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Casual Friday: A six-page sequence from Tezuka Osamu's "Angel no Oka"
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JohnnyEnzyme piefed.social JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social
Joined: 2025-06-11
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I spotted some Western influences in this LC-style goodie, so let's take a look. First, the backstory:

Luna is the queen of the island of "Angel," where mermaids dwell. She breaks a law of the island and is sentenced to death, which means being placed within a huge oyster shell and sent out to sea. While drifting at sea, Luna is saved by a captain of a ship which happens to sail by. She's taken to a strange port, but because she had been within the shell for a long time, Luna has lost her memory and does not know anything of the past.

At the port Luna meets a Japanese youth named Eiji and is taken to Japan where she meets his younger sister Akemi, who resembles Luna to a tee. Unfortunately, Akemi is largely neglected by her parents and has turned in to a huge brat, making things more difficult for Luna. At Angel's Island, a shaman by the name of Pyoma, who is a virtual dictator of the island, learns that Luna had escaped to Japan. He sends a trio of killers after her...

These read right-to-left, btw)


(right-click as needed)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel's_Hill

Some of Tezuka's stuff is slightly on the sappy-hokey side, but past that, Tezuka ("the godfather of manga") has a bubbling sense of humor, and is a masterful storyteller. Even what is otherwise a story for kids & young teens is fascinating for me to read, partly because of the number of cameos and tips of the hat to Western classics.

For example, the bell tower could easily be right out of Hitchcock's Vertigo, and I'm even thinking that the would-be assassins are redolent of Disney's classic Lonesome Ghosts short (1937). You can watch that 9-min film here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ip78r

Tezuka has some decidedly Euro influences too, like his contemporary, filmmaker Miyazaki Hayao. There's a good amount of slapstick and pantomime that's right out of the book of Englishman Charlie Chaplin, for example. Others influences are German filmmakers Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau, via the use of high-contrast lighting & dramatic shadow, extreme perspectives & looming architecture, and science-fiction dystopias.


Btw, Tezuka was one of the pioneers of what came to became the 'standard manga face,' with the typically huge, watery eyes, tiny mouth, and negligable nose. One of the reasons I'm a bit cool on manga in general is because Tezuka could pull that look off with verve and originality, while others... just kind of ape his style, artlessly. And there's my tiny little rant for the day!

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