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Lunning, Frenchy, ed. Mechademia 8: Tezuka's Manga Life. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013. 377 pp. Paperback. ISBN 978-0-81668955-2. $24.95.
The eighth volume of the Mechademia series explores the contributions to the world of manga and anime made by artist and writer Osamu Tezuka. In addition to discussion specifically about Tezuka's life and works, the collection also ventures into explorations of history, marketing, and art as they relate to Tezuka. For three out of the four sections, the text includes translated excerpts of Tezuka's various manga in order to illustrate the points made by the essays included in those sections. Tezuka's Manga Life begins with a brief introduction by Thomas LaMarre that highlights Tezuka's contributions to manga as a genre, pointing out the sheer volume of texts he produced and their influence on future manga artists. Referring to "the Tezuka effect," LaMarre points to the pervasiveness of both Tezuka's creations and the scholarly works related to them as reasons for Tezuka's position as one of the world's most influential manga artists (x). Despite LaMarre's assertion that this volume is meant to "decenter" Tezuka in favor of focusing on the larger issue of "manga life," the Tezuka effect still factors prominently throughout the text, with topics ranging from Tezuka's childhood influences to his groundbreaking contributions to the animation process in Japan. On the whole, the wide-ranging essays in this collection offer valuable insight to both seasoned scholars and novices alike, all while celebrating Tezuka's many contributions to manga and anime.
Divided into four sections, the collection explores various aspects of Tezuka's personal life, career, and the legacy his work created for future manga artists and creators. The first section, "Nonhuman Life," comprises four essays and a translation of Tezuka's Diary of an Insect Shojo's Vagabond Life and explores the various nonhuman themes reflected in Tezuka's work, with a particular focus on the recurring use of insect imagery. Section two, "Media Life," includes three essays that explore Tezuka's creation process, both in anime and manga, along with an excerpt from the manga Tokiwasou Story, featuring a glimpse into the life of a struggling artist. The five essays of section three, "A...