{"id":3443,"date":"2015-02-04T14:26:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T14:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=3443"},"modified":"2023-02-16T21:25:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T21:25:13","slug":"mysterious-underground-men-the-manga","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=3443","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Underground Men, The (Manga)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Also known as \u5730\u5e95\u56fd\u306e\u602a\u4eba (Chiteikoku no Kaijin)<\/h5>\n
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\"mysterious-cover\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
English Title:<\/strong><\/td>\nThe Mysterious Underground Men<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
In English?<\/strong><\/td>\nYes<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japanese Title:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u5730\u5e95\u56fd\u306e\u602a\u4eba
\nChiteikoku no Kaijin<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Type:<\/strong><\/td>\nBook<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original run:<\/strong><\/td>\n1948\/02\/20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Published by:<\/strong><\/td>\nFuji Shobo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Volumes:<\/strong><\/td>\n1
\nMT-253<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948), was originally published as a stand-alone book by Fuji Shobo and released on February 20, 1948. \u00a0One of his earliest feature-length works, Tezuka considered it his very first “story manga” – despite the fact that fails to take into\u00a0account either of his earlier adventures, King Kong<\/em> (1947) and The Golden Bat<\/em> (1947).<\/p>\n

What it’s about<\/h2>\n

As the story opens, the boy-hero John<\/a> must deal with his father’s death in an airplane\u00a0crash. \u00a0John<\/a>‘s father tells his young son that his final wish is for him to create a safer means of transport. \u00a0John<\/a> swears that he will, and cries\u00a0as his father passes away.<\/p>\n

\"mysterious-manga01\"<\/a>

A promise is made<\/p><\/div>\n

Meanwhile, scientists perform a series of experiments on a rabbit to give him the intelligence of a\u00a0human. \u00a0While the experiment is a success, the humanoid rabbit named Mimio<\/a> is prevented from exploring the outside world. \u00a0Unable to contain his curiosity, he escapes but, after unintentionally scaring the locals, he is hounded and chased by the police until he seeks\u00a0shelter at John<\/a>‘s house. \u00a0John<\/a> shares his dream with\u00a0Mimio<\/a> about creating a Trans-Earth Train, which\u00a0would travel through the Earth’s core.<\/p>\n

After it’s completion, John<\/a> and\u00a0Mimio<\/a> begin their subterranean travel through to the Earth’s core, but soon\u00a0discover an underground civilization determined to conquer the Earth’s surface.<\/p>\n

What you should know<\/h2>\n

The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948) represents an early transitional milestone in Tezuka’s work. \u00a0As he points out in the afterword to the Osamu Tezuka Complete Works<\/i><\/a>\u00a0edition (MT-253<\/a>), he considered his early works, such as Doctor Mars <\/em>(1947), to be\u00a0heavily influenced by “prewar manga”. \u00a0Later expanding on this notion in a 1988 interview, Tezuka explained how his use of this term referred to the “preconceived notion that manga was for fun and laughs”, and that, prior to the release of The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948), manga generally featured little\u00a0to no tragedy. \u00a0However, in The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948), Tezuka created the character of\u00a0Mimio<\/a> who, not only cries after he\u00a0is forced to leave John<\/a> and Uncle Bill<\/a> but also, in a shocking twist of fate, sacrifices himself and dies at the story’s climax – something which was extremely shocking to the children of the time. \u00a0By introducing the tragedy, Tezuka allowed the manga to more closely echo\u00a0life and thus feature\u00a0more drama than was generally seen perviously.<\/p>\n

\"mysterious-manga02\"<\/a>

Genetic experiments<\/p><\/div>\n

Tezuka was inspired by many sources, sometimes event “borrowing” plot or story elements from other works of fiction. \u00a0As such, it should come as no surprise that the idea for the subterranean denizens in The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948) came from the American sci-fi film serial\u00a0Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars\u00a0<\/em>(1934)<\/a> – more specifically, from ‘The Deadly Ray from\u00a0Mars’ in which Flash battles against clay people who are impervious to bullets. \u00a0They are led by a\u00a0queen who can turn people into clay with a sapphire around her neck and put people to sleep with a\u00a0ring on her finger, very similar to the queen’s abilities in Tezuka’s tale.<\/p>\n

There are also certain elements inspired by the popular\u00a0German sci-fi novel,\u00a0Der Tunnel<\/a><\/em> (1913), by\u00a0Bernhard Kellermann of which Tezuka was a fan. \u00a0In fact, Tezuka’s work was originally going to be titled The Tunnel<\/em>, and was only changed at the publisher’s insistence.<\/p>\n

As with many of Tezuka’s early works,\u00a0The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948)\u00a0makes great use of the Star System<\/a>\u00a0– prominently featuring\u00a0Kenichi<\/a> as “John”,\u00a0Shunsaku Ban<\/a> as “Uncle Bill”, as well as Hamegg<\/a>\u00a0and Mimio under their own names. \u00a0What is perhaps most interesting though, is that it also features the comedic\u00a0trio of Ramune<\/a>, Kalpis<\/a> and Soda – in one of their few appearances before Tezuka dropped Soda and parred the group down to the more well-known\u00a0comedic duo instead.<\/p>\n

\"mysterious-manga03\"<\/a>

A tragic ending<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, it is interesting to note that, given the available technology at the time, The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948)\u00a0was published using the Kakihan method. \u00a0However, as the process involved transferring the artwork to zinc printing\u00a0plates by technicians, Tezuka was never satisfied with the end results, basically disowning the artwork produced using this method as the drawings were\u00a0not a clear reproduction of his own creation. \u00a0As a result of Tezuka’s dissatisfaction with the printing method, he chose to redraw the story twice – first as Earth Tunnel<\/em> (1951-52) and again as\u00a0Adventure 21<\/em> (1970-71).<\/p>\n

Where you can get it<\/h2>\n

Luckily for English-speakers,The Mysterious Underground Men<\/em> (1948)\u00a0was published as\u00a0a 160-page hardcover book<\/a> in October 2013 as part of PictureBox<\/a>\u2018s \u201cTen Cent Manga\u201d imprint. \u00a0Although not a true replica edition, it reproduces the look of age and wear one would expect from a work originally published in 1948. \u00a0The book also features a\u00a0supplemental essay by noted manga historian Ryan Holmberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mysterious Underground Men (1948), was originally published as a stand-alone book by Fuji Shobo and released on February 20, 1948. One of his earliest feature-length works, Tezuka considered it his very first \u201cstory manga\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3445,"parent":9254,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,157,298,165,307,339],"class_list":["post-3443","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manga","tag-adventure","tag-available-in-english","tag-books","tag-early-works","tag-fuji-shobo","tag-shonen-manga","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6vZWu-Tx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13439,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3443\/revisions\/13439"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}