Shopping Guide
Osamu Tezuka, known as “the god of manga,” still has a strong presence in the Japanese manga world even though he passed away in 1989. His works are read by many generations, and even now, he still has an influence on numerous people. Many of his works also have anime adaptations. On May 24, a book that brings us closer to his secrets of creation was published by Shogakukan Creative. The title of that book is Osamu Tezuka Sketch Collection. Shogakukan Creative invests its power in reprinting older masterworks, and this book is one of those examples.
What makes this collection special is that it is centered around the unpublished drafts Osamu Tezuka left behind. Properly speaking, it focuses on rough sketches that were never seen by the public before. There are many Tezuka-related printed materials, but the Osamu Tezuka Sketch Collection is very precious even among them. It features rough sketches of manga characters, anime setting designs, character concept sketches, and even company and event mascots. You can feel the wide range of Tezuka’s work, as if he was still alive. In addition, it has detailed explanations by the reference room chief of Tezuka Productions, Haruji Mori, which makes it even more valuable as a document collection.
The featured sketches can be divided into three main groups: rough sketches of manga characters, anime character settings, and rough sketches of mascot characters. In the manga and character group, his experiments for deciding on a character might prove to be interesting. There are also familiar characters from Phoenix and Message to Adolf. Anime fans are probably interested in the anime and character settings part, which features original pictures and animations from Astro Boy, a masterpiece of the early ages of TV anime and Tezuka’s first TV series. Mascot character sketches created for the image of exhibits and companies are also included. Osamu Tezuka created many characters in his lifetime. Most of these sketches are drawn with pencil, but among them, there are also some that Tezuka drew with a pen and ink as the idea came to him. It is a valuable collection abounding in Tezuka’s style.
Source:
http://animeanime.jp/article/2013/05/23/14142.html (Japanese)