Ode to Kirihito

Kirihito (きりひと 讃歌, Kirihito Sanka, dt about hymn to Kirihito ) is a Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka Manga from the years 1970 and 1971.

Action

The incurable disease Monmow, which occurs only in the village Inugamisawa, the people, first her face, in a dog-like creature turns, leads to a craving for raw meat, to the patients eventually die after a few months. The young Japanese doctor Kirihito Osanai is sent to the location to investigate how the victims suffer. In the village he marries the girl Tazu and is a recognized member of the community.

But Osanai ill. When his former fiancée Izumi investigates, she finds that he has disappeared from all registers. Tatsugaura, physician at the hospital, which was also Osanai worked, had arranged this because he saw Osanai as a rival for the post of president of the hospital. He wants to prove that Monmow is caused by a virus. Meanwhile Tazu is murdered and Osanai flees the village. With his disfigured face he travels first to Taiwan, then to Syria.

At the same time achieved Osanais college friend Urabe Japan, together with Helen from South Africa. This is also infected and can prove that the disease is not caused by a virus, but by contaminated water. Osanai reached on the day of the election as president of the hospital Japan, but despite all that Tatsugaura becomes president. But he became infected with Monmow, but denied any treatment that would refute his virus theory. So he dies soon afterwards and Osanai returns to Syria.

Style and influences

The plot of the manga reminds Natsu Onoda Power strongly to the novels by Yamazaki Toyoko, since it focuses on the interplay of power and ethics. However, Tezuka denied connections to Toyoko. The style of the manga refers to the early Russian film, as in the frequent use of religious symbols. This refers Natsu Onada particular Battleship Potemkin, who first appeared in the 1960s in Japan.

Publication

The manga was first published in April 1970 to December 1971 in the magazine Big Comic of the publisher Shogakukan. The manga was released as a single-volume complete edition with vertical in North America, as well as in several volumes in Akata / Delcourt in France and Otakuland in Spain. Carlsen Comics published since October 2009, so far three volumes of the series in German.