Ode to Kirihito
Kirihito seriesOde to Kirihito, Part 2(1977) →
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
It may or may not be contagious. There seems to be no cure for it. Yet, Monmow Disease, a life-threatening condition that transforms a person into a dog-like beast, is not the only villain in this shocking triumph of a medical thriller by manga-god Osamu Tezuka. Said to have been the personal favorite of the artist, who held a degree in medicine, and surprisingly attentive to Christian themes and imagery, Ode to Kirihitodemolishes naive notions about human nature and health and likely preconceptions about the comics master himself.
Read more
From pregnant vistas of the Japanese countryside to closed rooms full of sin and redemption, Tezuka astounds for more than eight hundred continuous pages, his art in turn easefully concise and flamboyantly experimental, his inquiry into our most repugnant instincts and prospects for overcoming them unflinchingly serious. Incorporating elements of the often lurid and adult-oriented "gekiga" style for the first time, Tezuka entered into his fruitful late period with this work.
A promising young doctor, Kirihito Osanai visits a remote Japanese mountain village to investigate the source of the latest medical mystery. While he ends up traveling the world to discover what it takes to be cured of such a disease, a conspiracy back home attempts to explain away his absence. Hinging upon his fate are those of his loved ones: an unstable childhood friend and colleague trapped between factions of the medical establishment that nurtured him; a fiancee emotionally transformed by Kirihito's mysterious disappearance; and a stranger who becomes his guardian angel, a sensual circus-act performer with volatile psychological secrets.
From plutocratic Taipei and racially divided South Africa to backwater Arabia and modern Osaka, ambition and desire beckon "normal men" to behave uglier than any beast. Riveting our attention on deformity and its acceptance like The Elephant Manby David Lynch, Ode to Kirihitoexamines the true worth of human beings through and beyond appearances.
Liked Ode to Kirihito? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Ode to Kirihito. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
“People who read Ode to Kirihito tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (science fiction about medical), start with these.”
“If it was the graphic novels that hooked you, try one of these.”
“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”
-
The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis
- Medical School for Everyone: Grand Rounds Cases
-
The Medicine Cabinet of Curiosities: An Unconventional Compendium of Health Facts and Oddities, from Asthmatic Mice to Plants that Can Kill
-
The Lassa Ward: One Man's Fight Against One of the World's Deadliest Diseases