Neo-fist
Neo-Faust (Japanese ネ オ ・ フ ァ ウ ス ト, Neo Fausuto ) is a manga for young people and adults and the last unfinished work by the Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka . It was published in 1988/89 as a series in the Asahi Journal (朝日 ジ ャ ー ナ ル, Asahi jānaru ). While Neo-Faust is Tezuka's third manga adaptation of Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust (1808/32), the draftsman reworked the original considerably.
Overview
From 1987 until shortly before his death, Tezuka published three mangas in sequels at the same time: Gringo , Ludwig B. and Neo-Faust , all of which remained unfinished. Among them, Neo-Faust is the work that Tezuka occupied himself with until the very last moment. During the serial release, which began in January 1988, Tezuka was hospitalized for stomach cancer but continued editing on the bedside. The manga master was so obsessed with this work that he continued to work on it with the help of gifts of morphine until he could no longer move his hand.
action
The plot of Neo-Faust begins in Japan around 1970, when the student revolt is raging. In a Tokyo suburb, where the "NG University" (model is the University of Tokyo ) is located, strange phenomena attract attention. The charred corpses of five students are puzzling to the police, while rats, worms and toads conquer the area around the university.
On campus, in the midst of the unrest, old Professor Ichinoseki is unwaveringly continuing his research. However, the internationally renowned biochemist, who has been interviewed for the Nobel Prize several times, tries to kill himself: in deep despair that at his old age he no longer has any chance of getting closer to the mystery of life. A devilish being appears in front of him in a female form, who calls herself Mephisto , where the prefix “me-” means “female” in Japanese (牝 フ ィ ス ト, mefisuto). Ichinoseki makes a pact with her to rejuvenate him so that he can get to the bottom of the truth of the universe and savor the pleasures of life. Mephisto should always be at the professor's side as his servant, on the condition, however, that his soul will fall for her at the moment when Ichinoseki says with satisfaction: “Stay! you are beautiful! ”(cf. Goethe, Faust I , V. 1700).
Then Ichinoseki travels back to 1958. It is precisely the point in time when the anti-prostitution law came into force and state-regulated prostitution , limited to certain entertainment areas (赤 線, akasen), was banned. Having just arrived in such a district, Ichinoseki is rejuvenated in the kitchen of a restaurant (for fried offal) with a magic potion that was concocted with the witchcraft of the old, dubious landlady. Even Mephisto is fascinated by his new look as an attractive young man. Awakened from a magical sleep, he discovers that he has lost his memory and does not even know his own name. While wandering the street, he helps an elderly man who is being attacked by members of a right-wing organization. This man, whose name is Daizō Sakane and is proving to be a wealthy entrepreneur, likes the memoryless and nameless 20-year-old so much that he gives him the name Daiichi and gives him a high position in his company.
With his talent and especially with a daring land reclamation project in Tokyo Bay (an allusion to the Odaiba district ), Daiichi impresses the capitalist even more and is finally adopted by him. As Sakane's right-hand man, Daiichi acts in the background of the Japanese economic miracle of the 1960s. As all of Sakane and Daiichi's plans seem to be going so smoothly, the old man suddenly feels uncomfortable, and it turns out that he has terminal stomach cancer. However, Daiichi hides the medical findings from his adoptive father, according to which the entrepreneur only has three to four months to live and that it is too late for treatment because several organs have already metastasized.
After Sakane's death, Daiichi comes into his inheritance and decides to use his vast fortune to create an artificial, stronger life.
Figures (selection)
Professor Ichinoseki
The elderly professor of biochemistry at the "NG University" has been immersed in his research for 50 years in order to get to the bottom of the riddle of life and the truth of the universe. The renowned scientist is regarded internationally as the leading authority in the field of biochemistry and technology and has already been nominated three times for the Nobel Prize. However, he is seen as extremely unworldly, and his freshman lectures bore students so much that they call him the "mummy". In the midst of the turbulence of the student movement, Ichinoseki paints his previous life and future black, and when he is about to choose suicide by poison, he is saved by the devil Mephisto and makes a pact with her. He then travels back to 1958 with Mephisto and is rejuvenated to become the 20-year-old Daiichi Sakane by means of a magic potion.
Daiichi Sakane
Daiichi is Prof. Ichinoseki's rejuvenated, initially nameless self. The young man wins the trust of the newly rich entrepreneur Daizō Sakane, who has risen through the Korean War , is called Daiichi by him and is finally adopted. After the entrepreneur's death, Daiichi takes over his inheritance. Driven by the ambition to become the creator of an artificial life, Daiichi smuggles his way into NG University as an assistant to his own former self, Prof. Ichinoseki. He has no memory of his life as Prof. Ichinoseki, but he has extensive specialist knowledge and the handwriting of the biochemist. After Prof. Ichinoseki died in a dangerous experiment, Daiichi took over his research results, which are to culminate in the project of creating artificial life, known as the "Homunculus Plan". He takes the name Daiichi Ichinoseki and begins purposefully to put his plans and wishes into practice.
The first part of the name Ichinoseki, "ichi", means "one" in Japanese, and the given name of its tapered figure, Daiichi, means "the first". This naming is an allusion to the protagonist of the original, as the English “first” is pronounced like “fāsuto” in Japanese and thus echoes “Faust” (“fausuto”).
Mephisto
At the “NG University”, which was upset by the student movement, a devilish being appears in a female form, who calls herself Mephisto. This apparition of women presents itself to Prof. Ichinoseki at the moment when he despairs of his life and wants to commit suicide. She offers him a pact, based on which she rejuvenates him to Daiichi Sakane and fulfills all his wishes. She appears several times as a large black dog and magically kills those who stand in Daiichi's way. In addition, Daiichi's devilish servant shows herself in love with her master. She makes linguistic jokes and claims that a female devil should be called "Mephisto" (see above), a male "Ophisto" (because of the Japanese prefix "o-" for "male": 牡 フ ィ ス ト, ofisuto).
Daizo Sakane
The large industrialist manages a group of several such companies as Sakane Trading Company and Sakane Construction Company. Sakane appreciates Daiichi's talent, adopts the young man and gives him his life experience. The greedy climber was involved in major national projects in Japan, such as the construction work for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the construction of the Shinkansen routes and the Tokyo city highway, and thereby made great fortunes. He later suffers from stomach cancer, inherits his enormous fortune to Daiichi, and dies.
Mariko Takada
The student at the Philosophical Faculty of the "NG University" is in a relationship with Daiichi, but also takes part in the student movement led by Ishimaki and suffers from her conflict between love and commitment. Later she becomes pregnant by Daiichi. In the second part she is in an asylum because she is said to have gone mad and drowned her child in a pond. Neo-Faust ends fragmentarily with a scene in which Daiichi unsuccessfully asks Mephisto to save Mariko.
Detective Inspector Takada
Mariko's brother is a commissioner at the police headquarters. He is responsible for monitoring the student revolt and worries about his sister, who does not want to quit the movement. The police superintendent suspects Daiichi as the mastermind behind the riots and a murder affair.
Ishimaki
The student leader at the “NG University” does not shy away from terrorist actions with the use of time bombs and sulfuric acid in order to achieve his political goals. Ishimaki falls in love with Mariko and competes with Daiichi for her. In the course of the radicalization of the student movement, Ishimaki suspects his imminent death and gives Daiichi a sperm sample in the hope that in the future, when the students have finally achieved victory, he will be resurrected as a clone . Immediately afterwards, Ishimaki is killed by Mephisto (in the form of a black dog).
Associate Professor Yamamoto
The associate professor at the “NG University” drives his older colleague Prof. Ichinoseki out of the Institute of Biochemistry in order to acquire the results of his research. By marketing them, Yamamoto makes big profits. At the same time, however, the opportunist tries to flatter the radical left students and to pretend he is one of their sympathizers.
Daiichi Ichinoseki
Towards the end of the first part, Prof. Ichinoseki is killed by his conjuring up Lucifer . Daiichi Sakane inherits his secret research and is now called Daiichi Ichinoseki. He acts as President of the Ichinoseki Group and dedicates himself intensively to the ambition to become the creator of artificial life.
Demolition and continuation plans
At the end of the manga, only the storyboard can be seen in the current edition . This underlines the fragmentary state of the work. The last page shows only a few frames with a dialogue: “I'll leave three amusing partners at your service, Professor.” “Who do you mean?” - While it remains a mystery who the three “partners” are According to the Japanese comparator and Goethe researcher Tsutomu Hasegawa, through whom Tezuka was advised, Tezuka is said to have already drafted the further plot. With the sperm of the revolutionary Ishimaki, a new humanoid creature was to be created that would cause a complete destruction of the global environment. Helena , who already appears several times in a transparent ball or in a retort in the completed parts of the plot, should only really come into play later: as a symbolic living being that stands for the essence of the earth itself.
According to Hasegawa, the motif of time travel should recur in the second part and this time lead beyond the leap into the post-war period to the beginnings of planet earth to deal with topics such as the origin of life.
The author himself once said that he found both possible options equally attractive for the outcome of the story: both the happy ending of a redemption from Neo-Faust and his condemnation to hell.
expenditure
In Japanese
- Tezuka, Osamu: Neo Fausuto, Tokyo: Asahi shimbun shuppan 1989.
- -: Neo Fausuto, Tokyo: Asahi shimbun shuppan 1992 (Asahi bunko).
- -: Neo Fausuto. 2 vols., Tokyo: Kōdan sha 1992 (= Manga zenshū).
- -: Neo Fausuto, Tokyo: Kōdan sha 2011 (= Bunko zenshū).
In French
- Tezuka, Osamu: Néo Faust, Poitier: Éditions FLBLB 2016.
radio play
On December 28 and 29, 2000 Neo-Faust was on the radio station NHK -FM under the title Garasu no chikyū o sukue. Tezuka Osamu no rasuto messēji (Save the Glass Earth! The Testament of Osamu Tezuka) will be broadcast as a two-part radio play.
Tezuka and Faust
Previous manga adaptations
In his life, Tezuka drew a total of three mangas based on Goethe's Faust . Immediately after the end of World War II, at the age of 21, he published his first adaptation for children, Faust (フ ァ ウ ス ト, Fausuto ). Tezuka's second Faust manga is entitled One Hundred Stories (百 物語, Hyaku monogatari ) and was created during the crisis the 42-year-old cartoonist went through because of the financial difficulties of his anime production company (虫 プ ロ, Mushipuro). In Neo-fist so is his third attempt with Faust .
The three works deal with the same subject in that they tell of a Faust character who confronts death, is rejuvenated and begins a new life. In terms of content, however, they differ greatly, since Tezuka worked on the same material completely differently. The younger the manga in question, the older the potential readers it is aimed at.
In the first Faust the figures are all drawn small and cute. This is a typical trait of Tezuka's early work. In terms of content, this Faust follows the literary model relatively faithfully, apart from the fact that the elements unsuitable for a children's manga, such as the motif of pregnancy, are hidden.
The Manga Hundred Stories is aimed primarily at young people. It takes place during the Warring States Period (15th / 16th centuries); the second half of the plot shows major deviations in content from the original.
Project of an anime film
In 1984 Tezuka was proposed to produce an anime film. The draftsman then wrote a complete scenario under the title Neo-Faust . While the film project was not realized, the manga of the same title resulted from this scenario, after considerable reworking. The script for the film was discovered in Tezuka's estate in 1998. However, it differs greatly both from the finished parts of the manga Neo-Faust and from the continuation plans passed down through Tezuka's advisor Hasegawa.
literature
- Braun, Michael: Art. "Literature" [in the chapter "Working on myth: Emphasis and disillusionment - Faust after 1945"], in: Carsten Rohde, Thorsten Valk, Mathias Mayer (ed.): Faust manual. Constellations - Discourses - Media, Stuttgart: Metzler 2018, pp. 440–450.
- Hasegawa, Tsutomu: Tezuka Osamu shi ni kansuru yattsu no gokai [Eight Misunderstandings About Mr. Osamu Tezuka], Tokyo: Chūō kōron sha 1999.
- Keppler-Tasaki, Stefan: How Goethe became Japanese. International cultural diplomacy and national identity discourse 1889–1989, Munich: Iudicium 2020, pp. 136–150.
- Schmitz-Emans, Monika: Goethe's Faust and its productive reception by Osamu Tezuka, in: Jochen Golz, Adrian Hsia (ed.): Orient und Occident. On the reception of fists in non-Christian cultures, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau 2008, pp. 181–203.
- Süselbeck, Jan: Art. "Pop" [in the chapter "Working on myth: Emphasis and disillusionment - Faust after 1945"], in: Carsten Rohde, Thorsten Valk, Mathias Mayer (eds.): Faust-Handbuch. Constellations - Discourses - Media, Stuttgart: Metzler 2018, pp. 575–583.
- Takahashi, Yoshito: Charm and Riddle of Faust for the Japanese, in: Goethe-Jahrbuch 1999, pp. 85–95.
- Takahashi, Yoshito: Osamu Tezuka's Neo-Faust and the "Homunculus Plan". An attempt to reconstruct the unfinished second part, in: Jochen Golz, Adrian Hsia (eds.): Orient und Occident. On the reception of Faust in non-Christian cultures, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau 2008, pp. 205–217.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Tsutomu Hasegawa: Tsuitō Tezuka Osamu shi to Neo-Fausuto [Obituary for Osamu Tezuka, Neo-Faust ], in: Asahi Journal, March 3, 1989, pp. 100-103.