system to its prestige on the international stage to the popularity of Anime in America. To a generation of Japanese children who survived a horrific war and lived in squallar till the early 1950's, Tezuka's form of theatrical Manga helped to ease the transition and influence a wave of tallent in animation from all parts of the world.

He truely was a great man who needed no great title to accent the good and wonderful heart he had.

[AprilSeven]

Thank you for remembering and sharing that day with us, Dannavy. It means a great deal to me to learn how beloved he was, and yes, he was so young (I turn 60 in June) - but it inspires me to think on how many lives he touched . . and probably even saved . . . through he wonderful work

God Bless you, Dr. Tezuka. And thank you for giving me one of my life's dearest treasures.

[Anime Girl]

Man. I really regret being born to late, and never got to meet the person who inspired me to become an animator, writer, artist. I didn't even know much of Tezuka until I learned about him and his works when I was 13 or 14, but when I will never forget when I first watched Astro Boy when I was little (80's series on videotape), and saw the end credits where they had many different pictures of Astro Boy, and when they were flipped the right way, he came to life, running and jumping off the page and flying! It was so amazing! From then on I realized cartoons are pictures brought to life, and I wanted to grow up to be an animator, to make my own drawings and characters come to life. Thank you Tezuka-sensei. Thank you for inspiring me and creating one of my best friends, Atom-kun. I almost feel like even though I never knew you in person, you've always been there for me.

[avatargirl]

THANKS DANNAVY85- APRIL SEVEN- ANIME GIRL- SO GLAD ALL OF YOU ARE HERE- and I hope you all will be my friends- be a very sweet honor to have all of you as friends! pray everyone ETERNAL LIFE and safety- love all of you so much- your avatargirl friend always!

[Toshio]

I remember of a comic of Monica's Gang which Mauricio de Souza morns the death of Osamu Tezuka.

Both had plans to make a story together, but Tezuka had died before they had the chance.



Sadly, the story which Maurício de Sousa's assistants didn't made any justice for Osamu Tezuka's characters who were badly represented...



That's quite unfortunate that few people knows Osamu Tezuka unaltered work.

In my country series like Jetter Mars, Don Dracula and Ribbon No Kishi had been aired without edits and cuts.

I personally care about what Tezuka wished to show us and not what the distributors wanted to show.

He dedicated his life for his works and what he wanted to teach us is much more important than any polictical alterations.

By the way, Tetsuwan Atom may not have came here due the way which the characters feed energy, because there are several swearing words based in that type of "feeding".

Here is a photo of Mauricio and Tezuka together:

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Maybe one of these days Google will do a doodle to honor Dr. Tezuka.
Maybe we should start an e-petition toward that end. Let's see his birthday is November 3. (Wow that's three days before mine!)
Plenty of time.

[Toshio]

Tezuka did a great work and his work should be apreciated WITHOUT any cuts.

He even said in his final moments: "I beg you, let me work."

I'll never care about those who adapted Tezuka's works instead of just translating them, he was not wrong when he did his works.

Here is Osamu Tezuka with Mauricio de Sousa in a older photo:



Cover of a teaser comic for the upcoming crossover between Monica's Gang and Tetsuwan Atom:



A artwork sent to Mauricio de Sousa:



Tezuka and Mauricio together before the date of Tezuka's death:



Tezuka in front of Monica's Gang characters:

Two cards featuring Tezuka with his characters:





A video of Osamu Tezuka:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzcvHT-lE-M

Guess Mônica got a lot in common with Uran, she is still famous with plenty panty shots here and even today.

But, I still preffer Uran without having her underwear being shown all the time.

Mauricio de Sousa said that he improved his art a lot after meeting with Tezuka when they meet and Tezuka himself even did suggestions for improving the art.

Hope they make something much better than "Ravex in Tezuka World" which featured a version of Atom who looked like a Rockman character.

That special was so shameful, because "Ratom" was defeated by the bad guy O_o

[racoonangel]

yeah I totally agree they should have a special day to celebrate the great work Osamu tezuka did

[Tetsuwan Atom]

It did slip my mind this year but curse Februari 9th to think that i might ever had the change to meet him if he was still alive at Japan Expo he would only have been 84 by now and i still remember him saying in that secret of creation video from 86' that he wouldn't stop working until he turned 100 if that only where true

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM3T-540Ucs&list=UUnejW9nCR5aAM_5sRYu5tHA&index=16
i made this video for what would have been his 82th birthday

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Seems the YouTube DMCA police have chained your video to the wall.
Copyright law does allow certain use of copyrighted material in that you can take small 'excerpts' of the originals for you own use (Google "Dickie Goodman"). If that's what you did you should respond to the take down.