Necklace Osamushi Collection from J-POP, which collects the main works of the master Osamu Tezuka, the “god of manga“, Is filled with a new release, whose troubled fate has led to a redefinition in progress and which can now be appreciated for the first time in Italy: Dust 8. This manga, misunderstood by most, is presented in this edition in a single volume, collecting all the chapters released in the early 70s on the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday in more than 300 pages. The edition of J-POP, edited following the canons of Osamushi Collection and therefore referring to the edition standards that it has been pursuing for three years now, it also equates to Tezuka’s major works, showing a story never seen in our national panorama, also characterized by attention to the press, the dust jacket and the thickness of the binding and edging.
- Original title: Dust 8
- English title: Dust 8
- Japanese release: 1972
- Italian release: November 17, 2021
- Number of volumes: 1 (complete)
- Publishing house: J-POP Manga
- Gender: thriller, fantasy, drama
- Drawings: Osamu Tezuka
- History: Osamu Tezuka
- Format: 15 × 21, b / w paperback with dust jacket
- Number of pages: 360 pages
We reviewed Dust 8 via press volume provided to us by J-POP Manga.
Dust 8 arrives from the first tables to the point of the situation: a plane crashed into a mountain, marking the death of the entire crew. Or almost: only ten survivors manage to miraculously save themselves. Two kids make their way between the pieces of the wreck and the battered bodies, arriving in front of the Death: the mountain they hit is, in fact, the Mount of Life, on the border between the kingdom of the living and that of the dead. The ten survivors managed to escape the impact because a fragment of the mountain landed on them, but the paradox cannot be maintained: whoever was destined to die must be immediately sent back to the realm of the dead. The two boys are instructed to steal the stones from the other eight survivors, but they refuse. Their bodies are occupied by the creatures of the afterlife, i Kikomora, impalpable beings under the addictions of Death. The two will go to the world of humans in search of stones and survivors, while learning the precariousness of a mortal body and the small joys of earthly life, coming into contact with the difficulties and problems of a life that is too short, but also with the fullness that this brevity leads to make each of us savor.
Dust 18: the origin of Dust 8 and the “mutilated” version
The editorial history of Dust 8 by Tezuka is intertwined with the editing dynamics of the version tankōbon, which turns out to be spurious of many narrative and aesthetic elements. Serialized, as stated earlier, in the early 1970s in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday, Dust 18 (well yes, it is not a typo, but the real name of the work) presents a plot, good or bad, identical to the one just described, taking place in unique chapters regarding characters and internal dynamics, which are linked to a more great. Each chapter can therefore be considered semi-conclusive, because it concerns the story of one of the survivors and their last moments of life. The story was, however, much more diluted originally: the survivors were 18 (as can be seen from the title), the ending was much more raw and disillusioned, the tables much more detailed and the chapters certainly longer as regards the internal micro-plot. . When, therefore, the paper version was created, Tezuka removed all these elements, also redesigning the design of the faces of some characters and merging some chapters by cutting some tables, deemed unnecessary for the narrative.
A plane crashes into a mysterious mountain that appears to have come out of nowhere. Eight survivors are miraculously saved from the disastrous impact, with hardly any serious injuries: all this was possible because they received a piece of the Mount of Life, but now their existence represents a paradox that must be canceled. Two Kikomora, beings from the kingdom of the dead, took the form of human beings, have the task of taking back the stones and leading the predestined souls to death. A choral story that represents the fleetingness of life and the difficulties that living such a short life on Earth entails.
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On a graphic level, therefore, Dust 8 is renewed compared to the previous aesthetic: released in 1979, the tankōbon edition presents aesthetic renewals that denote a ripening of the Tezuka tract and an adaptation to its own evolution and to the graphic economy of comics. This therefore underlines a renewal of the author’s trait compared to the very first works, but in any case an attention to detail that does not fully reflect the major works, focusing on the validity of the drawing in function of the story told. These additions were recently recovered in the Japanese reissue of Dust 18, by popular demand of the public, by going to search for some vintage sources of the weekly Shogakukan which have never been published elsewhere. But the J-POP edition refers to the first in tankōbon, or a Dust 8, and it is precisely this that we are going to analyze more specifically.
The metaphor of life told by Osamu Tezuka
Dust 8 looks like a fragmented story, characterized by a common history (that of the recovery of the stones of life), but at the same time studded with many stories that are intertwined with the common basis, but which almost never meet each other. All this represents the individuality and individualism of the individual characters, who close themselves in their bubble of impotence and incommunicability. Only at the moment when the two Kikomora they interfere to change their life through the removal of the stone it is possible for the characters to understand what the priorities are and to live fully, even if only for a very short time. The end is inevitable, it cannot be postponed.
A choral story that intends to show the consequences of feeling invincible and immortal, but also the resignation and acceptance of a death already foreseen and ineluctable. Delaying one’s demise simply representstrick to demonstrate how everyone reacts differently to “living the last second”. The narrative is mainly divided into two strands, which contain two types of characters, decidedly stereotyped but who still maintain their autonomy from each other: some of the survivors accept their death and try to remedy their mistakes or otherwise try to do something incisive just before dying; others, on the other hand, are convinced that they are now immortal and therefore try to exploit their condition to increase their influence or their abilities. Basically this highly categorized representation of the characters represents, in a metaphorical way, the tendency of human beings to react to life in a different way, rather than to death itself: who works in life to do good or live a dignified life, and who instead he does not care about the little things and therefore believes he can do anything with his own existence and that of others.
Dust 8 it is the symbolic representation of Limbo, a metaphorical Purgatory in which souls are waiting to be sorted between Hell and Heaven. Even if in Tezuka’s work there is no precise definition of celestial and demonic worlds: there is simply a Kingdom of the Dead in which souls must return, on pain of paradoxes “vital”That must be fixed and whose pieces must literally be collected. Osamu Tezuka intends to show how the the boundary between life and death is so blurred that it is necessary to rethink life itself, appreciate even the little things, strive to achieve goals, live every single moment.
Who do we recommend Dust 8 to?
Of course Dust 8 is an essential title for those who love the sensei Tezuka and who is completing the collection ofOsamushi Collection. Furthermore, this volume, being unpublished in Italy, is to be considered an excellent way to discover even those minor works that have not been worthy of having an official mention among the masterpiece of the author, prolific without equal. Dust 8 it is a very intimate work, philosophical in some ways, addressing a contemplation of life as a fleeting moment and therefore necessarily to be lived until the last moment. This work can therefore represent a warning to live fully, to be satisfied with the little things: certainly with interesting psychological implications, which therefore can be appreciated by those looking for a latent meaning beyond the lines that is directed towards these narrative dynamics.
- Powerful metaphorical warning to look for beyond the lines
- Peculiar trait and iconic designs of the god of manga
- Direct history, goes straight to the point without preamble
- Edition that does not present the additional material of the new Japanese edition
- Very fragmented choral story that does not dwell too much on individual characters
Dust 8
The meaning of life, the fleetingness of the last breath according to the god of manga
Dust 8 it is a powerful volume, direct, in no uncertain terms: second Osamu Tezuka life is short, fleeting, so you have to live it fully. We could consider it the metaphor of the life of Tezuka himself, an incisive and prolific author who made his own art into his own life, but certainly also a warning that he wanted to leave to posterity through this short manga. The protagonists understand their weaknesses when they realize that they are destined to die at any moment: they find the courage to do what they had postponed or that had been clouded by other passing needs during the previous life. Dust 8 it is therefore an invitation to pursue one’s goals with all one’s strength, because death, inevitably, could come at any moment.
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