Tezuka’s Early Years: Nextworld 2
May 1, 2010
With the second and final volume of Nextworld, not only this story comes to a close, but we see the completion of Tezuka’s “science fiction trilogy”, comprising Lost World, Metropolis and Nexworld. These stories, that saw publication between 1948 and 1951, are iconic for the young Tezuka.
I fear these stories won’t appeal to a large part of the manga-reading crowd, that are spoiled by the deluge of talented authors that populate the world of Japanese comics today. However, as a document of the developing skills of Tezuka these stories certainly have their own worth. I’ve certainly enjoyed reading them and they’ve brought a new perspective with which to reflect on the art and experimentation that we can see in Tezuka’s later works. I really enjoy it when an author comes to life via his work. We’re not dealing with a static production machine, but a flesh-and-blood mangaka, who is developing his style and ability as he matures and is transforming a medium along with it.
I really do hope you’ve all enjoyed these four volumes. Now I’ll focus my efforts on bringing you some more Astro Boy. (I do wish they could have just left his name untranslated. ‘Atom’ really is much better, I think.)
Titles: Nextworld, 来るべき世界
Author: TEZUKA Osamu
Genres: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, War
Length: second of two volumes
Year: 1951
English Publisher: Dark Horse
Related: Lost World, Metropolis
Resources: MAL | ANN
Its a tragedy that editors forced him to edit down things in all three of the stories in this trilogy. Altho it only really bothered me in lost world who became silly as shit except for the ending.
Many thanks for helping to bring these out to the masses
I think zealous editors are a problem start-up artists have to contend with more often than not, especially when they have a vision that deviates from the norm.
I agree that Lost World is best in the ending. I also think that the works I am cleaning up here are not Tezuka’s best by a long shot, but they definitely have their own worth.
Thanks for cleaning up this manga. And about that Joan of Arc manga, would you be kind enough to upload all 2 volumes of it on mediafire or something? I don’t have an account at jcafe so I don’t think I can download it on that link.