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Reviewed by Michael Aronson Superb reading material this ain’t. Osamu Tezuka’s earliest translated work, and one of the earliest dated manga to be released in English, should really only be approached as a piece of history. In terms of craft, this is one of Tezuka’s earliest titles and probably his second major work. It features three of his most popular characters: Kenichi, Mustachio and Lamp. There are a slew of ideas planted in Lost World that would eventually be explored and developed in later titles, but here they’re little more than a mishmash of seeds. Despite the familiarity of the title and the dinosaur on the cover, Lost World refers to an actual lost world – a planet called Mamango which only comes into relatively close proximity to Earth once every five million years (hey, I did say this wasn’t superb reading material). What unfolds is a conspiracy plot involving genetic experiments with animals and plant creatures, a space flight powered by mystical earth stones and a whole lot of death. Any one of those themes has turned into a classic Tezuka story down the line: conspiracy – Adolf; plant creatures and space flight in the same story – Phoenix: Space; lots of death – Apollo’s Song. The characters aren’t all that complex, and the spotty translation doesn’t help their cause. Oh, it’s not error-riddled on every page, but there are a few very obvious gaffs and a lot of the translation reads as rough as one would expect dialogue from that era (1948, to be exact) to read. But then, it’s easy to imagine that Tezuka’s wordsmith skills were also pretty raw at the time. Again, Lost World isn’t so much an enjoyable story as it is an appreciable piece of graphic storytelling history. And it’s in this regard that the art really exceeds. It’s as rough as much of the writing, but it’s the first time I’ve seen Tezuka take rapid advantage of wide horizontal panels. While his Astro Boy tales are really dense in terms of panel size and number per page, Lost World really breathes in its wide breadth. It’s also one of the rare times I’ve seen Tezuka indulge in scenes of extended action, which make great use of the layout space. The dinosaur chase isn’t a marvelous example of action choreography, but it still demonstrates Tezuka’s flair for dynamic character expressions and clear storytelling. For any Tezuka fan, Lost World is a pricey must-read; anyone else can just as well ignore it. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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