Buddha: Volume 1 by Osamu Tezuka

This week I read the first volume of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha series. The first volume alone is 400 pages, yet is a very easy read. His style is very playful and energetic. Emotions are clear and are pushed, but don't appear as cliche. His influence by Walt Disney is also clear, especially with how he draws animals. What i find most interesting is that Buddha, or Siddhartha as he was named at birth, barely features in this book at all. His mother and father are mentioned and he is born, but that's it. Which really emphasizes how much more entertaining the other characters are in comparison to the main thread of plot. The side characters are Tatta, a pariah caste boy who can posses the bodies of animals, Naradatta, a Brahmin studying under Master Asita, and Chapra, a shudra/slave caste boy who wishes to rise above his rank in society. By their level of abstraction you can immediately grasp onto both Naradatta and Chapra. Both have a handsomeness in the style. They are drawn less caricatured and more remote in style. It instantly makes them stand out compared to other characters. Tatta, for all his interesting abilities and personality seems to be more of a background character. He's almost comedic relief in comparison to the other two. Yet Tatta's powers come from his minor enlightenment, making him a bit more important spiritually in the story. I really liked the section where Naradatta sent Tatta, in animal form, to bring a message to his Master Asita. It showed that for all Naradatta had thought he had become enlightened he still knew nothing by wasting so many animal lives just to save Chapra and Chapra's mother. I'm very interested how Tatta and the now feral Naradatta will feature into the next volume. The last pages seemed to imply that they play important roles in the life of Siddartha. I'm very glad I chose this manga over others as i do know a little bit about the story of Siddartha and how he became Buddah, as well as a few stories about the caste system in India. For a while I was thinking that Chapra's story was a retelling of the story of the Potter who became a soldier. Unfortunately Chapra's story seems to end much more tragically than how I heard the Potter's tale ended.