Osamu Tezuka's Apollo's Song & Existential Entrapment

A Little Late To The Game
As someone who enjoys comics and all the wonderful genres that they offer, I never quite got on board with reading Manga. This was not due to availability, in fact, Manga availability has long been more at my disposal where I have traveled than any other genre in comics. So why the hold up? I have no real defense other than I chalk it up to being one of those instances where (and we all do this in life), if something of interest comes along, we often make a note of it and say the magic words 'I will get to this soon'. And so, twenty plus years later, (sweeping arms) here I am. And I arrived at a most curious story in Osamu Tezuka's Apollo's Song.

So out of all the Manga to choose from how did I arrive at Apollo's Song? Simply enough, I closed my eyes, and my finger landed on it, standing in front of a large selection of Manga pieces to choose from. Before I get into what I found particularly striking and most fascinating about Apollo's Song, I just want to say that if my choice process always works out for the best in this way, I will always choose with such a random flare!

Rathe than attempt to dissect Manga stylistically or in any way it is constructed, as I have no business doing so due to my ignorance of its history and form, I really did try to read it from the perspective of someone just looking for a good time. My brain, however, rarely these days lets me rest on my laurels and very early in the story those special little areas in my chemical processes upstairs began to light up. This is the disease of an educator.....somehow I always spoil my own good time! While I am going to write more about this title and how it relates to existential philosophy at a later time, I wanted to get this initial idea out that exploded in my head while I was reading. In the last few years writing in this more ephemeral way has become more and more part of my own process of creating context and understanding, and, as anyone who reads this blog knows,  creating context and understanding through the comics I read and the comics medium as a whole.

Aesthetic Despair
Shogo Chikaishi, the male protagonist, is presented to the reader as a psychologically damaged, cold and violent young man. His sadism is self-seving, even self-pleasuring (as exhibited in his facial expressions), as he engages in the mutilation and murder of animals and outbursts in dealing with any affections shown by others. Outside of the story of the possible involvement of the gods in Shogo's Journey (which is something for another time), I quickly realized he is a character that is stuck in what Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once described as the first of his proposed three stages of human existence: Shogo is in the aesthetic despair stage.

Why This Is A Good Thing
According to Kierkegaard, "the aesthetic stage both begins and ends in despair", as the "aesthete is inherently selfish, living with the sole concern of what is of interest to him at the moment. His life is experimental and relative; he will pursue a particular pleasure just as long as it is of interest to him" (Irwin, 2000, p.41-42). This typifies most young people in the adolescent and young adult phase of life (minus the violence and death of course!), but what makes Shogo interesting as  being representative of this stage is due to the fact that he is damaged to such an extreme degree that it makes him, as a character, a great place to exhibit the idea, both visually and narratively, as an example of the complicated philosophy of existentialism. As an educator, I often struggle to find the contexts and examples to engage students, family and friends in some of the more complex ideas when engaging in self and cultural analysis through philosophy. While I do not know if these ideas are present in all of Osamu Tezuka's work (if it is please let me know so I can investigate further!), I think the fact that it is present in this work again strengthens the argument for using alternative forms of media in presenting students and citizens with ways to access great philosophical questions that they may have not been previously given any access to in formal and/or informal education.

References
Irwin, W. (2000). Seinfeld and Philosophy (A book about Everything and Nothing). Chicago, Il: Open Court Publishing.