Featuring interviews with Katsuhiro Otomo, Riyoko Ikeda, Naoki Urasawa, Go Nagai, Toshiyuki Tomino, Masao Maruyama, Rintaro, Ada Palmer, Fred Schodt, and more!
It’s hard to overstate Osamu Tezuka’s influence on manga and anime in Japan and comic book and animation storytelling around the world. Before there was Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Chainsaw Man, and Jujutsu Kaisen, there was Tezuka’s Astro Boy: the iconic, atomic-powered robot boy. Known in Japan as Tetsuwan Atom, this loveable hero sprang fully formed from the imagination of Tezuka-sensei, AKA the “God of Manga.” In 1963, Tezuka broke new ground by introducing Astro Boy — the bestselling manga of its time — as Japan’s first weekly animated TV program. Now, Peabody Award-winning director Jason Andrew Cohn and the Bread & Butter Films production team (Camille Servan-Schreiber, Jinko Gotoh, Glen S. Fukushima, and Roland Kelts) —will spotlight Tezuka’s life and legacy with TEZUKA! God of Manga, an all-new, feature-length documentary being funded on Kickstarter.
Though he’s sometimes compared to Walt Disney, Tezuka was arguably a much greater cultural force. His incredible storylines — including Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and hundreds of others — ignited a post-war explosion of creativity that positioned Japan as a global leader in comics and animation to this day and influenced generations of creators around the world.
TEZUKA! God of Manga features interviews with legendary manga and animecreators including Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), Riyoko Ikeda (Rose of Versaille), Naoki Urasawa (Monster), Go Nagai (Devilman), Toshiyuki Tomino (Gundam), MADHOUSE co-founder and anime producer Masao Maruyama (Tokyo Godfathers), anime director Rintaro (Metropolis), best-selling fantasy author Ada Palmer (Too Like the Lightning), Samuel Sattin (Unico Awakening), Jorge R. Gutierrez (The Book of Life), Helen McCarthy (The Art of Osamu Tezuka), Natsu Onoda Power (God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the creation of post-World War II Manga), and the dean of English language mangascholarship, Fred Schodt (Manga! Manga!). Once funded, the producers will schedule additional interviews with artists, including Paul Pope (THB) and Ron Wimberly (Prince of Cats).
“TEZUKA! God of Manga celebrates Tezuka-sensei as a preposterously prolific, enigmatic creator who forever altered popular culture by introducing young readers to a brand-new, DIY medium that rocketed around the world,” said Jason Andrew Cohn. “The creative cross-fertilization between artists in Japan and the rest of the world made Tezuka one of the most beloved and influential artists of the 20th century. TEZUKA! God of Mangais a moving, immersive, and visually stunning romp through comics history. This film will celebrate his legacy and introduce his incredible creations to a new generation.”
Tezuka’s remarkable story will unfold in three acts, beginning with his childhood in the suburbs of Osaka in the shadow of the Pacific War. Launching from Tezuka’s dream to create manga and found his own independent animation studio, the film chronicles his ascendence to becoming a national sensation and the subsequent counter-cultural backlash in the 1960s, when young manga readers gravitated away from Tezuka and toward edgier artists in the gekiga movement. The third act explores Tezuka’s remarkable comeback with enduring storylines like Black Jack, which piled on to a creative legacy that extends beyond his estimated 150,000 pages of published manga and dozens of television cartoons and animated films.
The Kickstarter campaign for TEZUKA! God of Manga will feature rare rewards and merchandise from Tezuka Productions; limited-edition, Kickstarter-exclusive collectible prints celebrating Tezuka and his work created by today’s hottest manga and comic artists; and a collectible Blu-ray version of the documentary. IfTEZUKA! God of Manga is successfully funded on Kickstarter, filming can continue, and is scheduled to be finished by 2028, the centenary of Osamu Tezuka’s birth.
To support the campaign, visit the campaign on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tezuka/tezuka-god-of-manga?ref=6abznb.
For more updates follow Tezuka! God of Manga on X, Bluesky, and Instagram.
ABOUT TEZUKA
Tezuka Osamu was born the eldest son of three children on November 3rd, 1928, in Toyonaka City, Osaka. An extremely witty and imaginative boy, he grew up in a liberal family exposed to manga and animation.
As a boy he also had a love for insects reminiscent of Fabre, and, reflecting the level of his interest in the insect world, later incorporated the ideogram for “insect” into his pen name.
Having developed an intense understanding of the preciousness of life from his wartime experience, Tezuka Osamu aimed to become a physician and later earned his license, but ultimately chose the profession he loved best: manga artist and animated film writer.
Tezuka Osamu’s manga and animated films had a tremendous impact on the shaping of the psychology of Japan’s postwar youth. His work changed the concept of the Japanese cartoon, transforming it into an irresistible art form and incorporating a variety of new styles in creating the “story cartoon.” Changing the face of literature and movies, his work also influenced a range of other genres.
His impact on animated film was equal to that which he had on the manga world. The lovable characters appearing in works such as Japan’s first animated TV series “ASTRO BOY,” the color animated TV series “Jungle Emperor Leo”, and the two-hour animated special “Bander Book,” captured the hearts of the Japanese through the medium of television, propelling the animated film to tremendous popularity in Japanese general society.
Tezuka Osamu’s work was exported to the U.S., Europe, and other Asian countries, becoming the stuff of dreams for children around the world. He also ventured into the world of full-length adult animation, exploring all possibilities of the field of animation.
ABOUT THE CREATORS:
Jason Andrew Cohn is the Peabody Award-winning director of EAMES: The Architect and the Painter; as well as two films that were finalists for the Ken Burns-Library of Congress Prize for film: Modernism, Inc. and The First Angry Man. He co-produced the award-winning Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin. His radio stories have appeared on nationally syndicated public radio programs and his print reporting has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly, and Rolling Stone Magazine. Jason became a fan of Osamu Tezuka while living in Sapporo, Japan between 1991-1995. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Camille Servan-Schreiber,born in France, has been working in documentary film in the US since 1998. She has produced for PBS American Masters, PBS Frontline, National Geographic, and many other outlets, and has received numerous honors including a Peabody, a Golden Spire Award from the San Francisco Film Festival, and a national Emmy nomination.
Camille’s recent productions include Girls of the Golden West for PBS Great Performance. She is currently completing the follow-up documentary to Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s Miss Representation.
Jinko Gotoh is a BAFTA® winner and an Oscar®-nominated producer and consultant for the animation industry. She is currently producing Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming Spider-ManTM: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the highly anticipated conclusion of the Spider-Verse trilogy. Her extensive producing credits include the 2020 BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated Klaus, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, BAFTA winner The Little Prince, the Oscar-nominated The Illusionist, 9, and the Oscar-winning Finding Nemo. Gotoh is devoted to advancing women and all underrepresented people in the film industry. She serves as vice president of Women in Animation and as a member of the Board of Governors for The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America.
Glen S. Fukushima is an American entrepreneur, academic, and philanthropist committed to deepening understanding between the United States and Japan. He is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. InApril 2022, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as vice chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation following his appointment by President Joe Biden. He was first exposed to Osamu Tezuka as a young boy while living on an American military base in Japan, where he looked forward to watching Astro Boy on TV.
Roland Nozomu Kelts is the author of JapanAmerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. He is a Lecturer at the University of Tokyo and a co-editor of the New York-based literary journal A Public Space. His first novel, Access, will be published next year. His articles, essays, and stories have been published in Zoetrope, Playboy, Doubletake, Salon, The Village Voice, Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and The Japan Times, among others.
TEZUKA PRODUCTIONS: Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. (株式会社手塚プロダクション, Kabushiki-gaisha Tezuka Purodakushon) is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1968 by Osamu Tezuka. The studio is known for animating notable works such as Marvelous Melmo, the 1980 and 2003 Astro Boy series, Jungle Emperor Leo (AKA: Kimba), Dororo, and Black Jack. Tezuka Productions holds the intellectual property rights to Osamu Tezuka’s works.
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher