B&W throughout. Set over four distinct chapters, follows the story of Toshiko Tomura, a successful young woman who achieves fame and financial success through theft and plagiarism, leaving a trail of corpses in her wake. Her character reminds me of Ripley from Highsmith's novels, as she shows no remorse for her actions at all. At a turning point in the novel, you think she might change her ways, but it is as though she cannot help herself, and goes on to the next big thing, success in yet another field. Well illustrated, and with some adult themes. ( )

With the Book of Human Insects, Tezuka's appeal is reaches new heights. He compressed an incredibly fascinating character study into a short space.

It is what he did with MW, but you'll see even more compression here. One eternally gets the sense that Tezuka suffered from too many ideas. He simply could not draw fast enough. In fact, I would have been okay with him just resorting to stick figures or blocking out his stories and allowing apprentices and assistants to finish his works. But no, he chose to work much harder than anyone else and do everything himself.

The Book of Human Insects, with its bleak commentary on art, is actually prophetic. How many artists would discover Tezuka and then copy and reinvent his ideas? He single-handedly created a market for anime with Astro Boy, and revolutionized manga into a legitimate career path. After leaving behind 150,000 pages of drawings in the famous 700 volume Tezuka collection, he still didn’t want to stop at the end of his life. The inspiration he found from Hollywood and Disney is clear in some of his work, but in the end he showcased a capacity to invent ideas at a greater rate than any other creator of his time.

The Book of Human Insects is a good place to enter into Tezuka’s work. Before embarking on Ode to Kirihito or Barbara or MW, this one, solid volume is enough to convince anyone with literary leanings that Tezuka was more than just a serious contender in the medium. He might have been the Mozart of manga. He makes everyone else look like Salieri. Sure, he had his flaws. You can find plenty of jokes that really aren't funny and plotlines that come out of nowhere only to go nowhere, but you won't find that kind of thing in this volume.

After reading The Book of Human Insects I needed no more convincing. I wanted to reread it. But I knew there was too much Tezuka left. I couldn’t pause to linger over this fine work of storytelling. I had to move on to his other works. The quality of Tezuka is such that even when he is not at his best, he is still addictive. And even when he was just starting, his brilliance was recognizable. When the medium didn’t allow for much space or experimentation, he still found ways to innovate with works like The Mysterious Underground Men. This work is marked by adult themes, adult atmosphere and a total lack of appeal for children. Tezuka was making an effort to elevate manga above the level of the funny papers and to spread appreciation.

The Book of Human Insects categorizes many typical characters, recognizable in part, from other examples of his work. It contains journalists, writers, actors, assassins, businessmen, lovers, but is devoid of children. It is fairly obvious when Tezuka is trying to be mature. It is a testament to him that he could dash off something like The Book of Human Insects while working on other projects simultaneously.

Tezuka must have internalized the basic themes he wished to explore: the human spirit, sacrifice, religious dogmas, futurism, dystopia, love, jealousy, etc. etc. And he conjures scenes organically, invents plot twists at the drop of a hat, inserts the right amount of conflict, tension, and mixes up the atmosphere as necessary. This book occupies a special place in my mind as one of the most crystallized Tezuka works. It's hard to beat for sheer intense storytelling. It contains all the drama and comedy and tragedy you could ask for from a graphic work. All he needed to do was dream, and let the characters come to life, and draw them into being in the midst of their frantic worlds. ( )

Another fascinating, clever, and horrifying graphic novel by Osamu Tezuka. Toshiko Tomura is the ultimate survivor: winding and weaving her way through a series of men and industries to achieve fame and riches. But in the end, she is an inevitable product of modernity.

Tezuka's Tomura wasn't just an empty-shell who utilized mimicry to get what she wanted. No, but like an owl butterfly she used her talent for mimicry to survive in a modern world of pretences, domestic violence, and machismo. She became the people who preyed on her beauty and talent and betrayed them a second or an hour before they would have betrayed her.

Though a short novel--two or three hours would suffice to read it, I would say that this is one of Tezuka's finest works, though the excessive number of sex scenes--even for a Tezuka novel--really detracted from my enjoyment of this novel--definitely not safe for reading on a packed 196B bus.

P.S. I couldn't help but pick up on the references to the Yukio Mishima Incident throughout the novel, which was originally serialized from 1970 to 1971. Mishima, like Tomura, was one of those strange people who lived a double life: a simple family man and a larger than life celebrity. I found the manner of Mishima's death, the calmness of his resolve, and his love for Greece paralleled in the characters of The Book of Human Insects.

Without hesitations,

Two Thumbs Up!

THE BOOK OF HUMAN INSECTS by Osamu Tezuka is an unique graphic thriller. It is a Japanese manga comics book. It is the story of Toshiko Tomura who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She has stolen,murdered,blackmailed, copied others works,but she has climbed the ladder to become an acclaimed stage actress and award-winning architect. I love the graphics(comic strip) style in this story. Although,the main character is a little over the top to me some will find her engaging.This is a haunting story of climbing to the top at all costs with little to no consequences. “The Book of Human Insects” is an intersting and unique story.It is the portrayal of a instead of “dog-eat-dog world” it is a “bug-eat-bug world”,where some of the charcters would sell their souls to achieve their goals.It was a little disturbing to me.If you enjoy a seductive,disturbing,brutal,cynical culture you will enjoy “The Book Of Human Insects” also. This book was received for review from the publisher.Details can be found at Vertical and My Book Addiction Reviews ( )