Thoughts on Tezuka

Just recently, I had the opportunity to see a 1984 Osamu Tezuka anime movie called Bagi: the Monster of Mighty Nature. It's not too surprising that I'd never seen this before, despite its age. It was made for Japanese television, and was never exported to the English-speaking world. I only saw it because someone went to the effort to subtitle it and post it on YouTube.

I found this movie affecting on several levels. Oh sure, it has plot holes you could drive the proverbial Mac truck through, and strained contrivances and coincidences galore, but ultimately the main character, Bagi, and her circumstances, are just so… moving and… well, saddening.

The movie reminded me of how I'd been drawn to the 'furry' genre in the first place, way back as a child. It had nothing to do with big-breasted bunny girls, or wanting to be some kind of werebeast, or with any of the other odd things which the word "furry" has come to mean in recent years. It started with a realization that human beings have something wrong with them which is utterly absent in most of the animal kingdom, and that humans would be much improved with the addition of some animal characteristics.

Only humans are capable of lying. Of deceiving and betraying those who trust us. Of breaking faith with our friends and kin. Of breaking promises. Animals don't do any of these things.

When I was a child, oh, about seven or eight, I used to love Kimba, the White Lion, also by Tezuka. Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to see this cartoon again when it was released on DVD, and unlike many of the things I remember loving as a child, Kimba held up quite well to adult viewing. What surprised me, though, when watching it, was the slightly shocking realization that so many of my own views and attitudes on such things as character, honor, ethics, loyalty, tolerance, and courage had clearly been learned from this cartoon.

Kimba has an undeflectable ethical compass. He has a very good grasp of what's right, and cannot be swayed by convenience, circumstance, or pressure from others. He's also patient, forgiving, and compassionate. I'm not sure he knows what an 'enemy' is; an opponent is just a friend who hasn't been won over yet. He's not a doormat, though. He'll never back down from fighting for what he knows is right, even when he knows he cannot win. He can also kick serious butt when a fight is forced on him.

The Tezuka family resemblance is clear in Bagi. She also would never break a promise, betray a friend, or prove faithless. She also fights only when it's thrust upon her by others, but kicks ass when she does (racking up quite a body count, actually). It falls to the human characters to fail in an understanding of what is right which seems so basic that even the youngest child should know it.

Life often provides us with unexpected and surprising teachers. I realize now that Osamu Tezuka was one of the more influential teachers in my life. Watching the old Kimba episodes, I heard many of my own most dearly held views, beliefs, and attitudes being expressed in cartoon form, which is what made me realize that this is where I had first been set to thinking about them. Tezuka's work often conveys some sort of lesson. I don't think he was so much trying to be 'educational', or to preach. It's more like he wanted to express how he felt about things, and his work was his way of showing others his point of view.

Do you know what the term 'perversion' means? We tend to use it to mean something sick and bad, but that's not quite right. What is really means is taking something special and wonderful, and twisting it until it becomes something sick and bad. Sex is the most obvious example, but other things can be perverted as well. Seeing Bagi made me feel like I had broken faith with something which was special to me. That as a child, I'd been handed a sort of blessing, or at least an important lesson, but that over time, I had let it slip away from me.

So what does all this mean? To me, I mean; no reason anyone else should care what it means. :) I'm not really sure... I don't think I'm going to go of half-cocked on some sort of radical life changes, like running off and joining a monastery… or a circus. I don't even think I'm going to stop drawing the occasional nekkid cat girl. I think, maybe, I just feel motivated to put a bit more effort into thinking about my values, and about what sort of person I want to be. To not let go of the lessons I learned as a child, and of the values and ideals, however naïve, I once held so dear. I think they still have value, and I can't think of much I've ever learned in my adult life which would break them.

I know it must sound silly to talk about a 23 year old cartoon as if it were some sort of a religious experience, and I don't really consider the movie itself to be that deep, but what it stirred up from inside me was. As I said before, "unexpected and surprising teachers".