Adolf 1
September 6, 2007
Hey friend! I’m not done reading Tezuka in English yet! While I’m not going to bother tracking down Black Jack since its incomplete, I thought I’d pick up this five-volume series instead of just feeling guilty about it.
This volume has a really nice forward by Fredrik Schodt which, among other things, explains how Tezuka got punched by a drunk American serviceman during the occupation of Japan. Huh.
Anyway, this series is already much, MUCH different than anything else I’ve read by him. The drawing style alone sets it apart, as it is rendered in a much more realistic and less cartoony style than he usually uses. His regular cast of characters is absent (for the most part, Lamp and Hamegg stick their heads in), and instead we get a much more serious group.
Though the plot summary is about two kids named Adolf going through WWII, the series starts off with a Japanese reporter covering the Berlin Olympics and getting stuck on a murder. The victim may have had Communist ties, and when the body disappears without a trace and the reporter’s only lead is killed quite brutally, he suspects the Nazis are covering something up. Among other things, the opening chapters feature scenes from the Berlin Olympics and a huge Nazi rally. Leni Riefenstahl’s films “Triumph of the Will” and “Olympia” inform these scenes mightily (as well as showing you the full-blown creepiness of the huge Nazi rallies). I can vouch for that reporter - the high jump event that kept him at the Olympics that night was EPIC.
Our friend Acetylene Lamp is present and accounted for, and in one of his final and most fitting appearances, he plays the role of Nazi Torturer. He beats up the main character, straps him to a chair, then shocks him with an electric needle until he passes out to try to get information. Of course the main character does not have said information, but, you know, Lamp’s a Nazi now, so… yeah. Even in the realistic style, he’s still quite recognizable as Lamp, and when his face first melts out of the shadows and you do a doubletake to wonder if it really is him, the second panel showing his face has the candle.
Later, we move into the plot with the children, which is quite heartbreaking even by the end of the volume. Having the series take place across two continents like this and involving several different nationalities is quite nice, because it gives you several different perspectives of what’s going on, and it also does a nice job of making these perspectives clash. It also makes out almost everyone in power to be really horrible and corrupt (and mostly Nazis), so there’s a real sense of doom et al, even for characters who aren’t Jewish or wouldn’t normally be in any particular danger.
Epic, my friend. Epic.
May 21, 2008 at 11:34 pm
This pretty much surprised me. I was a little bit on edge about reading something like this. I feel a little uneasy about the time period this plot take place in and the title didn’t help much either. Before reading this I had negative feelings about this but in the end I was looking for a new manga to read and decided to give it a try.
I am still a little uneasy about this whole thing. I felt pretty weird during the time I’ve spent on this volume. I agree that the different perspectives makes the reader understand the tensions being felt which I must commend. However, I don’t see myself going any further than this one volume. It was nice to get out of the highschool love triangle manga settings but I can’t make myself read another volume
May 22, 2008 at 4:02 am
It is uncomfortable. I first found out about it… mm, almost ten years ago, and had absolutely no interest in it until I started reading other Tezuka series, and then I thought that the perspectives in and informing this work would be interesting. It’s definitely worth reading, but it is very intense, and it’s really hard to get through some parts.
August 6, 2008 at 5:52 am
Wow. I must be the only guy who read this BECAUSE it was disturbing. This was my first introduction to Tezuka and I, like others, first thought it was about Adolf Hitler only to find him the least focused upon of the 3 Adolfs in the story.
It took me by surprise since I, like most people, only knew Tezuka was the Astroboy guy.
Funny thing is, having read a bunch of Astroboy and other Tezuka stories, the same themes come up again and again. I would never think to make any thematic connections between a story like this and Astroboy, but self-identity, discrimination, nationalism, suffering for ones beliefs, and other themes are common in both but presented in radically different manners.
This series still remains my favorite of Tezuka’s and the tragedy of Adolf Kaufmann is what gives this story its power.
August 8, 2008 at 3:10 am
I somehow always forget about this series, which is a real shame. I read it at the same time I read a bunch of Tezuka’s other series, so I think it got pushed to the back of my mind along with Metropolis and Lost World. It is certainly one of his best, far better than MW and Ode to Kirihito, which are my two favorites by him. It’s a really powerful story, and even as one of his last, I can’t imagine it ever losing its bite or there ever being a chance it can’t be appreciated. I hope it comes back in print, it’s a wonderful series to recommend to people, but it’s so hard to find the first volume.
Tezuka does have common themes throughout all his works, but I think they are carried out the most successfully in this series. Ode to Kirihito deals almost entirely with discrimination and self-identity, but the message is unfortunately somewhat diminished by the use of caricature and… well, the fact it’s got an extraordinary premise, at least in comparison to something like Adolf. Even Phoenix, which often deals with nationalism and is also based in history, pales in comparison. Phoenix and Adolf are very different though, in the same way that Astro Boy is different, but Ode to Kirihito and Phoenix are dealt with as serious stories in the same way Adolf is. It just feels appropriate he finished his career with this series, somehow.