Underrated Manga: Cyborg 009

[Angelcake the Fox]

This is, without a doubt, the greatest anti-war manga ever created.

This legendary piece of graphic fiction was written and drawn by legendary mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori, who also created Kamen Rider and Goranger (which was the first super henshin team show on television). His mentor was the great Osamu Tezuka, so its no surprise that his art style is reminiscent of him. He also holds the record for most pages of manga drawn in a month (a total of FIVE HUNDRED!)

Anyways, this is the one manga that he is internationally reknowned for. It tells the story of a group of nine individuals, all of different ages, races, genders, and nationalities (In other words, misfits).

They are captured by a mysterious organization called The Black Ghost, which wishes to keep the world in a perpetual state of war in order to take over the world. In order to do this, they wish to create a new kind of soldier, one that can fight out in space.

He decides that cyborgs are the best way to go. So, our heroes are captured, experimented on, and transformed into cyborgs.

However, they rebel against there creators, and fight against the same forces that created them, in order to bring peace to the world.

The plot may SOUND simple, but in actuality, the plot is only the tip of the iceberg. Ishinomori was a great observer of the world around him. During the creation of this manga, the world was in the height of the Cold War. Nations were in an arms race, and always seemed to be at the bring of armageddon. Ishinomori's accusation that world powers, defense contractors, and bankers are in cahoots to keep the world in a perpetual state of war was quite outrageous then, but now it seems down right SCARY!

I don't want to give to much away, but needless to say this work is INCREDIBLY powerful and INCREDIBLY accidictive. I highly reccomend it to anyone who likes anime and manga, period.

It is available in English from TOKYOPOP.

[Ben]

This is, without a doubt, the greatest anti-war manga ever created.

Somehow, I doubt that - I've read BAREFOOT GEN. But I'll definitely give CYBORG 009 a chance if I ever come across it...

[hakucho]

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST VOLUME IF NO ONE'S READ IT YET
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I bought the first volume of Cyborg 009 a few weeks ago...I like how the story is handled very well I might get the other volumes...

I remember in an online essay on the history of different ethnic representations in manga that the author cited Cyborg 009 (I think it was Cyborg 009 that s/he cited...) as an example of the racist thought at the time, suggesting that the characters actually succumb to the stereotypes and misconceptions of the 1960's.

When you read the manga, they are actually more rounded than that (the Chinese man considered suicide at one point, the Native American is annoyed at how far his own people will stoop to make a living, etc.). The main protagonist Joe is even told NOT to feel bad about his mixed blood by his comrades (as he was in a Japan that refused to acknowledge him because of this).

So yes, I agree - it's a well-written and sadly underrated manga. Definately worth checking out

[Angelcake the Fox]

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST VOLUME IF NO ONE'S READ IT YET
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I bought the first volume of Cyborg 009 a few weeks ago...I like how the story is handled very well I might get the other volumes...

I remember in an online essay on the history of different ethnic representations in manga that the author cited Cyborg 009 (I think it was Cyborg 009 that s/he cited...) as an example of the racist thought at the time, suggesting that the characters actually succumb to the stereotypes and misconceptions of the 1960's.

When you read the manga, they are actually more rounded than that (the Chinese man considered suicide at one point, the Native American is annoyed at how far his own people will stoop to make a living, etc.). The main protagonist Joe is even told NOT to feel bad about his mixed blood by his comrades (as he was in a Japan that refused to acknowledge him because of this).

So yes, I agree - it's a well-written and sadly underrated manga. Definately worth checking out

Buy the other volumes. Trust me, you won't regret it. The story only gets better.

And yeah, on the surface, the way that the characters are drawn can seem racist. The best example of this is the character 008, who is an African. His design is drawn in a minstrel style (AKA darkie iconography, i.e. his features seem vaugely simian). However, the character itself is actually kind, warmhearted, and quite sensitive. He actually rises above his seemingly stereotypical apperrance and turns into one of the most well-rounded characters in the manga (not to mention my personal favorite).

One should also remember that, at the time, the materials that were avaialble for drawing and printing manga was rather limited. Because of this, sterotypical imagery was used to represent various races, not neccessarily out of prejudice, but so as to be easily recognizable.

It should be noted that Osamu Tezuka himself used this technique, and anyone who ever met him can tell you that he didn't have a racist bone in his body.

[hakucho]

Amen Tezuka-san's works kind of "play" around with stereotypes and turn them into archetypes, focusing and working on the integral part that's recognised as universally human in nature. I noticed that in Astro Boy, where a sultan - with the triats of being rich, greedy and disgraceful - is obsessed with creating the world's greatest robot, only to be shown the errors of his ways by his robot servant. The sultan's emotional breakdown at the end and his servant's dedication to him are amazing

[Angelcake the Fox]

I noticed that in Astro Boy, where a sultan - with the triats of being rich, greedy and disgraceful - is obsessed with creating the world's greatest robot, only to be shown the errors of his ways by his robot servant. The sultan's emotional breakdown at the end and his servant's dedication to him are amazing

Ah yes, I know of the story you speak of. Its called "The World's Greatest Robot". It was one of the few novel length manga in the original Astro Boy series. It also turned out to be the most popular Astro Boy story, as Tezuka himself would reflect upon years later.

Tezuka himself, as I've said before, was not a racist man in anyway. Those who met him, when they reflect upon the actual event, seem to act as if they had been talking with a saint.

Now, of course, Tezuka wasn't a saint. But he was a REALLY nice guy, and in fact, wise beyond his years.

Heck, anyone whose read any of Tezuka's work (as I'm sure Hakucho has), will know that one of the many social commentaries he put in his manga was about the nature and inherent evil of racism. In fact, the Astro Boy manga, in and of itself, is infact a statement about racism, since the main plot point of Astro Boy is that humans and robots are attempting to live together. Some Astro Boy stories involved poingant commentary on such issues as equal voting right and the right to exist (relating to robots in the manga, of course. But the point and relevance is pretty obvious.)

Unfortunantly, this message is somewhat lost in translation in the Astro Boy anime.