Osamu Tezuka

Hello! My name is Osamu Tezuka, and I want to tell you my story. I was born in Japan on November 3rd, 1928. When I was a little boy, I loved two things more than anything: exploring nature and drawing! I would spend hours drawing all the cool insects I found. My father also showed me wonderful animated movies from America, and I especially loved the ones made by a man named Walt Disney. His cartoons made me dream of creating my own moving pictures one day.

As I got older, I never stopped drawing. I filled notebooks with my own characters and adventures. My parents wanted me to become a doctor, and I did go to medical school! But my heart was always in storytelling. In 1946, when I was still a teenager, I published my very first comic strip. It was so exciting to see my drawings in a newspaper for everyone to read! I decided then that I would spend my life creating stories, which we call 'manga' in Japan.

Have you ever heard of a super-powered robot boy with a kind heart? That’s my most famous character, Astro Boy! I started drawing his adventures in 1952. Astro Boy was strong and could fly, but the most important thing about him was that he always tried to help people and create a world where humans and robots could be friends. I created many other characters too, like a brave white lion named Kimba. I wanted all my stories to teach about caring for our planet and being kind to one another.

Seeing my characters in comic books was wonderful, but I still had my childhood dream of making them move, just like in the movies I loved. So, in 1961, I started my own animation studio. We worked very hard, and in 1963, we created a television show all about Astro Boy! It was one of the first Japanese cartoons, called 'anime,' to be shown all around the world. It felt like magic to see my drawings come to life on the screen.

I spent my whole life drawing and telling stories. I created hundreds of manga and helped make anime popular everywhere. I lived to be 60 years old, and though my time on Earth ended, my characters live on. I hope that when you see Astro Boy or my other creations, you remember the importance of having a good heart and a big imagination.