Buddha begins with two ideas each of which hint to the reader what this story is about. A monk collapses on the mountain. He is found by a fox a bear and a rabbit. The fox brings berries the bear brings fish the rabbit brings nothing. Unable to find anything he offers the monk the only thing that he has his life. Throwing himself into a fire the rabbit commits the ultimate sacrifice to save the monk. This sacrifice is told many times during this narrative but most fail to understand its meaning. The greater meaning of this action is the first idea this narrative strives to answer. The second being the introduction of the caste system. What would later be known as India was founded by those known as the Aryan conquerors. The purest of blood from them became the leaders of society and went on to call themselves the Brahmin. Underneath them they created social classes such as warrior commoner slave and so on. They introduced discrimination that would affect Indians from before the time in which this story is told the modern day. The people of this story growing tired of the ways of the Brahmin sought a saviour someone who understood the true meaning of life the Buddha. https://i.ur.com/IEiz70j.jpeg Despite its name Buddha much of this narrative is spent focusing on other characters. In this semifictionalized biography of Buddha Tezuka uses his artistic license to expand the reaches of this story past Buddhas spiritual journey towards enlightenment. Tezuka makes use of action to progress his plot and relied on a large cast of characters to explore the central ideas of this story. This left me confused initially as the story did not even begin with Buddha instead opting for a narrative prologue with two different protagonists. Buddha begins by following: Chapra a young boy from the lowly Shudra slave caste who wants to raise his social class through deceptive means and Tatta a young thief of the pariah clan lower than slaves. He would continue to play a major role in the life of Buddha even becoming his first disciple. Through the tragic tales of Chapra and Tatta Tezuka illustrates the inhumanity of the world that Buddha would be born into. https://i.ur.com/0DYKFQ9.jpeg Born years after the events of the prologue Buddhas birth parallels the role that he will play in this world. The young child is born under a solitary ray of light splitting the dark heavens. Men and beast alike gather to witness the birth of the infant Siddhartha. As the first son of King Suddhodana he lives a life of luxury and wants for nothing. Despite this luxury he continually questions the caste system and his place at the top. Recognizing this doubt Tatta uses the opportunity to show the young prince the world. Confronted with the realities of age disease and death Siddhartha struggles to understand the cruelty of this world. So at the age of 29 he becomes a monk cutting his hair and setting off into the wild leaving his nation wife and young child behind. Thus beginning his journey to understand the meaning of life. https://i.ur.com/U24Cm1i.jpeg https://i.ur.com/SMioV9n.jpeg On his journey Siddhartha is met with multiple understandings of the world. Initially he gravitates to the teachings of the Ascetic monks. These monks undergo ordeals wherein they put their bodies through physical hardship in order to understand lifes meaning. Its only after a brush with death that Siddhartha takes to meditating under a Pippala tree where through the guidance of God he finally attains enlightenment and is renamed Buddha meaning the enlightened one. Now enlightened he sets off again into the world this time to spread his teachings. https://i.ur.com/WEXOJcq.jpeg https://i.ur.com/slLUBud.jpeg Buddhas teaching takes the form of ideological battles against the people he is trying to convince. Though not physically demanding they still come with high stakes. More often than not failure would result in Buddhas death. Buddha teaches a variety of different messages often using parables to further emphasizes his message. I will attempt to approximate them here: all life is of equal value regardless of caste or species all living things suffer humans are not unique in this desire is the root of all evil in the world and you should not want more than you need every creature must live according to nature following death is a rebirth known as reincarnation. Through these messages Buddha deals a great blow to the Caste System and finally gives us an answer to the meaning of the rabbits sacrifice. Animals are repeatedly shown throughout Buddha to be in tune with nature and the correct way to live. As such the rabbit understanding that all life is equal and desiring nothing voluntarily sacrificed his life to aid the monk. https://i.ur.com/tWkbgkB.jpeg https://i.ur.com/ivd5EEZ.jpeg Having read Buddha it becomes immediately apparent why Tezuka chose this historical figure to make a manga on. Buddhas life contains several elements of a Tezukas story. The inability of people to understand each other War and the sanctitiy of nature. While not adhering strictly to Buddhist teachings Tezukas uses the life of Buddha to get across his central message that all life is sacred. In a way Buddha is the penultimate Tezuka work in that it represents everything that he stood for only being superseded by Pheonix.