Week 2: Tezuka

 


     The first volume of 'Phoenix' was extremely endearing. With early history clans, mythology, war, love, brotherhood, friendship, and magic- it made for a very interesting read. One of things I love to see most in comics and graphic novels (which I so rarely find) are small contextual bubbles or historical relevance notes regarding the situation. The Phoenix did such a wonderful job of including historical relevance, while also keeping the world magical and mysterious. I find it added so much to the piece and I hope this influenced manga artists as well as Tezuka's style and format.
    I also found it a refreshing change that the character in focus would always change. At first it was a bit jarring as they kept dying and someone else would take the mantle of main character- however as more characters got introduced the story would naturally switch back to a different character for a time- giving the manga a very cinematic and congruent feel.
   The Second volume of 'Phoenix' was nothing like the first. A futuristic world, aliens, the fault of man, evolution, and staring into the face of eternity left me feeling I was no longer in the world of the Phoenix- that is until we see the start of the last book come into the passage of time at the very end of Volume 2. While this was interesting and certainly more fluid than the beginning of Volume 1, it was a lot of information to suddenly take in early on. Not only that but once we're accustomed to the fast pace of the first part of the book, it slows to an intolerable pace as the passage of time wears on for our, now immortal, main character. I understand that this technique works to put us in the mindset of the main character but it made it difficult to keep reading. Even the end, where we're left at the beginning of the fist book, and the main character is reunited with their love as a god that is one with the cosmos- I'm not sure where that leaves us. I'm a little scared to find out where the next book takes off at but I'm more interested than worried so  It won't be long before I find out.

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