Lately, I've been having a hot streak regarding buying excellent comics. From A History of Violence, to Oldboy, to Yu Yu Hakusho, to What's Michael?...I seem to somehow know what's going to be perfect and to stay away from terrible ones. Enter Buddha. If anything, the reason I picked this book up was the hardcover format. It was the first time I saw any comic, especially a Japanese one in nonstandard format (right to left) get such treatment. And given that it's by Osamu Tezuka, the guy who we can pretty much thank for nearly every good comic out of Japan, I knew there was very little to lose here. At a whopping 400 pages, I managed to get through volume one in about an hour and a half, collectively. I couldn't put it down! Every page had meaning behind it, every character no matter how minor was very deep, and the illustrations manage to hold up to this day. And the ending...it nearly had me in tears. Buddha is a sort of biography of the one and only Buddha's life, with some original characters by Tezuka thrown in as well, and you know what? Where something like this could blow up in the creator's face easily, Tezuka does it without flaw. I don't think I've been so excited to get the next volume with any other comic I've read, and that's saying a lot considering some of my favorites like Berserk, Oldboy and Lone Wolf and Cub are some of the top choices out there.

In volume one, we're given a brief history of what India was like thousands of years ago. The different social classes, how cities looked, religion, etc. We're also introduced to a very important question, given by a wise man who tells a story to his fellow monks. He, a very old man, was walking through a blizzard, exhausted from the cold conditions, is probably on his last legs. But then, three animals appear before him- a fox, a bear and a rabbit. The fox and bear gather a little bit of food for him, while the rabbit isn't able to help much aside from fire wood. The rabbit, a noble being, thrusts itself into the fire in order to be consumed, helping someone who needs it. The monk is moved by this action, and holds the rabbit's burnt body up to the sky where we see its spirit joining the stars. The monk then asks his students/fellow monks an important question regarding the matter. One of his students, Naradatta, sets forth to find out the answer, as well as discover something more- a being with a gift. He doesn't know who just yet, or just how wild the journey's going to be. Naradatta is told about a little boy named Tatta, who's said to be able to do magical things. At first, we see Tatta as a stuck up little brat. He was born into the lowest social class, even lower than slaves. He steals some material from a slave, Chapra, who in turn hunts him down to get it back, as it was material from the master's best customer, and if it's not returned, his mother will be killed. Chapra succeeds in tracking Tatta down, but ends up in a bigger mess than he expected. I won't ruin too much, but after this brilliant introduction, we're then taken to see two characters hundreds of miles away (I'm assuming) that are having a baby soon, where the mother has dreams where it's blessed by the gods. We also see one character rise to become something more than his social status, just what Tatta is capable of, Naradatta's punishment of something he wasn't aware of being seen as sinful, and much more.

I have to say, that each character here is great in his or her own way. Tatta's gift surprised me, and I got a kick out of the first few times he used it. He comes off as a brat at first, but when something terrible happens, he changes completely, and it's all for the better. Chapra is a very noble boy, and if it weren't for characters like him existing before this was written, I'd say that he's the poster boy for "poor, but noble" characters. In some ways, he reminds me of Robin Hood. There's even a scene later on that Disney's movie Aladdin pretty much ripped off scene-for-scene. Naradatta is your typical monk-type character, but his decisions aren't always the best ones regarding the situations he's in. In fact, the last decision he makes in this volume seems great and brilliant from nearly every point of view, but it's only when his plan is complete and he is scolded by his master, that we see just how poorly rushed it was. There's also a very good semi-antagonist here as well, a leader of an army who's busy conquering towns all over the place. He kills many innocent people, and lives in luxury for the most part. But something happens that threatens his existence later on, and he is saved, but how you'd expect. And of course, letting him live is a key to one character's key plan, no matter how selfish it may seem. But I could go on about the characters forever really, let's go over the other key feature in this book- the charm. Some characters are naked for the entire book, others make goofy faces once in a while, and some of the animals are just plain cute. Yes, some uppity parents may frown upon Buddha for having a few main characters like Tatta, who is completely naked through the entire volume, or Chapra's mom- a slave like her son, who is topless most of the time. But Tezuka never uses nudity as a cheap gimmick- it's done tastefully. Heck, sometimes certain parts of the exposed areas aren't even drawn. If you're a concerned parent who feels they have to check through every book before letting your child read it, skim a few pages here, and see for yourself that it's all done well. And no, there's never any sex in this volume. As for the violence, there is quite a bit, but it's not that graphic. Sword slashes, arrows, and such are here, but not drawn out for multiple panels. Tezuka knows better.

Unfortunately, the translation could've been handled much better. A lot of the text here is a bit modernized, for lack of better term, and some characters were saying things that make you question how historical this comic really is. A lot of slang from the time it was released with some from THIS generation is here. I was able to ignore it for the most part, but it could take away some points in the long run if it continues into other volumes. The book is presented in English-format, left to right, so panels have been flipped. Unlike some others that suffered this, like Lone Wolf and Cub, it doesn't matter too much. Remember how samurai in LWaC would have their gi with the right side over the left, which would never happen back in that time? Yeah, that's present here, but there are no samurai, or similar outfits aside from monk robes, so it's nothing to worry about.

Overall, Buddha is most definitely worth your money, and will leave you craving for more once the first volume here's over. A bit of advice- buy volumes one and two at the same time if you're really interested, because you'll want to go on with the story once you're done with this one. It's that good, and that's something I don't say for many other comics these days, let alone "real" books. Tezuka continues to impress me, showing that he is in fact, the godfather of Japanese comics.

I bought this because it was on sale and it looked cool.

And since then I've become a Tezuka convert. He (and Miyazaki in Nausicaa) showed me that the manga style can be used even more effectively then the western style.

For my money, Tezuka is a step above even Will Eisner and his art makes the average American comic book artist look incredibly stiff and formal. In light of this kind of art, the idealization of photorealistic art in American comics seems like something thats holding it back.