Clockwork Apple

by Osamu Tezuka

A new short story collection from Osamu Tezuka, focused on the common theme of mortality.

Story 1: When a Nazi lieutenant is sentenced to death for war crimes, he expects to escape with his life, but hubris is his downfall.

Story 2: A female android marries for love but is soon lost, and she must deal with the consequences.

Story 3: After a married man finds out his city is being experimented on, he tries to save the people while struggling with adulterous thoughts.

Story 4: On a dark and lonely road, a cabby picks up a shady man who threatens him, but little does his passenger know the cabby is not as he seems.

Story 5: An educated man falls in love with an elusive woman who has a life altering secret. American school kids learn the cruelty of war.

Story 6: A revolutionary fails his revolution, and an interstellar peace conference does not yield the hoped for results when space hippies defy peace conventions.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics, Anthologies, Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy

237 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

Dr. Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga" and "the God of Manga."

Reviews

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really imaginative anthology of sci-fi stories from the late 60s and early 70s. Some of these concepts would still be considered creative nowadays, so it's nothing short of impressive that Tezuka was already working with these ideas. Some really neat twists too. Some aspects don't hold up too well, like the way women and foreigners are written--it's never malicious, but proceed with caution if that is an issue for you.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always get a kick out of bleak Tezuka stories. They may not be as refined as his more whimsical works, but there's still a strange charm to them simply from his masterful cartooning. Topics found in the stories of Clockwork Apple include Nazis, drugs, rape, murder and more, but Tezuka loves to add a tinge of dramatic irony to lighten things up a bit. Sci-fi concepts are abundant across these stories, such as a drug that induces temporal distortions, an android who suddenly becomes pregnant and an interstellar peace conference. These weren't necessarily my favorite Tezuka short stories, but they're still very imaginative pieces with innovative twists throughout to keep things interesting.

[Δημήτρης Μπ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of some pretty old sci-fi stories (from 1968-1973) created by Osamu Tezuka filled with dystopian elements. Most of them are pretty interesting. However, with everything that we've been through the past years, a few of the stories can be quite believable nowadays (not that this is a bad thing).

As far as the art-style is concerned, I have some mixed feelings. It lacks a lot of details, especially in the design of the characters, but, on the contrary, they help create a fitting and creepy, at times, atmosphere that suits perfectly with the theme of the stories.

[ジェシカ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tezuka is really succinct in these one-offs, which enables each ending to be a sucker-punch to the stomach. Uhhhh, wouldn't recommend these one-offs if extreme violence disturbs you--a lot of these stories can be deemed as cruel, but each one-offs' tone, imagery, and narrative points is used to convey the impacts of war or cyclical nature of violence. The more grounded stories like "Yellow Dust," which is centered in Okinawa and involves American military kids, can uhhhhh be especially cruel.

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Officially a big fan of Osamu Tezuka, he’s created lots of great manga with fantastic in depth Story’s and great art👍😁❤️

[Matty Dub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very strong short story collection, it’s super imaginative and is bursting with neat ideas. The eight shorts generally feature some of the nastiest human beings committing insidious acts but unlike MW,
they always pay their karmic debt by way of some cool twist by the end. One of the tales went a little too hard for me with its violence against children so TW for that.

[Kyle Spishock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Random short stories that have nothing in common, organized here because it’s seems like the author started these as novels, and ran out of ideas halfway through their creation.
There are eight short stories here:
Astronauts find raisin aliens dehydrating and needing water, releasing an std on earth when wronged.
Japanese Vietnam veterans hold hostage a teacher and her kids, without having any demands.
A doctor is recruited to kill the prime minister.
A man falls in love with a woman who’s personality is conjured by a tumor.
A thief recruits a cab driver, who claims he’s a murderer driving around his wife’s corpse in the trunk.
A town is invaded by Nazi stragglers, making them forget by tainting the rice.
A astronaut marries an Android on his Titan base.
The collection starts with promise, but shifts into the author pushing overt sexuality and violence in favor of story. I thought it was an adaption of A Clockwork Orange. There’s a brief snippet explaining the book’s purpose, not dealing with the overarching narrative whatsoever.

[Transjester · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up halfway through on this one. The stories just made me say "okay, then." it highlights a lot of the flaws in Tezuka's writing overall but isn't compelling like the two longer nonserialized works I've read by him,
(MW & Dororo). My chief complaint is how docile women are in these stories and how they are there to help our special boy male protagonists. The men are the only serious characters in these stories. Women are there because there are women in society. Whatever, I'm not reading his other short story collection either.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this on a list of horror manga and went to give it a shot, but was generally disappointed. I did go in knowing it was short stories but none of them really worked for me. I simultaneously found them lacking in horror but also felt that the horror it did have was really disconnected and ineffective--it reads more like a bunch of abandoned ideas rather than individual stories.

[Seth Isenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Tezuka anthology that hits some extremes of humor, horror, and general human emotion. This is on more of the adult end of his writing, with themes of morality, survival, and love as through-points despite the changes in genre and tone. Highly recommended.

[ComicNerdSam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid and great stories here. Tezuka works incredibly well with the short story format, probably because it gives him less room to wander off the main plot. Multiple stories here are now some of my favorites of Tezuka's career.

[Sam Flagello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't think I would enjoy this as much as I did! Very interesting.

[pp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Included content
- the execution ended at Three O’clock
- miraculous conception
- a clockwork apple
- night on bypass
- sack
- yellow dust
- showtime with the devil
- homecoming

[Nicholas Siebers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sci-fi short stories with the author’s typical dark and horrific twists. Not his best work, but still worth a read.

[Dorthe Svendsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ganske sikker på at jeg nærmer meg alt lest av forfatteren nå. Dette var ikke det beste han har laget. Liker kanskje det som er litt mer barnslig og virkelig enn dette.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like his short stories!

[Othy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am learning that I really don't like Tezuka. I've only really enjoyed Phoenix and a few others, but for the most part I don't care for his overly cartoonish style and strange placement of humor. This collection of short stories is not only disturbing; it's distressing. Sometimes they were disgusting. I would recommend against this collection.