Trivia / Osamu Tezuka

• Creator Backlash:
  • Tezuka admits in the introductions on one of his early Astro Boy stories (which can be found in the Astro Boy Omnibus) that his stories tended to be of uneven quality, and that he isn't proud of some of them.
  • According to a commentary on one of the '60s Astro Boy DVD boxsets, Osamu Tezuka hated one particular episode, "Midoro Swamp" aka "The Beast from 20 Fathoms". He farmed out the episode to a group of young anime/manga students, and the results dissatisfied him so much, that he personally destroyed every possible copy he could find. Unfortunately for him, a copy of that episode had already been shipped to the U.S. and dubbed (and would later resurface as a "Lost Episode" of the series on VHS), and the Japanese soundtrack (but not the footage) still exists and was included as an extra in the episodes release on the Astro Boy DVD sets.
  • Also, there are a handful of stories he wrote that he permanently pulled from circulation (i.e. not available, even in compilation form) due to said stories not being up to his usual standards.
• Doing It for the Art: If he liked, he could be a doctor and have a stable career thanks to his studies, even so, he drew manga. This was considered an extremely bold move that raised the respect for the profession of the comic creator in Japan.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When he met Walt Disney while promoting Astro Boy, they talked about making a movie together. It never got past that and Disney's death sealed its fate, but the thought of such collaboration should make any animation fan's brains explode.
  • Stanley Kubrick wanted him to do art direction for 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Tezuka declined because he didn't want to spend a year overseas away from drawing manga.
• The Wiki Rule: Osamu Tezuka Wiki.

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