Osamu Tezuka Kirihito Sanka Ode To Kirihito The Complete Manga
First American Edition Paperback Graphic Novel
A promising young doctor, Kirihito Osanai visits a remote Japanese mountain village to investigate the source of the latest medical mystery. While he ends up traveling the world to discover what it takes to be cured of such a disease, a conspiracy back home attempts to explain away his absence.
Hinging upon his fate are those of his loved ones: an unstable childhood friend and colleague trapped between factions of the medical establishment that nurtured him; a fiancée emotionally transformed by Kirihito’s mysterious disappearance; and a stranger who becomes his guardian angel, a sensual circus-act performer with volatile psychological secrets.
From plutocratic Taipei and racially divided South Africa and Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe) to backwater Arabia and modern Osaka, ambition and desire beckon “normal men” to behave uglier than any beast.
Riveting our attention on deformity and its acceptance like The Elephant Man by David Lynch, Ode to Kirihito examines the true worth of human beings through and beyond appearances.
Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) is the godfather of Japanese manga comics and anime.
He originally intended to become a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was still then considered a frivolous medium.
With his sweeping vision, deftly intertwined plots, and indefatigable commitment to human dignity, Tezuka elevated manga to an art form.
Peer Reviews:
“Ode to Kirihito is moving, tender and engrossing. Also very, very odd.”
—Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman and Anansi Boys
“A thoroughly original, wonderfully bizarre, and compulsively readable masterwork. Ode to Kirihito is a vital testament to Tezuka's range as an artist, as well as an awe-inspiring example of the possibilities of the graphic novel.”
—Adrian Tomine, writer/artist of Optic Nerve and Summer Blonde
“Tezuka was like a god for me. He shocked the manga world with the medical thriller genre, and the work he did it with was Ode to Kirihito — a monumental suspense masterpiece that shows off Tezuka’s two points of expertise — manga and medicine.”
—Yoshihiro Tatsumi, author of The Push-Man and Abandon the Old in Tokyo
Tezuka-san turns his comic book mastery to evil in this terrifying examination of moral decay. Fans of Japanese horror both new and old should not miss this shocking single volume that will completely change Tezuka's American reputation as the Japanese Walt Disney. Brutal, depraved and savage, Kirihito will leave you panting like a beaten dog-man!
—Andrew D. Arnold, Time comics critic