It has been announced that "Tezuka Osamu Animation Art Archives" (Genkosha), a collection of valuable materials such as original drawings, rough sketches, and storyboards drawn by manga artist Tezuka Osamu for anime, will be released in late May.
Known as the "God of Manga," Tezuka was also a pioneer in the world of animation. In parallel with his manga writing, he produced numerous animated works and experimented with many new techniques, such as establishing the technique of limited animation, which limits the number of original drawings. Ever since encountering Disney films as a boy, he developed a strong interest in animation production, and in the early 1960s, he realized his dream. At the request of Toei Animation (now Toei Animation), he was responsible for the original story and composition of the feature-length animated film "Journey to the West" (1960), based on his own serialized manga "My Son Goko." He then wrote the screenplay for "The Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad" (1962) with Kita Morio, and was responsible for the original story and composition of "Wanwan Chushingura" (1962).
Around the same time, in 1961, Tezuka Productions established its animation department (renamed Mushi Productions the following year), and produced Japan's first 30-minute animated television series, "Astro Boy" (1963). He subsequently produced a succession of animated television series and feature films, including "Jungle Emperor Leo" and "Princess Knight."
Although things were not always smooth sailing, with Mushi Productions going bankrupt in 1973, his passion for anime production never waned, and he continued to produce anime at his own company, Tezuka Productions. He was in charge of the original story, overall direction, direction and animation for "One Million Year Journey on Earth: Bander Book" (1978), Japan's first two-hour feature-length anime, which was broadcast as part of Nippon Television's "24-Hour Television: Love Saves the Earth." Several other two-hour anime works were subsequently produced for the same program.
In parallel with commercial works such as television and feature films, he also produced experimental works. Starting with his first work for Mushi Productions, "A Story of a Street Corner" (1962), he produced 13 experimental animated films, including "Self-Portrait" (1988), which he made in his final years, and these have won awards at international animation festivals.
Tezuka had a desire to "draw and create" as much as possible, whether it was manga or anime. Even though he was extremely busy serializing his manga, he made time to create anime, drawing image boards, rough sketches, character designs, and more. There were episodes in the TV series where he was in charge of storyboards himself, and sometimes he was even in charge of the key drawings and animation.
Most of the materials featured in this book were drawn by Tezuka himself, and many of them are being published in a book for the first time. A variety of materials by Tezuka, from rough sketches to setting drawings, image boards, layouts, storyboards, and original drawings, are preserved. There are also written materials such as proposals, synopses, and scripts.
Mushi Production had many talented creators who made significant contributions to the subsequent development of Japanese animation. Among the materials drawn by staff other than Tezuka, some particularly valuable materials will also be on display.
Previously published books on Tezuka's anime have mainly contained text, but this book will be published in color as a general rule.
The set of volumes 1 and 2 is categorized by production year and category, and includes related materials for each work. The special case that holds the two volumes and the cover of volume 1 feature visuals from "Astro Boy." The cover of volume 2 uses the original color illustrations from "Aoi Blink," Tezuka's final work. The regular version is priced at 16,000 yen, while the limited special edition with bonus items is priced at 20,000 yen (both excluding tax). Pre-orders began on February 9th.
