Osamu Tezuka
The father of modern manga and TV anime. Osamu Tezuka created Astro Boy and Kimba, set up Mushi Production and launched Japan's first weekly half-hour animated TV series in 1963.
Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum, Takarazuka: MASA, CC BY-SA 3.0
A doctor who drew
Osamu Tezuka grew up in Takarazuka, near Osaka, where he loved insects, theatre and American cartoons. He drew manga while studying medicine and qualified as a doctor, but chose to draw full time. His 1947 comic New Treasure Island used film-like framing and movement, and it changed how Japanese comics were told.
Astro Boy
In 1952 Tezuka began Tetsuwan Atom, known in English as Astro Boy, about a robot boy with a big heart. He wrote hundreds of stories across genres, from medical drama in Black Jack to the epic Phoenix, and drew huge numbers of pages over his career. His large-eyed character style influenced generations of manga artists.
Mushi Production and TV anime
Tezuka wanted to animate his own work, and in 1961 he founded Mushi Production. On 1 January 1963 Astro Boy began on Japanese television as the first weekly half-hour animated series made in Japan. To make a new episode every week on a small budget, the team used limited animation: fewer drawings, reused cycles, held poses and clever camera moves. These methods shaped the look of TV anime for decades.
Color and experiments
Kimba the White Lion (1965) was Japan's first color animated TV series. Tezuka also made experimental short films, including Jumping (1984), a single continuous shot from the point of view of someone bouncing higher and higher, which won a prize at an international animation festival.
Legacy
Tezuka died in 1989, and the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum opened in Takarazuka in 1994. Nearly every later anime studio has roots in the industry he helped create. For the bigger story, read our anime history page, and see the animation timeline for where his work fits.
Did you know?
Tezuka was extraordinarily productive: his complete works fill hundreds of volumes, and he often worked through the night to meet magazine deadlines. His manga covered history, science fiction, medicine and children's adventure, and many have been adapted into films and series long after his death.
Visiting the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum in Takarazuka, you can see original pages, an animation workshop where visitors can try making simple animation, and exhibits about his life and characters. It is an easy trip from Osaka or Kobe.
- Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum, Takarazuka: MASA, CC BY-SA 3.0
Text written by Fantastic Cartoon.
