Phoenix, Vol. 11: Sun, Part 2

火の鳥 [Hi no Tori] #11

by Osamu Tezuka

The wolf-faced Harima fights on behalf of the once deified Ku tribe, who are perceived as demonic after the introduction of Buddhism to Japan. This conflict is mirrored in the 21st century, where Harima's counterpart, Bando Suguri, fights against a Phoenix-worshipping group known as "Hikari."

Sun is the longest chapter in the Phoenix series, and its structure is threefold. Harima's story in 7th century Japan interweaves with that taking place in the 21st century, while another tale of a spiritual battle bridges both past and future.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Japan

344 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2014

About the author

Dr. Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga" and "the God of Manga."

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute epic. It takes what worked in previous Phoenix volumes and combines it all into one huge 700+ page story that spans from 600 to 2008 (the far flung future!).

It's amazing how much history and mythology Tezuka weaves into his tales. I've learned so much about Japanese history through these comics.

Suguru discovers the Light People have a fake Phoenix but is caught before stealing it and sent to a reconditioning centre where he has a wolf mask strapped to his face which has an audio device that plays Light religious teaching. He is forced to fight the young woman (Inori) he first encountered on the surface, striking her with a killing blow as he falls in love with her. But she doesn't die, he speculates she has the blood of the phoenix in her. And they start an uprising and there's a prison break. Otomo, the guy with the big nose speaks with the leader of the Light religion and tells him they know the phoenix is fake and the light church is going down. Suguru comes back. Suguru is slowly transforming into a wolf.

Inugami almost dies but is healed by the Old Woman and Marimo. Marimo leaves as the Old Woman doesn't want her around.

General Iki No Fubito Karakuni comes to town. He's also a foreigner and attempts to get Inugami to serve the emperor (or face death) but is sympathetic. They fight with the Buddhist gods getting involved. But other god-like entity's come and assist Inugami. But eventually Inugami goes and gives himself up in order to stop the fight. He's taken to Prince Otomo but is not given a fair trial. General Iki No Fubito Karakuni gives him an illicit meeting with the Prince but the Prince gives him the reasons why Buddhism must win (with a simple faith knowledge and education will also advance, the nation will be unified). Inugami escapes his prison cell and flees on a horse. He's aided by the young Princess who is sympathetic to his cause (her father is Prince Oama and is about to be married to her cousin Otomo). She gives him a letter to give to Oama. Inugami embraces his wolf-ness and sneaks on all fours like a wolf.

Prince Oama meets with Inugami who has decided to go to war. The princess is killed by Otomo for the betrayal. Inugami meets with the Phoenix and asks her help against the Buddhist gods. She shows him the future war between the Church of the Light and the Shadow world. Oama decides he will become emperor, reform everything, destroy the capital at Omi and declare himself a descendant of the Sun God. He will rules of the "Land of the Rising Sun" Nippon.

General Iki No Fubito Karakuni fights Inugami on the battlefield and slices his face really badly. It seems Inugami may die but instead is wolf face melts off revealing his healed human face. But meanwhile in the future Suguru has grown a wolf face. He stroyed the control center of the Church of light. But Oama has decided to create a new global religion of Eternalism. So history repeats itself.

In the future Inori/Marimo in wolf form meets with Inugami/Suguru and they travel to the spirit world to be together and free.

[Met · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finale bellissimo, poetico. Il Libro del Sole sicuramente tra i migliori della Fenice, quello che più di tutti ha un sapore “definitivo”. Una bella fotografia dell’uomo e del suo rapporto con la fede e il potere. Il Tezuka che mi piace.

[Trane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I'm giving Tezuka's Phoenix: Sun (Parts I and II) a four-star rating instead of a five-star rating is that I've read other books in the Phoenix series and liked them better. I would definitely give the Phoenix series as a whole five stars (a rating I wouldn't hesitate to give to his Buddha volumes as well).

As with all of Tezuka's late works, the artwork here is spectacular and there are several sequences that are perfectly stunning. The story takes place in two time periods — C.E. 663 and sometime in the 21st century — and the gap between these two periods is bridged by an interesting narrative device. The main character of the C.E. 663 section is a soldier named Harima whose face is skinned and replaced with the face/head of a wolf. When this character blacks out (it happens several times during the story) he wakes up in the 21st century as Suguru, an assassin who lives in Shadowland where he works in opposition to the forces of the Church of Light. In turn, when Suguru himself passes out, he wakes up again as Hirama.

There are a lot of points of interest in these two volumes, but the most interesting points for me are to be found in the story that's centered in C.E. 663. First of all, the main character, Hirama, is a member of one of the imperial families in ancient Korea. When his family is wiped out and he is given the head of a wolf, he flees to Yamato (Japan) where he becomes embroiled in imperial politics, eventually becoming known as Lord Inugami (Lord "Dog-Spirit" would be the translation, I believe). Hirama/Inugami comes down on the side of Japan's indigenous spirit worship (Shinto, but not the State Shinto of early 20th-century Japan) against the imported Buddhism that the Emperor is attempting to use to consolidate his power in order to create a unified Japan. Inugami, who is tight with the fox spirits, believes that people should feel free to worship as they see fit and he refuses to bow to either imperial decree, or to the power of the Buddhist deities that are attempting to conquer the indigenous spirit world of Japan. Sun ends with a new Emperor who rejects the Buddhist gods, but assumes dominative power by naming himself as a living god descended from the line of Amaterasu (the sun goddess) herself. While this scene could easily be seen as an aggrandizing national origin myth (this is the moment of the birth of the 'land of the rising sun'), the Emperor's adoption of sun-worship has it's dark double in the 21st century when the leader of the forces of the Shadowland leads a successful revolt against the forces of the Church of Light and then declares himself a living god who will lead a new religion, a religion that will persecute anyone who doesn't follow its system of belief.

In the end, the religio-political message of these two volumes is that religion in the service of power is always a form of tyranny and violence. Expect to see fox spirits, demons, ogres, kappa, Buddhist deities, emperors, healers, assassins, laser guns, strange future religions, and wolf-headed metal obedience helmets. And of course, the Phoenix, Tezuka's mysterious symbolization of the human forces and desires that drive history, spirituality, and perhaps even the cosmos itself (at some level). As elusive and cool as the monolith in 2001, the Phoenix flies its metamorphic and polysemous way through all of Tezuka's volumes, beckoning you to follow. Personally, I plan on owning all of these.

[Emilia P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely got a little misty-eyed at the end of this one -- the thrilling conclusion of the Phoenix saga, using subtle hints of reincarnation to both a past and future story's advantage rather than putting the phoenix front and center. Two stories of political use of religion for power, wolf-faced dudes, and the real struggle between Japanese nature gods (ahh! cool monsters!) and Buddhist deities (ahh! terrifying demon dudes in the clouds!). The idea that power may corrupt religions, but it doesn't mean that it corrupts the ideals that people believe in, was great. Fun and personal and epic and silly at once. A great ending to an amazing series. I love you, T.

[Khanh Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The manga “Hi no Tori” (Phoenix) is simply the best fantasy/sci-fi saga that I have ever read…

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book several months ago when it came in at the library. Part 1 was not available so I gave Part 2 a try to see what it was like. I was not impressed.

Last week Part 1 came in. I read and really liked it. With the background of Part 1 this book becomes truly impressive to me. The two books together are almost as good as Parts 1 and 2 of Vol. 7 "Civil War", also part of "Phoenix" and also written and drawn by Osamu Tezuka. "Civil War" is one of my all time favorite graphic novels and is comparable in quality to Tezuka's 8 volume "Buddha".

"Sun" Parts 1 and 2 show parallel stories from 6th century Japanese history and sometime in the science fiction future. The hero Inugami, in the past, stands up to the emperor's army because he advocates the freedom of his people to continue spirit worship, as opposed to the new official religion of Buddhism. In the science fiction future he is Suguru, a 17 year-old assassin for the Shadowland people. He runs afoul of the Church of Light during a mission to steal their most sacred object.

Tezuka gives the reader fully developed characters, especially in the tale of Inugami. The character has a son-to-parent relationship with an elderly healer who he calls 'Old Woman'. They rely upon each other, are loyal to one another, and stick together from the beginning to the end of the story. Inugami is in love with the daughter of the chief of the spirit people (she is in love with him too). There is a cast of admirable government administrators and soldiers often doing the wrong thing for good reasons.

If you want a sophisticated piece of Manga story telling this would be a good choice. The stories in this volume continue Tezuka's life passion for speaking against war. He Also provides thought provoking explorations of the role of religion in society. He shows the reader examples of love among humans including loyal friendship, and faithful life time love between a man and a woman that transcends time.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic scope, as always for Tezuka's serious works entertaining and fast paced. Like the phoenix's words on 266 about the idea because humans create religions, every religion is correct and that this causes great discord between opposing religions, even to the point the spirits of different pantheons are battling each other for human attention.

[Deniz Rudin]

The 12 stories of Osamu Tezuka's unfinished mega-opus Phoenix, published from 1967 until 1988, just before his death, present Japan's history as a series of atrocities—power games played by ambitious nobles at the expense of the lives of huge numbers of ordinary people, and, little by little, at the expense of humanity itself. Those who do the right thing are trampled and lost to history. The stories have repeating motifs of misguided searches for immortality, vain rulers unable to accept and plan for their own deaths, cycles of karmic rebirth, the degrading effects of technology on human life, greed leading to annihilation, official histories written by the most calculatingly brutal, severed left arms, a man named Saruta with a big warty nose, and love triangles involving a pure eternal love between people who can't be together and a gentle domestic arrangement between people who can. The stories alternate between those set in the past and drawn from the history and mythology of Japan, and those set in the future. The sci-fi stories are systematically less compelling. The clear standout of the series is Hō-ō (published in English as Karma), which can, like any of the stories, be read on its own.

Its big didactic themes can be cliched—pro-nature, anti-city, power corrupts, love is eternal. The phoenix as its central symbol, simultaneously for the hubristic ambition of its pursuers, and also for it's very buddhist view of the cyclic nature of life. But despite its fundamentally religious perspective, a running theme is skepticism of organized religion—religion as an instrument of political power. Tezuka is more than happy to set a shinto-pagan worship of ancestors and spirits as the noble alternative to an evangelical strain of buddhism.

But whatever the strengths and weakness of these stories qua stories, the series is a remarkable, landmark work of comics formalism, marrying "cartoony" humor and simple drawings with high seriousness and detailed realistic artwork. What stands out most, and makes me love the series without reservation, is a brilliant, avant-garde sense of how to use panels, breaking them into shards, following them around the page in mazes, building up a pointillist density of individual details in their own boxes or splashing giant spreads past the limit of the page itself, tearing panels, nesting panels, crashing characters across panels, slicing up individual images like the panels are windows onto a single scene. Each volume does things I've never seen before, including in the previous ones. Tezuka's creativity was bottomless.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another nice tale that tries to create a new story for passages of Japan's history.
But the writing is tiring.
Too melodramatic and unnecessarily long.

I confess that now I'm reading out of duty to myself to finish the whole series.
After volume six of Phoenix, the themes start to get too repetitive.
I don't even know anymore what Tezuka wanted with this series, besides the excuse to write fictional and melodramatic adventures mixing historical and sci-fi backgrounds.

At first, I thought he wanted to talk about Japanese history, but that was not the case after a few volumes.
Then just talk about mortality and life, but this theme was exhausted a few volumes ago.
In this one, he exposes the futile religious struggle in which a group tries to impose its beliefs on others.
Maybe a relevant theme for younger readers, but not for me, who already has a firm opinion and who agrees with the author.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tezuka wrote a lot of manga masterpieces.
This was his magnum opus. This was his Berserk.

[Ilib4kids · Rating 3 out of 5]

ILL

[Yuval · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last PHOENIX series, which I've been reading on and off since September, and which, as a whole and in terms of ambition and artistry, I would rate 5 stars. It's not necessary to read all of them or even read them in order; in fact, reading volumes 2, 4, and 5 would probably showcase the best of what the series has to offer. But I enjoyed every one of them immensely and am impressed at the complexity of the series as a whole: how characters and ideas recur and are examined from one volume to the next from so many different angles. I can't help but suspect that maybe, as a recent manga reader, I might have shot myself in the foot by starting at what some consider the summit of the art form.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took long enough, but finished the series! Have to say I fear I may have set the bar a little to high by making these books my first real endeavor into Japanese graphic novels. The last book, as the rest, was tremendously inspired in it's spiritual-philosophical outlook, it's nearness to Japanese history and myth, and the artwork is just gorgeous. The past-future plot integration was pretty much flawless.

Bravo, sir.