Hi no tori, one of Osamu Tezuka's masterpieces, was published between 1954 and 1988. Two versions of the manga can actually be found : a luxury one in 12 volumes, and a pocket on in A6 format (it's small isn't it !) which advantage is to be at a lower price even with a certain number of color pages. This edition has 13 volumes, sold for around 600 yens each.

The fourth one (Hôô-hen (hou-ou hen), from the episodes published between 1969 and 1970 in Com) has been adapted by RinTarô (the famous director of the Galaxy Express 999 movies and of course Dagger of Kamui), under the form of a one-hour feature masterpiece (yeah, as always). Released in 1986, its music score was composed by the famous New-Age composer Fumio Miyashita. I might talk about the movie later, but first I'd like to focus my attention on the manga, with a little summary of the first pages of that 355-page volume...

Hi no tori's manga is quite pessimistic as for the lot of its many heroes ! Thus, in the Yamato chapter, the author dared make die "as an example" the hero couple who had already quite suffered all along the manga or the OAV... But I'll tell you about it later (this article is in fact the first of a series about the Phoenix world... Which might become a whole Sanctuary later), so let's concentrate on Hôô-hen now...

Gaô was born in a little fishers' village. His father rushed to take him above a hill not far from there to go and find the kami (protector god) and have his child blessed by him. The climbing was so hard that he lost his footing, fell down, crashed his head and died outright, living his son alive but without a left arm. Never forget your safety belt ! Fifteen years later, we discover Gaô again, well away from his mates who play on their side, despising his handicap. One day he is humiliated by a villager he had defeated during a fight of which stake was a big plate full of rice. That was the last straw: led by his anger, he pushed him from above the cliff. Chased after by the crowd, he just owes his life to a flower field in which he could hide. Gaô notices a ladybird on his arm and deposes her on one of the flowers. An important detail for later ! He's found by the others but he gets ahead and escapes one more time.

During the night Gaô doesn't hesitate one second to threaten a couple to kill their child if they don't supply him some food. When the father flies away to inform the villagers he takes fright, kills the chils and runs away. The spiral...

He dives into a nearby river and lets himself being swept along by the stream. Far from there he gets out of water and approaches a fire made by a young man who camps here, Akanemaru. This one introduces himself as a buddhist sculptor coming from Yamato's capital city. His kindness astonishes Gaô, but he doesn't let himself being charmed and threatens hims with his weapon once more. "Give me your clothes !", he shouts at him. His host, disappointed, does it; the criminal so sees Akanemaru bare-chested (keep cool girls, he's not drawn by Clamp) and, jealous of him seeing his two normal arms (with 2x5 fingers an everything else), hurts his right arm on purpose, dresses and gets away with some despise for the poor man.

On the way he his caught up by Hayame, Akanemaru's little sister, who lectures him. Amused, he introduces himself and carries her of, with the intention to make her his wife. The sculptor for his part finds refuge in a temple on the other side of the mountain. He is cured by an old priest, but the state of his arm will from then on prevent him from doing his work as skillfully as before... The monk will teach him then what patience is: he himself decided at the age of twenty to sculpt works in a special material, stone. For that he uses the principle of stalagmites, by making the morning dew run on the same place through a system of hollow reeds, and by moving again and again the stalagmite to control the shape the statue will finally take... There are crazy men ! Anyway, this gives an idea of the monk's patience: it takes him several years to complete a sculpture. Akanemaru understands then that he has a whole life before himself by seeing the result of the sixteen years of work from his future master, and he decides to try and learn to use his left hand to practise his art...

Again we find Gaô who drives Hayame in one of his usual deadly burglary. This time he murders a four-people familly to steal their food and money. One can understand why the poor Hayame is shocked, and even more when Gaô explains her that he prefers to kill before being killed. "My life was so hard that I think I have the right to live ! I will be the last to die...", he thinks. A wandering bonze will assert him the contrary ("death will strike you through the nose"), which will make him come off its hinges.

One year passes quietly. Akanemaru, after many efforts, finally manages to sculpt a representation of Buddha with is left hand. He finally reached his aim and thanks is master. For his part Gaô comes back from his day of massacres (eighteen murders, not bad, not bad) and offers his wife a mirror he stole from one of his victims. But strangely, Hayame's face doesn't reflect in it, contrary to that of Gaô. She quickly finds an explanation adapted to her logic ("It's certainly a gentleman's mirror ! Women cannot reflect in it ! As men cannot reflect in a woman's mirror !"), but he ends throwing the object and gets angry one more time. The same night, he starts to suffer terribly from the nose. Hayame, worried, and thinking a caught a chill, prepares immediately a cure he doesn't prevent himself from taking. An absolutely terrific make up shows us a zoom on a snowball which symbolises both the falling snow and ... the swelling of his nose !!

Gaô walks on the snow, acompagnated by some guies he recently recruted. He complains about gigantic size his nose reached and about the uselessness of the medicine his wife gave him. His second in command pretends then that this product is a poison Hayame certainly prepared to avenge herself. Of course this is completely wrong, one cannot doubt his wife's loyalty, she who is so good. But Gaô is an impulsive man. Outraged, he gets back home and executes his beloved without even letting her one chance to defend herself. Right before her death she exanges some words with her husband.

"I wanted to live in happiness with you till the end of my life...
- Liar ! You tried to kill me to avenge your brother I injured !
- No... I have no relation with this sculptor... I told this to approach you...
- What ! But then, where do you come from ?
- One day, you saved my life...
- How the...? I don't remember !
- You took me in your hands and saved my life... Since that day, I knew you infact you had a good heart... But now it's too late... I'm going to die... I'm happy to have lived with you..."

Snow covers her body and she disappears slowly from Gaô's view. He can only moan over his error. Worse : a small ladybird is just born before his eyes... He just understood. But we do not really, however the movie enlightens the situation : we see a flashback where, chased by villagers in whom house he certainly commited a massacre in, he hides near a river and sees a ladybird prisonner of waters passing in front of him... He delivers her from her moving jail and lays her under cover on a leaf, smiling kindly... The ladybird wanted to thank him by taking a human shape and living at his sides... But now, dead, the enchantment is over and she took back the appearence of an inert ladybird... Gaô, conscious of waht he just did, starts to wander under the storm, yelling his beloved to come back, but knowing nothing well nothing could ever bring her back... To weak to defend himself, he lets himself be captures by soldiers chasing him, and is condemned to death. By chance his execution is postponed by a superior wishing to meet him. And this one is none else than the monk who predicted him he wouldn't survive a long time ! Fate plays tricks sometimes...

I will let you discover the rest of the story. And I only related you 75 pages of the manga... But it really is magnificent. Tezuka seduces us here with his very particular approach of the characters. There is no fight between Good and Evil, but a coexistence. We start from the principle that all men are born equal in rights (as a French humorist said so cleverly, "things get worse just after"); the author analyses the reasons which make men do Evil. He has the gift of waking in us the feeling of pity which will make us forgive the poor Gaô all his crimes.

Later, the same humanism will be found in Saint Seiya, with all God Warriors who all had difficult childhoods. How to hold against Fenrir his hate of men, he who witnessed their wickedness, their hypocrisis, their cowardness, the day his parents died... How to blame Thor who poaches on Hilda's property when we know it is to feed his people, and thus by risking his own life ? Here, we cannot put the blame on Gaô: he was bullied all his life, put aside because of his unability. He suffered the worst humiliations and for him existence never had the least meaning. On the contrary. Gaô, in spite of his repulsive physic, gains sympathy. We would so strongly like him to know happiness at least. We suffer for him all along the story... And we even are somehow ashamed to be just manga readers well under cover in our slippers...

Also read : another page about the movie...

Cyber Namida was created and designed by René-Gilles Deberdt. All rights reserved.