022 “A pound of your fair flesh, Astro Boy!”: Osamu Tezuka’s ベニスの商人/Merchant of Venice (1959)

The Walt Disney of Japan took a break from Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion.

Did you know Osamu Tezuka adapted The Merchant of Venice? It’s like if Walt Disney adapted Crime and Punishment… which Osamu Tezuka also did… Tezuka had range! 

Does Tezuka’s style capture the folktale darkness of the Merchant of Venice? Tune in to find out!

Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to shakespeare.pals@gmail.com

Sources:

Japanese edition:

Osamu Tezuka, 虹のプレリュード/Rainbow Prelude (Tezuka Productions) (https://bookwalker.jp/def2c50a53-360e-4319-841d-ec4fd920bf7e/) 

Christopher Harding, The Japanese: A History in Twenty Lives (Penguin Books)