Line #53 Manga/Alabaster


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alabaster_5.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:James Block/Alabaster]]
3
4	->''"A beautiful figure? It matters not when the heart is disfigured."''
5	-->--'''Alabaster'''
6
7	James Block, a young successful athlete, has the hots for Susan Ross, a beautiful movie star. Unfortunately, she doesn't want to marry him due to his appearance (read: black skin). In a fit of rage, James runs over a pedestrian while trying to car-chase her. While serving 5 years in prison, he befriends a scientist who tells him about a ray gun which can make someone invisible. Hoping to get rid of his black skin, James manages to find the ray gun but almost kills himself by exposing his body to it. With his body flayed, James is now "half-invisible" and decides to name himself Alabaster. He is now a twisted vigilante who aims to fix the world of what is beautiful.
8
9	Alabaster is one of Creator/OsamuTezuka's lesser known works. According to a commentary of his, it's due to the fact that it was not well-received and that he disliked working on this manga in general, to the point that it was rarely re-printed. Its story, mostly centered around racism and the rejection of what's outside of the beauty norm, and its violent scenes and characters also make it one of the darkest stories by Tezuka.
10
11	----
12	!!''Alabaster'' provides examples of:
13
14	* AbusiveParents: Not [[GoodParents Prosecutor Ozawa]] or even Ami’s biological mother, but Professor F who used his invention on his ''own daughter'' while being pregnant with his granddaughter that time. [[spoiler: [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Unintentionally, he may have ruined the latter’s chance at a normal life and turning her into a criminal for this.]]]]
15	* AdaptationalNationality: Tezuka's Rock character has usually been portrayed as Japanese (real name Rokuro Makube) or non-specific Western (Rock Home), but is specifically represented as Greek here.
16	* AntagonistTitle: Alabaster is the BigBad of the manga and the title character.
17	* BigBeautifulWoman: Parodied. Tonda is confident in her appearance and hopes that Kanihei's camera works makes her look beautiful, despite her gonky appearance.
18	* BigBrotherInstinct: Kanihei never gives up trying to get his sister back from Alabaster.
19	* BigDamnHero: [[spoiler: Just as Alabaster was about to kill Kanihei and claim Ami, Gen’s friends were able to flick a peanut off of Alabaster’s weapon and killing him to save the Ozawa siblings on time to help them escape.]]
20	* BigFancyCastle: Alabaster's hideout.
21	* BirdsOfAFeather: Alabaster attempts to convince Ami they’re the same as each other [[spoiler: towards the end of the manga]].
22	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Alabaster is dead, the dangerous Rock Holmes is also no longer a threat, but Gen and his friends died stopping Alabaster and Rock Holmes for good, which leads to Ami committing suicide and Kanihei the SoleSurvivor of the manga.]]
23	* BodyHorror: Alabaster has translucent skin that shows his inner veins, much to the horror of many.
24	* BreakTheCutie: Ami... Dear lord, '''AMI'''...
25	** CorruptTheCutie: Staying with Alabaster caused Ami to embrace his ideology [[spoiler: after she got [[RapeAsDrama raped by Rock Holmes.]]]]
26	* CharacterOverlap: Rock also appears in other mangas of Tezuka such as ''Manga/{{Vampires}}'' or ''Manga/BlackJack''. He tends to play smug, manipulative villains. Which is also the case here.
27	* CommissarCap: Gen wore one during his youth.
28	* {{Crossdresser}}: Rock. [[spoiler: Thanks to his androgynous appearance, he successfully pretends to be a female model when Alabaster's crew attacks the fashion event.]]
29	* DarkerAndEdgier: Coming from the creator of ''Manga/AstroBoy'' or ''Manga/KimbaTheWhiteLion'', you wouldn't expect such violence and mature subjects such as racism to be shown. Tezuka himself commented:
30	-->''"I was especially uncomfortable with how dark the story turned out. Looking back, I consider it as a failed attempt to emulate a grotesque thriller in the style of Edogawa Rampo's "The Dwarf" or "Beast in the Shadows". I felt that I had once again made the mistake of going too far in creating such a thoroughly nihilistic work."''
31	* {{Determinator}}: Gen and Kanihei are both determined to save Ami from Alabaster’s influence, no matter what’s the cost.
32	* DisappearedDad: The story never revealed what happened to Kanihei’s father or Ami’s biological father or where they went.
33	* DistractedByMyOwnSexy: Rock is enamored with his own reflection and rubs the mirror.
34	* DyingDeclarationOfLove
35	--> [[spoiler: '''Gen''': Ami... I... I’ll always love you...]]
36	* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: Gen’s friends, after their BigDamnHero moments, calmly walked down the stairs and await for their ultimate fate, knowing after Alabaster’s castle is destroyed, they won’t make it. Doesn’t seem to bother them one bit, since they know they’ll be with Gen again.]]
37	--> [[spoiler: '''Gen’s Friend''': We’re coming, Gen. Whether life or death, we’ll always stick together.]]
38	* FacialHorror: Alabaster [[spoiler: and the victims of his ray gun]].
39	* FallenHero: James Block was a popular athlete who won multiple olympics medals, before the events which led him to become Alabaster.
40	* FatComicRelief: Tonda is the only fat female character of the story. She has a gonky face, [[ExtremeOmnivore eats a book]], breaks any furniture she sits on, and her appearance is used for an advert about starvation in Africa.
41	* FreudianExcuse: Alabaster's hatred for what's considered beautiful is based on how he was treated as a black person before.
42	* {{Gonk}}: Tonda.
43	* GorgeousGreek: Rock considers the ''noble Greeks'' as the only respectable race in this world. He also considers himself as a proud Greek, on top of being a narcissist.
44	* HappilyAdopted: Despite being from another family, the Ozawas loved Ami as if she was a part of their own. Kanihei even emphasizes to Ami that no matter what people say about Ami’s biological family or her adoption, she’s still his little sister and their mother’s daughter.
45	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Gen fought with Rock in order to save Ami, but was shot several times and died from his wounds.]]
46	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Alabaster fights by... flicking tiny objects, wether it's pellets, beans, or pebbles.
47	* {{Invisibility}}: One of the key elements of the story revolves around the idea of turning invisible in order to be more accepted in society. And also the advantage of being invisible when you're in a stealth operation.
48	* JerkAss: Rock. On top of [[spoiler:humiliating Ami by painting her with toxic paint]], he also presents himself as an outright racist:
49	-->''"[[HatesEveryoneEqually Don't get me wrong, it's not just Japanese faces I hate. I also detest Anglo-Saxons, Italians and Slavs. Of course, the same applies for Africans, Indians, and Arabs.]]"''
50	* KickTheDog: Rock litteraly does it in the first pages where he appears.
51	* TheKlutz: Sanjo.
52	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Rock himself ends up disfigured.]]
53	* LikeBrotherAndSister: Despite being adopted into the Ozawa family, Kanihei treated Ami as if she was his own little sister and was determined to get her back home.
54	* LoveMartyr: Gen may be a delinquent, but he’s completely loyal to Ami. [[spoiler: He’s even determined to save Ami from [[TheCorrupter Alabaster’s influence]] and fights Rock to save time for Kanihei and Ami to escape.]]
55	* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: ''Granddaughter'' on Ami’s behalf, but Professor F was Ami’s biological maternal grandfather before being incarcerated by Prosecutor Ozawa.
56	* MasterRace: Rock thinks the Greeks are the only respectable race in the world because they are the descendants of the gods of Mount Olympus.
57	* {{Narcissist}}: Rock.
58	* OneWordTitle
59	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Rock, outwardly racist.
60	* TheProfessor: Professor F, the scientist who helps Alabaster get his ray gun.
61	* SmallRoleBigImpact: Professor F was only mentioned a few times in the manga, but his influence was what caused the events lead by Alabaster and the former’s invention.
62	* StarCrossedLovers: Gen and Ami.
63	* StealthPun: It's a story about a black man struggling against racism in America who then becomes a twisted, violent monster after using an invisibility device made by a mad scientist. In other words, it starts out as ''Literature/InvisibleMan'' and turns into '''[[Creator/HGWells The]]''' ''[[Literature/TheInvisibleMan Invisible Man]]''.
64	* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Ami’s mindset after [[spoiler: Rock [[RapeAndRevenge raped and humiliated her]]]].
65	* ThouShaltNotKill: Ami promises herself to never kill anyone. [[spoiler: Eventually, she changes her mind quickly and is willing to kill Rock not matter what.]]
66	* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Once the military launched the missiles to destroy Alabaster’s hideout, Gen’s friends calmly stayed behind to join Gen in the afterlife - knowing they can’t escape. Also, Ami joins Gen once she took her own life to atone for her crimes during her time with Alabaster.]]
67	* TroubledTeen: The things Ami did throughout the manga like killing innocent people and creating rampages around the world will definitely break [[GoodParents a mother’s heart like Prosecutor Ozawa’s]]; especially since the former ran away from home and into [[BigBad Alabaster’s clutches]].
68	* TrueCompanions: Gen's trio of friends is always faithful to him, [[spoiler: even in death]].
69	* {{Utopia}}: [[spoiler: Alabaster imagines "Alabastopia", his own world of non-beauty.]]
70	* YouAreNotAlone: The central theme of the manga, regarding Ami's situation.

Context Manga / Alabaster