Metropolis (Manga)

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Metropolis ( Japanese メ ト ロ ポ リ ス , metoroporisu ) is a manga by the Japanese illustrator Osamu Tezuka from 1949 with 160 pages. The work was implemented as a film in 2001.

action

The scientist Charles Laughton is researching the possibility of artificially producing living cells. When he is commissioned by the industrial tycoon Duke Red, he succeeds in creating an artificial human. But he fears that Michi , as he calls him, will be abused, destroys his laboratory and fakes his and Michi's deaths. Duke Red is actually also the leader of a secret organization, the Red Party , with which he wants to seize power in the city of Metropolis and in the world. To do this, he manipulates the sun with his technology, so gigantic plants and animals grow all over the world.

The escaped Michi soon meets the boy Ken'ichi. His father is the Japanese policeman Shunsaku Ban, who meets Duke Red at the same time, but cannot arrest him. He then learns from Laughton, who dies shortly afterwards, of the creation of Michi. When Shunsaku Ban is with his son, he also meets Michi. They want to take action against Red's machinations, but Shunsaku Ban is captured. Ken'ichi and Michi escape, but Duke Red needs Michi in particular to implement his plans. The police are already being checked by the Red Party.

Finally, Shunsaku Ban escapes, but Michi is caught by the Red Party soon after. When Duke Reds tries to abuse him for his own purposes, he explains to him that he is only a machine and not a human. Michi then attacks the Red Party, and soon the other robots ally with him and declare war on humanity. At the same time, Shunsaku Ban and Ken'ichi can destroy the transmitter that manipulated the sun and the Red Party disintegrates. Finally, Shunsaku Ban fights against Michi, who soon collapses. This, explains the scientist Dr. Bell, is due to the faded special rays of the sun, which would have animated Michi in the first place.

Emergence

Tezuka was inspired by an illustration of the birth of a female robot from Fritz Lang's silent film Metropolis , which he had seen in an issue of the film magazine Kinema Junpo , and designed the manga without knowing the content of the film.

Publications

On September 15, 1949, Ikuei Shuppan released the complete manga in book form without prior publication. Several new editions appeared later, for example in 1979 as part of the series Complete Works of Osamu Tezuka at Kodansha .

The US publisher Dark Horse Comics published an English translation of the comic in April 2003, Taifu Comics published it in French and Glénat in Spanish.

filming

Movie
German title Robotic Angel
Original title Metropolis
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 2001
length 107 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Rintaro
script Katsuhiro Otomo
production Haruyo Kanesaku
music Toshiyuki Honda
camera Hitoshi Yamaguchi
synchronization

production

In 2001, the manga was scripted by Katsuhiro Otomo from the studio Madhouse as Anime implemented -Kinofilm. Rintaro directed the character design, Yasuhiro Nakura created the character design and Shuichi Hirata took over the artistic direction. Toshiyuki Honda composed the music , including the opening title Metropolis . There'll Never Be Goodbye by Minako "Mooki" Obata was used for the credits . The production cost was 1.5 billion yen. About 13.75 million euros at the exchange rate at the time.

publication

The film was released in Japanese theaters on May 26, 2001. It has been translated into English, French, Spanish and Italian, among others, and has been televised in North America, Latin America, the UK, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

However, due to an objection by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation , which holds the licenses to Fritz Lang's silent film of the same name, the film had to be renamed Robotic Angel in German-speaking countries . The film was released in Germany on October 31, 2002, and the film was also released on DVD in German by Tristar Home Entertainment .

synchronization

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) German speaker
Ken'ichi Kei Kobayashi Marc sting
Tima Yuka Imoto Sabine Bohlmann
skirt Kouki Okada Philipp Brammer
Shunsaku Ban Kousei Tomita Kai Taschner
Duke Red Tarō Ishida Ekkehardt Belle

Reception and interpretation

According to Paul Gravett, the manga is an early warning of uncontrolled technical progress. The film has been screened at several film festivals including the Future Film Festival in Italy and the Fantasia Festival in Canada. It received several positive reviews in American newspapers.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Paul Gravett: Manga - Sixty Years of Japanese Comics , p. 29. Egmont Manga and Anime, 2004.
  2. ↑ EURO - YEN historical rates | finanzen.net . In: finanzen.net . ( finanzen.net [accessed February 2, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Anime News Network about the press coverage of some animes in 2002.
  4. ↑ Anime News Network on NY Post's criticism of the film

Web links