MAY 1, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 17

Detour

TRAVEL WATCH Who Needs Nature? Japan Does It Better Technological efforts in Japan have often been devoted to recreating the real world, and the result is a bewildering array of virtual-reality fun around the country. Detour Osamu Tezuka is often called the Walt Disney of Japan. Hot Spot Virtual fun can build up a very real appetite. Short Cuts The Park Hyatt Tokyo is ideal for those who feel they have earned a little pampering. Web Crawling Japan in your Palm.

Osamu Tezuka is often called the Walt Disney of Japan. That comparison, intended as flattery, actually slights the genius of the country's best-known cartoonist and the father of anime, or Japanese animated films. Tezuka's life story is charmingly put on display at a museum in his hometown of Takarazuka, near Osaka. The museum itself promotes the Disney comparison with a 15-minute animated film about Tezuka that looks as if it came out of the same factory that produced such icons of cuteness as Snow White and Bambi. The depiction is interesting, since one of Disney's recent hits, The Lion King, bears more than a passing resemblance to Tezuka's earlier work about Kimba the lion and provoked protests of plagiarism in Japan. Disney denied the charge.

Tezuka is best known for the loveable robot boy Tetsuwan Atom, who appeared in print in 1951 and enjoyed a long run in manga-comic books-and on TV cartoons. The character was renamed Astro Boy and exported to the U.S. in the 1960s. Astro Boy motivated a generation of robot-obsessed cartoonists and scientists. What's stunning is how many other characters Tezuka created-more than 700, according to the museum. His innate insecurity, and an early money-losing venture into animation, motivated him to work prodigiously. Tezuka also drew adult erotica; several samples are on display. It's difficult to imagine the Disney folks admitting such a thing about Uncle Walt.

The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum is an eight-minute walk from the Takarazuka train station, which can be reached by regular train service from Osaka. It is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Wednesdays). Admission is $4.50 for adults, $2.85 for students.

By Tim Larimer