Buddha

Despite it's title Osamu Tezuka's first volume of Buddha has very little to do with Buddha indeed. He is only mentioned a few times, and the references are to his birth at that. The main story follows a young monk, two slaves, and a pariah named Tatta. Rather than giving a biography into the life of Siddhartha Tezuka chooses to give an insight into his teachings and ideals.

The story begins by following a Brahmin, or monk, who is sent by his master to seek out one who would be a god or a king. In his quest the Brahmin discovers that the person for whom he is searching is from the lowest class, below even slaves, a pariah. But this pariah, Tatta, has the greatness to become a god or a king with his wisdom. He can take over an animals mind and command its body and speaks to them. Tatta sees all life as his equal, human and animal alike. Because he is of such low standing he has nowhere to fall to and so he sees himself as one of the animals. In his life Tatta has befriended a young slave trying to save his mother. Their village is attacked by a neighboring monarchy and Tatta's friends and family are killed. Chapra (the slave boy) winds up saving the enemy general and is adopted as his son. So the Brahmin, along with Tatta and Chapra's mother set out across the desert in search of Chapra.

Chapra ignores all ideals of Buddhism in his rise from slave to noble and thus his life is not as positive as it would seem to be. However Chapra is marked as a slave by a brand on his foot and so he can never truly escape his past. He is a slave and will always be a slave. You cannot be anything besides what you are.

And even as Chapra abandons his past his mother, Tatta, and the Brahmin continue to search for him, to rescue him. And along the way they face great hardships, the most poignant of which is when Tatta sacrifices himself to be eaten by a snake in order to make a trade wherein the snake would give some of its eggs to Chapra's mother and the Brahmin so that they may eat as a plague of locusts came and devoured everything around for miles.

Tezuka's style leant to this story is slightly off-putting at first but as you adjust you begin to see the poignant and expressive nature of the artwork. The story of Siddhartha, his life and his teachings, is a very important one in Asian cultures and Tezuka's telling of it is very clear and respectful, allowing non-Buddhist people to read and understand the story of the founding of the religion.