I Love Anime and Manga
I finished reading "Message to Adolf" this morning. It's a political thriller written by Osama Tezuko [i](the guy behind "Astro Boy" but also sometimes called the godfather of Japanese animation).[/i] This is one of his later works written between 1983-1985.
What's it about? According to most reviews it's the story of 3 people called Adolf. But that's not entirely true. There is also a protagonist called Sohei Toge, who travels to the Olympic Games of 1936. He's a reporter and travels to Germanny as a journalist and while he's there he wants to visit his brother who is studying in Germanny. His brother also got hooked up to a Communist cell who are trying to bring down Adolf Hitler who got into power in 1932. The cell has obtained certain documents that reveal that Hitler has jewish blood in his family on his fathers side and they hope this knowledge will be selfdefeating for the NAZI ideal of German purity and the absolute hatred towards Jews.
In Germany Toges' brother gets killed, but not before Toge gets information concerning the documents that were obtained. From that moment on, drama starts unfolding. It's a race against the clock for the NAZI's to get the to the documents before others do and keep the family history of Hitler under the wraps. The reporter get's harrased and tortured, people that come into contact with the documents start dieing, all while the second world war begins.
In the mean time... you have the 3 Adolfs.
Adolf Kamil - German son of a Jewish baker family living in Kobe Japan
Adolf Kaufman - German son of a mixed marriage of a high ranking German diplomat and a Japanese woman that befriended Adolf Kamil in school. Also living in Kobe Japan
Adolf Hitler - F眉hrer of the German Reich and at the root of NAZI ideologie.
These 3 Adolfs stories all influence eachother. Adolf Kamils' father gets killed by NAZIs, Adolf Kaufman gets send to Germany by his father and gets indoctrinated in NAZI doctrine and Adolf Hitler gets Kaufman to become his personal assisstant which slowly adss to the madness which the NAZI doctrine actually is.
On the background there is a constant struggle for Justice. Justice for the fatherland, Justice for the Jewish people, Justice for Japan, Justice for family honors, ... all wrapped up in a ball of hate. Because almost every character that wants Justice does it by hating those that are perceived to be causing injustice.
Just like Pluto, the story that I read before this which was loosely based on Tezukos' work... the story here is that nothing comes from hatred. Every character that gets totally consumed by it, dies or suffers some terrible faith. And it can't be more symbolic then Hitlers' imaginairy ending in this story. Because he dies by the sword of his own making.
It's a great read, and it's not dated. The artwork isn't as fancy as most of the things I favor... but it has some really good art here and there. Tezuko has a more cartoony feel to it. But he can still capture the most important moments in the right way.
