EXCLUSIVE: Unpublished Anime Documents Created by Osamu Tezuka Found

Tokyo, June 7 (Jiji Press)–Several unpublished documents for anime works by Japanese manga legend Osamu Tezuka are still kept at Tezuka Productions Co., Jiji Press learned Sunday. The materials include original drawings, storyboards, and character designs created by Tezuka. They were not included in the seven-volume storyboard collection published in 1999 or any other previous publications. These animation materials will be included in a new publication to be released by Genkosha Co. on June 17. Since 2022, Tezuka Productions has been archiving animation materials as part of a project subsidized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. By March this year, it had completed the digitization and restoration of 130,000 pages. Tezuka laid the foundation for Japan’s anime industry by producing numerous popular anime series. He continued to work energetically until the end of his life. The newly found documents illustrate his constant pursuit of new forms of expression through trial and error, as well as suggest his direct involvement in every stage of anime production. In “Astro Boy,” Japan’s first television anime series, which aired from 1963, Tezuka introduced a groundbreaking method that reduced the number of animation cels to cut costs and shorten production time. The series became an unprecedented hit with a peak viewing rate of 40 pct, and established anime formats, including one 30-minute episode per week and the adaptation of popular manga series. According to Nobuyuki Tsugata, a specially appointed associate professor at Digital Hollywood University, these formats, which continue to this day, are “extremely rare in the world,” leading to the uniqueness of Japanese animation. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]