Astro Boy. Black Jack. Kimba the White Lion. The Phoenix.
Through decades of anime and manga history, one creator has stood out as the defining artist of an entire medium. His style laid the groundwork for much of what we call anime and manga today, and his series are seeing a startling marketing push here in the West of late thanks to pioneering companies like Vertical, Inc., Viz Media, and Digital Manga Publishing. That man is Osamu Tezuka, the “god of manga.”
To coincide with Vertical, Inc.’s upcoming republication of a number of their Tezuka manga (MW, Ode to Kirihito), Ani-Gamers will be dedicating the month of March to the appreciation of the artist’s unique triumphs (and the illumination of some of his flaws as well). Through reviews, podcast episodes, essays, and giveaways, we will be looking at a wide variety of titles created or inspired by Tezuka, from the Black Jack manga to the Phoenix anime to the Astro Boy Gameboy Advance game all the way to Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto. The exact titles that we’ll cover aren’t 100% set in stone, but rest assured that you’ll find some famous series as well as a number of more obscure titles.
I would also like to get some participation from our audience. If you want us to cover a particular Tezuka series, or if you’re a fellow anime/manga writer who would like to do a guest review for the theme month, please get in contact with us.
That’s about it. I hope you enjoy our first-ever Ani-Gamers Theme Month!
