Buddha, Vol. 1: Kapilavastu

Osamu Tezuka€s vaunted storytelling genius, consummate skill at visual expression, and warm humanity blossom fully in his eight-volume epic of Siddhartha€s life and times. Tezuka evidences his profound grasp of the subject by contextualizing the Buddha€s ideas; the emphasis is on movement, action, emotion, and conflict as the prince Siddhartha runs away from home, travels across India, and questions Hindu practices such as ascetic self-mutilation and caste oppression. Rather than recommend resignation and impassivity, Tezuka€s Buddha predicates enlightenment upon recognizing the interconnectedness of life, having compassion for the suffering, and ordering one€s life sensibly. Philosophical segments are threaded into interpersonal situations with ground-breaking visual dynamism by an artist who makes sure never to lose his readers€ attention.

Tezuka himself was a humanist rather than a Buddhist, and his magnum opus is not an attempt at propaganda. Hermann Hesse€s novel or Bertolucci€s film is comparable in this regard; in fact, Tezuka€s approach is slightly irreverent in that it incorporates something that Western commentators often eschew, namely, humor.