A Cask of Troutwine reviewed The book of human insects by Osamu Tezuka
None
3 stars
I found this book at my local library while browsing and picked it up because I'm generally a fan of Osamu Tezuka.
The Book of Human Insects is one of Tezuka's more adult works, being more along the lines of a crime thriller than some of his more famous works. The book follows Toshiko Tomura as she moves through society, adapting to different places of power by feeding off the talents and abilities of others, leaving them either dead or their lives in shambles.
Tezuka portrays Japan as a place of contradictions, the country is in the middle of the post-war economic miracle, but political terrorism is on the rise, Japan's relationship with it's neighbors in a complicated spot, and at any level of society people are willing and able to screw someone else over just because they have the power to. It's an incredibly cynical work, one that gives …
I found this book at my local library while browsing and picked it up because I'm generally a fan of Osamu Tezuka.
The Book of Human Insects is one of Tezuka's more adult works, being more along the lines of a crime thriller than some of his more famous works. The book follows Toshiko Tomura as she moves through society, adapting to different places of power by feeding off the talents and abilities of others, leaving them either dead or their lives in shambles.
Tezuka portrays Japan as a place of contradictions, the country is in the middle of the post-war economic miracle, but political terrorism is on the rise, Japan's relationship with it's neighbors in a complicated spot, and at any level of society people are willing and able to screw someone else over just because they have the power to. It's an incredibly cynical work, one that gives us a central figure, Toshiko Tomura, who is perfectly able to navigate it.
I believe there's also a deeper question being asked, about whether morality even matters in such a self-style 'modern' society. While there are sympathetic figures, such as the deuteragonist Ryotaro Mizuno who had his career destroyed by Tomura in the past, most of the cast of the book are unsympathetic and self-motivated. In many ways the characters get worse the higher up the food chain they are, and it's these characters that Tomura spends most of her time interacting with and taking advantage of, usually after they try and take advantage of her. If these people are the ones that modern society is seemingly built for, can we use traditional morality to judge Tomura? Especially when we see how this society usually treats women with the character of Shijimi, a woman who was taken advantage of by her boss, and dies painfully due to health complications caused by multiple forced abortions.
Tezuka's art is, as usual, absolutely beautiful, with his characters being incredibly expressive and distinctive and his backgrounds being well detailed.
5 out of 10
