A focused Tezuka is the best Tezuka
Creative Staff
Story: Osamu Tezuka
Art: Osamu Tezuka
Translation/Adaptation: Mari Morimoto
What They Say
Toshiko Tomura is a genius; the darling of the intelligentsia. A modern-day Michelangelo, this twenty year-old is already an established international stage actress, an up-and-coming architect, and the next recipient of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize as Japan’s best new writer. Her actions make headlines in the papers, and inspire radio and television programming. And like many great talents, her troubled past is what motivates her to greatness. She has the amazing ability to emulate the talents of others.
Toshiko is also the mastermind behind a series of murders. The ultimate mimic, she has plagiarized, blackmailed, stolen and replicated the works of scores of talents. And now as her star is rising within the world of the elites and powerful she has amassed a long list of enemies frustrated by the fact that she has built critical and financial acclaim for nothing more than copying others’ work. Neglected as a child, she is
challenging the concepts of gender inequality while unleashing her loneliness upon the world as she climbs the social ladder one body at a time.
One of Osamu Tezuka’s most wicked tales, The Book of Human Insects renders the 70’s as a brutal and often polarizing bug-eat-bug world, where only those willing to sell their soul to the masses and become something less than human are capable of achieving their wildest dreams
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Osamu Tezuka is a man who, hopefully, should need no introduction. A highly prolific and influential mangaka whom many associate with Astro Boy and other lighter fare. The Book of Human Insects follows Vertical Inc.’s motif of presenting the more mature, serious work of the “God of Manga”. The Book of Human Insects of was originally written between 1970 and 1971 and is presented in one 364 page hardcover edition. The story follows Toshiko Tomura, a woman who has climbed the cultural world exceedingly fast with her unparalleled talent. It starts with Toshiko winning the Akutagawa award for her first literary venture, The Book of Human Insects. However, her award is also joined with the suicide of her friend Kageri Usuba. What follows isn’t a mystery story or the story of how Toshiko is affected by this event. Instead Toshiko shows complete disinterest in this person’s death and is later revealed to have not only plagiarized Usuba’s story and turned it into the award winning Book of Human Insects, but that she also orchestrated her death as to eliminate anyone who might get in her way on the road to success.
Toshiko is a completely unsympathetic character. But she is also compelling to watch and learn about. A large portion of her story can be viewed as commentary on the dog-eat-dog world of the 60s and 70s. What lengths will a person go to in order to achieve their goals? But Toshiko is also an interesting look into the behaviors of a sociopath. She is a woman who appears to not understand the consequences of her actions. She shows no remorse and feels as if everything she does is simply part of a game, a game she intends to win by cheating. During the story, we are shown Toshiko returning to her childhood home where she has a wax figure of her deceased mother in her house. When at home, she strips completely naked and begins to fondle herself and suck on her wax mother’s teats. In these scenes we see Toshiko completely revert to a child-like nature, presumably to maintain her innocence in the face of her crimes without fully realizing the weight of her actions.
What a fascinating portrayal this book is! We witness Toshiko use, abuse, and destroy multiple peoples lives in her quest for status and prosperity. The lengthiest section of the book deals with her marriage to a successful, yet corrupt, business man, Kiriro Kamaishi. This portion of her life begins with Kiriro using Toshiko and spitting her out just as she has done to so many others in her life. Instead of learning from this experience she engages in a game with him in which she will be his wife and attempt to gain her revenge. Kiriro is aware of her intentions but agrees anyway. Here are two people with the same ambitious desire to achieve everything they can in this life with total disregard of others. Watching them battle back and forth is extremely interesting to watch and the nature of these individuals, as well as the nature of mainstream society, is brought to light with a clear and arbitrary stance.
This books is so loaded with commentary that it is bursting at the seams with ideas. Sometimes a Tezuka work can be bursting with ideas where he wants to say so many things that the focus of the core story gets lost over time. This is not the case with Human Insects. There are multiple ideas within that cover not just the dog-eat-dog nature of the 70s and sociopaths, but also industrialization and the concept of corporations gaining power in a burgeoning society. The idea covered more to the point is that of how people change, their metamorphosis to adapt to situations and a changing world, like a bunch of Human Insects. The brilliant thing about this books is the core concept of the story and how it allows Tezuka to touch on all these concepts, and more, without straying from the main story. That is why this book works so well. Tezuka presents this expansive story about this horrible woman and places her in situations that deal with the topics he wishes to discuss. But we always stay focused of Toshiko’s story, we never stray into another story that gets loosely connected later on. We are never asked to sympathize with Toshiko and we never fully understand her. We just watch as her life unfolds and listen to what Tezuka has to say; and in the end it is a riveting experience with so much to think about that multiple readings will not only be in order, but also a great pleasure because this is quality manga from page one!
Aside from the story, the artwork is also of great note and importance. While the artwork may seem strange to the casual reader; to those who study manga, and/or Tezuka, and understand the time and place this story is written, it is a personal metamorphosis of Tezuka himself. The 70s were a time of great experimentation for Tezuka where he started writing for an older audience and attempted to add multiple layers and abstraction into his art. This book features relatively standard character designs from Tezuka during this time period. The designs are not ‘kiddish’ and super simplistic like his older work but they aren’t as detailed and nuanced as his later work. But in an ever changing attempt at experimentation and expression, the art can and does change to hyper realistic and hallucinatory within a single panel. The sudden, and brief, drastic changes in art style may seem to be strange and unpleasant but therein also lies more of the genius to this book. Each panel is not necessarily an immediate succession to the previous panel. Each panel of each page tells more than a thousand words, it orchestrates and details everything we need, and Tezuka wants to tell, in one panel. Then the next panel will present the next thought, the next piece to this gigantic puzzle. So, with this basis set, when a panel arrives that is hallucinatory or abstract in delivery, or a hyper realistic depiction of a landscape or character, we are told a story within that individual panel. A movement in the overall piece of story being told. It works to fantastic effect that simultaneously compelled me and stimulated my thought processes.
Vertical Inc. also has shown that they know how to present a quality manga title to the U.S. Yes the book is flipped but that is inconsequential and if that will prevent you from reading this book…we didn’t want you anyway. The book is delivered in a fantastic hardcover edition that is just the right size, comparable to Viz’s Sig line in terms of size. The quality of the paper stock is top quality that will allow this book to be read multiple times without entering a state of disrepair. Both the dust jacket and the actual book itself feature stunning artwork from within the pages of the book itself. For me, these images hold a hypnotizing effect. The artwork allures you to the book, it begs to inspect each panel featured and will ultimately engage someone into either inspecting the contents of the book further or purchasing the book. This is what covers should do! Yes the price is a little high compared to other volumes of manga available but you must understand…This book is almost 400 pages long, with that in mind the price is perfect as it is the same as two standard volumes of manga; you are getting a complete story in one book, and it is a hardcover edition that is built perfectly and will not only withstand multiple readings of an amazing piece of art, but will also look magnificent on your shelf next to other Tezuka works. With those thoughts in mind, the price is actually a steal! Also considering that most stores will have some sort of discount you can’t ask for anything better.
In Summary
I am a HUGE fan of Vertical Inc.’s publications. The Book of Human Insects is a perfect example of why I am such a fan. They release books of the highest quality in both presentation and story in an easily digestible, affordable form. I have read a lot Tezuka, almost everything of his that has been released in English actually, and The Book of Human Insects is amazing! After reading this book I knew it was something special. Tezuka’s focus never waivers as he tells his story and mixes in tons of commentary about the world around him in the early 70s. This also may be one of the most commericial Tezuka tomes released in English. It stands up with Ode to Kirihito and MW and one of his best but doesn’t have any/many strange quirks that might throw off new readers. Sure there is nudity and murder in the book but it never felt weird. Everything is appropriate to the story and the story Tezuka wants to tell. A must own volume from both Vertical and Tezuka that has a wide range of appeal and stands as a masterwork that strives to be much more than just manga. Highly Recommended!
Content Grade: A+
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Vertical Inc.
Release Date: 9/20/2011
MSRP: $21.95
