Buddha (manga)

Buddha
Cover of volume 6 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works collection, featuring Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
ブッダ
(Budda)
GenreHistorical[1]
Manga
Written byOsamu Tezuka
Published byUshio Shuppan
English publisher
MagazineKibō no tomo – Comic Tom
DemographicSeinen
Original runSeptember 1972December 1983
Volumes14 (Japanese edition)
8 (Worldwide edition)
Anime film
Directed byKozo Morishita
Produced byMakoto Tezuka
Written byReiko Yoshida
Music byMichiru Oshima
StudioTezuka Productions (production)
Toei Animation (animation)
ReleasedMay 28, 2011 (2011-05-28)
Runtime110 minutes
Anime film
Buddha 2
Directed byToshiaki Komura
Produced byMakoto Tezuka
Written byReiko Yoshida
Music byMichiru Oshima
StudioTezuka Productions (production)
Toei Animation (animation)
ReleasedFebruary 8, 2014 (2014-02-08)
Runtime90 minutes

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.[2] The series began in September 1972 and ended in December 1983, as one of Tezuka's last epic manga works.

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.

  1. ^ "Tezuka's Buddha Anime Film Project to Be Trilogy". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  2. ^ Godart, G. Clinton (November 2013). "Tezuka Osamu's Circle of Life: Vitalism, Evolution, and Buddhism". Mechademia. 8 (1): 34–47. doi:10.1353/mec.2013.0005. S2CID 121798029.