Ode to Kirihito

The artwork in this book is amazing. Tezuka's panels blow me away. It's worth reading for that. The writing is less awesome, and the dramatic tension did not hold me for the entire 830 pages. Also, it's pretty racist, and lots of bad things happen to women in a disturbingly non-chalant, that's-just-life-let's-move-on-now sort of way. Certainly a fascinating portrait of Japanese society in the early '70s.