Uncertain, Fugitive, Half-fabulous

A delirious mindfuck of a book. This is one of the earliest works from Osamu Tezuka's later period, when he eschewed the fun and adventure of works like Astro Boy and went into very dark and strange territory. It's also rather brilliant and engrossing.

Ode To Kirihito is a bizarre medical thriller that doubles as a globe-hopping adventure and social commentary. Some people are turned off by Tezuka's cartoony style, but it's simply the way he draws, and if anything it puts the terrible things going on into relief. (Seeing a cute, Disney-ish bunny killed with a rock and eaten is certainly jarring, and I think that's the point.) At the same time, though, there's a lot of visual experimentation going on here, with sketchy outlines and strange imagery, that further lift the epic and compelling plot. (For example this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Ode_to_kirihito_page_377.jpg certainly doesn't look like Astro Boy.)

Also, like most of Tezuka's late works, the story takes place pretty much entirely in shades of gray--there are certainly good guys and bad guys, but no one's perfect, and good people can do terrible things.

That leads to me to one of the book's biggest criticisms: the rape scenes (yes, plural). Many people have taken issue with the fact that there are rapes committed in this book by a character who would, if you took those scenes out, be a good, moralistic person. I don't feel, though, that Tezuka is simply saying that this is an ok guy who happens to have a little vice, and not just because it all seems terrible when it happens (often complete with bizarre and disturbing experimentations in imagery to avoid being too explicit). The character, who I won't name for fear of spoilers, isn't just some good guy who does one terrible thing over and over again, he is clearly depicted as someone who's good deeds are driven more by guilt than anything else. Guilt over something that he feels he can't control: he is certainly shown as a sick person. This does not excuse him in any way, but it does show that Tezuka was working with disturbing characters to make a point, rather than saying that this sort of behavior can be excused.

On a related side-note, there is another rapist in the book; her victims are men. This character, too, is shown as being a fully-fledged person with a serious mental problem, and again this doesn't excuse her acts, but it shows that gender is not part of the views being expressed herein.

The story itself is large but never cumbersome. I read it in about three days, but still by the end felt that I had lived a year inside it. It's disturbing and bizarre, but ultimately very rewarding.