Buddha (manga)
Buddha (Japanese: ブッダ, Hepburn: Budda) is a manga drawn by Osamu Tezuka and is Tezuka's unique interpretation of the life of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The critically acclaimed series is often referred to as a visually explicit yet humorous and thought-provoking portrayal of the Buddha's life; the series itself has become a staple text in Buddhist temples for young adults and teens to learn about the Buddha's life. The series began in September 1972 and ended in December 1983, as one of Tezuka's last epic manga works.
| Buddha | |
Cover of volume 6 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works collection, featuring Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) | |
| ブッダ (Budda) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Historical |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Osamu Tezuka |
| Published by | Ushio Shuppan |
| English publisher |
|
| Magazine | Kibō no tomo – Comic Tom |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Original run | September 1972 – December 1983 |
| Volumes | 14 (Japanese edition) 8 (Worldwide edition) |
| Anime film | |
| Directed by | Kozo Morishita |
| Produced by | Makoto Tezuka |
| Written by | Reiko Yoshida |
| Music by | Michiru Oshima |
| Studio | Tezuka Productions (production) Toei Animation (animation) |
| Released | May 28, 2011 |
| Runtime | 110 minutes |
| Anime film | |
| Buddha 2 | |
| Directed by | Toshiaki Komura |
| Produced by | Makoto Tezuka |
| Written by | Reiko Yoshida |
| Music by | Michiru Oshima |
| Studio | Tezuka Productions (production) Toei Animation (animation) |
| Released | February 8, 2014 |
| Runtime | 90 minutes |
Buddha has over 20 million copies in circulation and won Eisner Awards in 2004 and 2005. Due to differences between the ways in which Japanese and English are read, the American volumes published by Vertical Inc. are presented as mirror images of Tezuka's original work so they can be read from left to right, rather than from right to left. Nearly three decades after the manga was completed, an anime film adaptation was released in 2011. A second film was released in 2014.