Tezuka's Buddha.

So I'm going to start with this: I CANNOT wait to finish Buddha. As someone who has taken a keen interest in the relationship and history between Buddhism and Hinduism in the past year or so, this kind of story is right up my alley. Especially considering that I've always loved a good underdog story, and the two primary characters I've met thusfar, Chapra and Takka, are pretty underdog-ish. One, a slave who seeks desperately to rise in the ranks of their infamous caste system to bring a better life to his mother and the other, a pariah with special abilities that make him more powerful and valuable that probably any Brahmin. Clearly they've both got a lot of developing to do, character wise, and I look forward to seeing them overcome their respective obstacles.

Another reason I've become a huge fan is the art style. Though proportions can get a bit wonky at times and some action poses can look a bit stiff every now and then, I can't take off my nostalgia shades. It reminds me of the work of Akira Toriyama, creator of the "Dragon Ball" series, which was a huge part of my childhood and initial introduction into Japanese art next to Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro". Of course, I'm sure it's blasphemy to compare Tezuka to Toriyama (and I must make it clear, I'm comparing Buddha's art style to Dragon Ball only, not Dragon Ball Z), but I'm positive Toriyama must've been inspired in some way by the father of manga, so I think it's appropriate. On a side note, Kimba the White Lion's style also comes to mind, though I've only seen trailers for it and never the actual movie. I believe it's also a studio Ghibli film, so that might be another comparison to Miyazaki.

Now then, theming. I've already mentioned the fact that I think it's great for the development of Chapra and Takka that they both belong to such low classes, but I'd like to harken back to that really quick to talk about what I speculate may be a recurring theme in this manga: equality amongst classes. We're shown some bad people from the pariah class, and people with hearts of gold from the slave class. The general of the soldier class was a bit of a bastard, but rewarding Chapra for saving his life was surely a sign of good in the man. Hell, the monk from the brahmin class was a pretty great dude, and quickly cast off his doubts about Takka upon seeing his exemplary morals. All in all, regardless of what social class the characters belong to, there appear to be good and bad sides to every one of them -- I think it's pretty clear that this says "we're all on the same level". It's certainly a Buddhist point of view, so I believe it to be appropriate, thinking that might be a recurring theme.

-Will Avery