ブッダ

BUDDHA

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
14
RELEASE
November 1, 1983
CHAPTERS
69

DESCRIPTION

Osamu Tezuka’s vaunted storytelling genius, consummate skill at visual expression, and warm humanity blossom fully in his epic volumes on 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.

(Source: Kodansha USA)

Note: Won the Bungei Shunju Manga Award in 1975 and the Best U.S. Edition of International Material for the Eisner Award in 2004 and 2005.

CAST

Siddhartha Gautama
Tatta
Shunsaku Ban
Housuke Sharaku

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO BUDDHA

Cover Art for Tezuka Osamu no Buddha: Akai Sabaku yo! Utsukushiku

MOVIE DramaTezuka Osamu no Buddha: Akai Sabaku yo! Utsukushiku

Cover Art for BUDDHA 2: Tezuka Osamu no Buddha ~Owarinaki Tabi~

MOVIE DramaBUDDHA 2: Tezuka Osamu no Buddha ~Owarinaki Tabi~

MANGA ComedyTezuka Gakuen

REVIEWS

Krankastel
80/100
Siddharta meets Tezuka; an original retelling of an important lifework.
Summarizing Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha, it is a historical epic with biographical and some supernatural elements (connected to Vedic religions and mythology), on Siddhartha Gautama‘s lifework. Not a biography though; some characters are fictional, the story starts before Siddhartha’s birth and Tezuka also took another kind of artistic license.

However, the manga never deviates from Buddhist teachings. Also, Tezuka’s storytelling was straightforward and easy to grasp, for all its philosophical, societal and religious themes, with fine balance between narration, dialogue-based storytelling and visual storytelling.

__[1. Beginning with the story…]__
The first chapter mentions the Indo-Aryans of the Vedic period, who introduced exploitative and oppressive discrimination with four social classes: brahmin (priest class), rajanya/kshatriya (ruler class), vaishya (merchant class) and shudra (laborer class), thus initiating readers to social injustices and hardships of ancient India and how these pushed people towards alternative paths for spiritual enlightenment.

Immediately after this introduction, the story shifts to a magnificent sample of purely visual storytelling: an old monk collapses on a snowy mountain, and a bear, a fox and a rabbit seek food for him. The rabbit fails to do so, and after the old man lights a campfire, it throws itself into it to offer itself as food.

And right after this iconic scene, the narrative shifts to the tale of a shudra boy who after certain circumstances is raised and trained as a kshatriya. Its importance permeats the rest of the narrative, and also introduces the “untouchables” outside the “varna” system, and showcases social injustice being the root of many evils. After this interjecting tale, the rest of the narrative continues with the birth and growth of Siddharta, and ends at the Mahaparinirvana.

More and more characters are introduced and recurring ones are developing accordingly, interconnected to the narrative. More details will be noted on [2.], the character section. And one closing note: Osamu Tezuka’s artistic license was highly connected to visual storytelling. He included certain comedic, metafictional and intertextual elements typical of his writing style, that contrasted heavily with the mature and often dark story; this is one of the aspects that might make-or-break the show for a reader. More details will be noted on [3.], the artwork section.

__[2. Continuing with the characters…]__
Although Siddhartha is born a kshatriya according to the varna system, he could not understand why humans must suffer and on what basis social classes and untouchables must exist to begin with. After eventually rejecting his varna, homeland and family, he sets out on a journey as a travelling monk. From the journey’s start and up until Mahaparinirvana, his character is constantly dynamic: he observes nature and mankind and introspects. He suffers and witnesses suffering in equal measure. He is tempted yet never yields to base nature, and gradually learns more and more on nature and life, culminating in receiving enlightenment. But his struggle does not end, he devotes the rest of his life into teaching.

Let’s retrace to how I mentioned that social injustice was the root of MANY evils, tied to material hardship. The other side of the evils is connected to spiritual hardship: suffering (dukkha) according to Buddhism originates from being unsatisfied because of desire/greed, distress due to pains of living (e.g. aging and dying) and distress due to impermanence. Siddhartha advocates bringing dukkha into an end, by renouncing desire and embracing truths of the world, and ourselves as threads of a grand tapestry.

Siddhartha attracts people from all walks of life, including “untouchable” bandits and shudras desperate for spiritual guidance to brahmins who antagonize him to kshatriyas in fear and denial of death. Some embrace his teachings and attempt to change their lifestyle and mindset, whereas others deny his teachings and/or act antagonistically towards him, and fall into tragedy. They are not always complex characters (some are rather flat) and often act immorally, but their struggles are (mostly) tied both to values dissonance and to the hardships they endure. Their interactions with the Buddha and each other drive the narrative together in perfect harmony.

__[3. And concluding with the artwork…]__
From the point of manga history, Buddha is considered a sample of the gekiga movement. Unlike Astro Boy that catered towards children during the 50s and 60s, Buddha is a sample of early 70s that catered towards older teenager and adult audiences, some of whom might have grown up reading early manga.

Before building on this statement, I must describe how Buddha remains a “Tezukan” work. First, character designs remain cartoony (strongly influenced by Disney), as is the case with the e.g. Astro Boy and Dororo, contrasting with the mature story.

Second, let’s retrace to the end of section [1.]: an aspect of visual storytelling can be a hit-or-miss element. To elaborate, quite some designs are caricatural and there are visual anachronisms (e.g. cigarettes flying), direct references on media/producers/works (e.g. ET the Extra Terrestrial) and fourth-wall breaking (e.g. an avatar of Tezuka self-deprecating, or panel-connected humor). To be honest, I had a mixed-negative opinion on this aspect occasionally, for it caused mood dissonance and excessive contrasts with the mature tone. However, Buddha’s narrative is by no means undermined, and if this aspect is overlooked or embraced, one may even appreciate Tezuka’s visual craftiness.

Retracing to gekiga; the visual storytelling also remains true to the movement by being highly cinematic and more "adult”. For example, paneling is connected to meta jokes, but also to some of the smoothest scene transitions, I could always tell how parts of the narrative are interconnected without ever being confused. Panels don’t follow the same format and depending on their size and patterns, important parts are highlighted in juxtaposition to the rest of the scene. Close-ups and powerful visual shots (e.g. Siddhartha’s birth) are presented at perfect timing to make for memorable scenes.

Last but not least be warned: there are many graphic scenes (e.g. burnt corpses or showcasing smallpox), female nudity is commonplace (different modesty standards) and for all the occasional goofiness, Tezuka pulled no punches in viscerally portraying cruel aspects of nature and life, such as drought and starvation.
Hope you enjoyed my review!
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Wan
89/100
Tezuka Makes Use of a Semi-Biographical Narrative to Tell A Familiar Story About The Sanctity of Life
Buddha begins with two ideas, each of which hint to the reader what this story is about. A monk collapses on the mountain. He is found by a fox, a bear, and a rabbit. The fox brings berries, the bear brings fish, the rabbit brings nothing. Unable to find anything, he offers the monk the only thing that he has, his life. Throwing himself into a fire, the rabbit commits the ultimate sacrifice to save the monk. This sacrifice is told many times during this narrative, but most fail to understand it’s meaning. The greater meaning of this action is the first idea this narrative strives to answer. The second being the introduction of the caste system. What would later be known as India, was founded by those known as the Aryan conquerors. The purest of blood from them became the leaders of society and went on to call themselves, the Brahmin. Underneath them, they created social classes such as ‘warrior’, ‘commoner’, ‘slave’ and so on. They introduced discrimination that would affect Indians from before the time in which this story is told the modern day. The people of this story growing tired of the ways of the Brahmin sought a saviour, someone who understood the true meaning of life, the Buddha.

Despite it’s name Buddha, much of this narrative is spent focusing on other characters. In this semi-fictionalized biography of Buddha, Tezuka uses his artistic license to expand the reaches of this story past Buddha’s spiritual journey towards enlightenment. Tezuka makes use of action to progress his plot and relied on a large cast of characters to explore the central ideas of this story. This left me confused initially, as the story did not even begin with Buddha, instead opting for a narrative prologue with two different protagonists. Buddha begins by following: Chapra, a young boy from the lowly Shudra slave caste who wants to raise his social class through deceptive means; and Tatta, a young thief of the pariah clan (lower than slaves). He would continue to play a major role in the life of Buddha, even becoming his first disciple. Through the tragic tales of Chapra and Tatta, Tezuka illustrates the inhumanity of the world that Buddha would be born into.

Born years after the events of the prologue, Buddha’s birth parallels the role that he will play in this world. The young child is born under a solitary ray of light splitting the dark heavens. Men and beast alike gather to witness the birth of the infant Siddhartha. As the first son of King Suddhodana, he lives a life of luxury and wants for nothing. Despite this luxury he continually questions the caste system, and his place at the top. Recognizing this doubt Tatta uses the opportunity to show the young prince the world. Confronted with the realities of age, disease, and death, Siddhartha struggles to understand the cruelty of this world. So, at the age of 29, he becomes a monk, cutting his hair and setting off into the wild – leaving his nation, wife and young child behind. Thus, beginning his journey to understand the meaning of life.

On his journey Siddhartha is met with multiple understandings of the world. Initially he gravitates to the teachings of the Ascetic monks. These monks undergo ‘ordeals’, wherein they put their bodies through physical hardship in order to understand life’s meaning. It’s only after a brush with death that Siddhartha takes to meditating under a Pippala tree, where through the guidance of God he finally attains enlightenment and is renamed Buddha – meaning the enlightened one. Now enlightened he sets off again into the world, this time to spread his teachings.

Buddha’s teaching takes the form of ideological battles against the people he is trying to convince. Though not physically demanding they still come with high stakes. More often than not, failure would result in Buddha’s death. Buddha teaches a variety of different messages often using parables to further emphasizes his message. I will attempt to approximate them here: all life is of equal value, regardless of caste or species; all living things suffer – humans are not unique in this; desire is the root of all evil in the world, and you should not want more than you need; every creature must live according to nature; following death is a rebirth known as reincarnation. Through these messages Buddha deals a great blow to the Caste System and finally gives us an answer to the meaning of the rabbit’s sacrifice. Animals are repeatedly shown throughout Buddha to be in tune with nature and the correct way to live. As such the rabbit understanding that all life is equal, and desiring nothing voluntarily sacrificed his life to aid the monk.

Having read Buddha it becomes immediately apparent why Tezuka chose this historical figure to make a manga on. Buddha’s life contains several elements of a Tezuka’s story.
The inability of people to understand each other, War, and the sanctitiy of nature. While not adhering strictly to Buddhist teachings, Tezuka’s uses the life of Buddha to get across his central message that “all life is sacred”. In a way Buddha is the penultimate Tezuka work, in that it represents everything that he stood for, only being superseded by Pheonix.
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