Apollo's Song, Part One

Apollo no Uta #1

by Osamu Tezuka

Apollo’s Song follows the tragic journey of Shogo, a young man whose abusive childhood has instilled in him a loathing for love so profound he finds himself compelled to acts of violence when he is witness to any act of intimacy or affection whether by human or beast. His hate is such that the gods intervene, cursing Shogo to experience love throughout the ages ultimately to have it ripped from his heart every time. From the Nazi atrocities of World War II to a dystopian future of human cloning, Shogo loses his heart, in so doing, healing the psychological scars of his childhood hatred.

Master storyteller Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song is a lyrical tour-de-force on the human spirit, the destruction of hate, and the triumph of love.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Japanese Literature, Graphic Novels Comics, Japan, Romance

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 1977

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

[Joni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primer tomo de dos donde conocemos a un adolescente traumado por ser hijo de una prostituta sin conocer a su padre que de niño descubre a su madre en pleno acto sexual y el desfile de clientes. Además es maltratado por esta dejando graves secuelas psicológicas que derivan en repulsión al amor, tanto entre humanos o animales, llegando a matar a quienes vea en situaciones afectivas. Es encerrado en un psiquiátrico donde es sometido a diversas pruebas. Son los primeros pasos del gran Osamu Tezuka en temas mas adultos.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty good, but it didn't have as good of a conclusion or an overall theme as I was hoping. Yes its about love and loss and the eternal recurring cycle of love, and how melancholic it is that love is always interrupted and transient due to the transience of life itself. But I was hoping for something idk a bit more ultimately satisfying and concrete than that? I also wish that the romances themselves had more substance to them rather than just being symbolic or representative of love/romance. Its very aesthetic and well drawn, and dream-like. Its what you expect from Tezuka in that respect. I'll also say that the section where he lives on an island with all the animals is the most sweet, endearing, aesthetic, and transcendent one, and the section where hes off in a cybernetic future is the silliest one.

[jisung ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vine buscando cobre y encontré oro.

En 288 páginas y 5 capitulos me dejó súper enganchado y con ganas de mucho más.

La historia habla de Shogo, un chico que termina en un hospital psiquiátrico debido a que mata animales sin piedad, pero no cualquier animal, a animales con pareja.

Ahí es cuando nos enteramos su vida, hijo de una prostituta y de un padre desconocido, comenzó a tener repudio hacia el amor y todo lo relacionado a este y por esto mismo, la diosa Atenea lo castiga a vivir muchas vidas, dónde amara siempre a una mujer, pero de alguna manera morirá ella o él.

Parece una trama algo exagerada, pero te cuenta unas historias demasiado buenas y tiene cada una de ellas una enseñanza o frase que te guste.

Ya quiero leer el segundo tomo.

[Gustavo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shogo es un pibe que sufre porque tiene una relación muy rara con su madre, y eso hace que se ponga loco cada vez que ve parejas, tanto de animales como humanos, y le den ganas de matarlos. Como castigo, una diosa lo condena a que se enamore de mujeres una y otra vez, pero que uno de los dos muera antes de consumar, repitiendo el ciclo en múltiples reencarnaciones.

Esta primera parte muestra algunas de esas historias de Shogo enamorandose, con finales trágicos y algunas cosas muy propias de la época que por ahi no han envejecido muy bien, pero con temas interesantes y muy buen arte, con su estilo característico. Se corta abruptamente asi que veremos como termina.

[Hila · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2,5

[w3rmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful illustrations, complex themes of reproduction + heteronormativity. also like the part with the animals on the island

[Mario Pimental · Rating 4 out of 5]

A witty premise with some twisted situations throughout, but the final piece of it became a soap opera involving marathon running which felt mediocre. On to part 2!

[im tired · Rating 3 out of 5]

lowkey misogynistic

[Sean O'Hara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Osamu Tezuka may be the Godfather of Manga but that doesn't mean everything he wrote was good. Case in point, Apollo's Song, an unfortunate entry in the "Hooray for Psychoanalysis!" genre, full of outdated Freudian concepts rendered even more silly by pop-psych interpretations.

Our Hero, Shogo, is a deranged psychopath who's caught by the police while he's still at the stage of killing small animals. They send him to a mental institution where a kindly doctor tries to cure Shogo through tried-and-true methods like hypnosis and electroshock therapy. Okay, maybe the doctor isn't so kindly, but Tezuka wrote this manga around 1970 when One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was still just a novel only known to filthy hippies and no one realized how barbaric electroshock was. Still, I have difficulty accepting such a doctor as anything but villainous.

While undergoing these therapies, Shogo hallucinates (or does he?) a goddess (who looks Egyptian despite the title pointing towards Greece) who is most wroth with him for whatever it is that makes goddesses wroth, and she curses him to live many lives but always have love snatched away from him. And in the course of his treatment, that's exactly what happens as he experiences one hallucination after another.

The book is essentially a framing device for these hallucinations, which would otherwise be uninteresting short stories. In one Shogo is a Nazi soldier who falls in love with a Jew on her way to a death camp -- but the love comes out of nowhere and completely contradicts Shogo's normal personality, rendering the whole story unconvincing. But that's nothing compared to the silliness of the second story, where Shogo is a pilot who crashes on a desert island with a beautiful photographer, and discovers the place is inhabited by all sorts of animals who live together in peace, like something out of an old Silly Symphony cartoon.

The only redeeming feature of the book is Tezuka's art, which is stunning as always, even if it does look a product of the '70s.

[Poonam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apollo's Song is story of Shogo - who due to his abusive childhood has developed hate for love and coupling. He proves himself to be a budding psychopath, when he cruelly kills animals (obviously whenever he sees them mating) An old-school yet kind psychiatrist tries to treat him with shock therapy etc. There are of course dreams and people falling dead all around.

I have rated this book highly because the book is completely entertaining, even though it has its share of sensuous, pulp fiction moments, sad and touching moments.

[Ryan Scicluna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm quite a dark and moody book. This book tackles issues regarding love and sexual tension. A boy who has not been given the proper love by his mother when he was younger, turns him hating love. As a result of his hate he commits acts of violence which puts him in a mental hospital.

The whole story tries to flesh out more the importance of a loving family for a child and also how this affection effects children when they grow up.

A very mature book that I enjoyed reading. I wonder who this story will conclude in part 2?

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apollo's Song (Part I and Part II) by Osamu Tezuka is a imaginative tale of out-of-body experience, time travel, fantasy, science fiction, mythology and love, all by the God of Manga himself. If you've never heard of Osamu Tezuka, you are missing out. He's best known in the United States for Astro Boy, his very early comic-turned-anime that was broadcast in the U.S. as a Japanese-import English-dubbed cartoon. Unfortunately, as great as Astro Boy is, it represents Tezuka's early work aim... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Queer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a love it or leave it kind of manga. I found it striking in its content; its haphazard portrait of love, sex and mental illness; and incorporation of a mythic-psychoanalytic paradigm into the maturation of a young boy. While I don't think the whole concept translates across language and time, I do still find the story interesting, relevant and powerful. I can't wait to read part two, though I definitely have a sense of where this is going.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange, as much of Osamu Tezuka is, a story within stories. It is about a boy who's violent behaviour stems from his rejection by his mother. He is cursed by a goddess to learn to love through repeated lifetimes of unconsummated love. He lives these through dreams and visions as the main story progresses and eventually learns the lesson in his life. That sounds very straightforward but his stories are always so strange and never exactly what you expect. Good though.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qué tipo espectacular este Tezuka. Un adelantado a su época, casi a su mundo. Tiene un par de conceptos que quizás atrasan un poco, incluso para los 70, pero otros tantos con los que los da vuelta y hace planteos existencialistosexuales que raramente se ven en el mundo del manga.

Espero que esta buena gente de ECC no cuelgue mucho para sacar el segundo tomo, y menos que menos que lo dejen "en suspenso" como vienen haciendo con el 90% de las series de DC que sacaron hasta ahora.

[Jordan Rahberger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strange and hyper-sexual. Weird and creepy for no reason. It just felt gross that he had to be a nazi that falls in love with a Jewish girl in a concentration camp. If it was going for shocking I guess it achieved that, but not much else. But for some reason I forced myself to finish the book despite really wanting to stop.

[La Revistería Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

La canción de Apolo es el primer manga editado por ECC en Argentina, y se trata nada más ni nada menos que una de las obras más personales y adultas del Dios del manga, Osamu Tezuka. Recomendado en esta y cualquier otra vida.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not an anime/manga/whatever-this-is fan; pretty good despite that...

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book.

[Tamia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea was cool but the way the author actually portrayed the plot wasn't good. The art wasn't very unique or special either

[Variaciones Enrojo]

Edición argentina de La canción de Apolo que divide la edición española de un tomo único en dos libros con la mitad de las páginas cada uno. De momento, sólo se ha editado el primero.

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

11-13-14: bk1
11-14-14: bk2

what is love? circa 1970.