Osamu Tezuka’s vaunted storytelling genius, consummate skill at visual expression, and warm humanity blossom fully in his eight-volume epic of Siddhartha’s life and times.

Tezuka evidences his profound grasp of the subject by contextualizing the Buddha’s ideas; the emphasis is on movement, action, emotion, and conflict as the prince Siddhartha runs away from home, travels across India, and questions Hindu practices such as ascetic self-mutilation and caste oppression.

Rather than recommend resignation and impassivity, Tezuka’s Buddha predicates enlightenment upon recognizing the interconnectedness of life, having compassion for the suffering, and ordering one’s life sensibly. Philosophical segments are threaded into interpersonal situations with ground-breaking visual dynamism by an artist who makes sure never to lose his readers’ attention.

Tezuka himself was a humanist rather than a Buddhist, and his magnum opus is not an attempt at propaganda. Hermann Hesse’s novel or Bertolucci’s film is comparable in this regard; in fact, Tezuka’s approach is slightly irreverent in that it incorporates something that Western commentators often eschew, namely, humor.

The Eisner and Harvey Winner

The third volume of this epic graphic novel send Siddhartha further into a world mired in pain and suffering. The journey to peace and enlightenment looms far but bright.

Prince Siddhartha quickly learns that the monk's path is covered in thorns and self-abuses much more profound than shaving your head. His new companions Dhepa and Assaji accompany him to plague-ridden town, ruled by the ravashing Visakha. On a different path filled with as many vararies is Devadatta, an orphan who learns only that bad almost always gets worse.

To strange cities, and dire prophecies...

Author/Artist: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical
Page Count: 398pp
Size: 6 x 8
Notes: softcover, b/w
Date of Publication: September 5, 2006
ISBN: 978-1932234589