{"id":443,"date":"2013-12-22T06:09:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T06:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=443"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:50:18","slug":"complete","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=443","title":{"rendered":"Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works"},"content":{"rendered":"
Also known as \u624b\u585a\u6cbb\u866b\u6f2b\u753b\u5168\u96c6 (Tezuka Osamu Manga Zenshuu)<\/h5>\n
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Complete Manga Works (1977-1997)<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1977 Kodansha approached Osamu Tezuka with a proposal to publish a complete library of nearly all his manga works.\u00a0 Although Tezuka was at first resistant to the idea (after all, it had been tried before and failed), Kodansha was insistent.<\/p>\n

By some estimates, it would take you 145 hours 38 minutes to read the entire set… with no breaks!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And so, published over a twenty-year period, from 1977-97, the Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works<\/em> (tezuka osamu manga zensh\u016b<\/em>) edition by Kodansha has become the de facto standard in cataloging roughly 80,000 of the estimated 150,000 pages of manga produced by Tezuka during his lifetime.\u00a0 Although this 400-volume set is very comprehensive, it unfortunately does not include all<\/strong> his manga stories.\u00a0 Some of the notable exceptions include Cyrano, the Hero<\/em> (1953), as well as Tezuka’s take on the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio<\/em> (1952)<\/a> and Bambi <\/em>(1951)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Published in the Japanese B6 size (12.8 \u00d7 18.2 cm or 5.04″ \u00d7 7.17″), the set was released in four phases of 100 volumes each.\u00a0 Although numbered, they were not released strictly in sequential order.\u00a0 As such, Phase I (for example) does not correspond directly to volumes 1-100.\u00a0 With a release schedule of four books per month, the first three phases were completed in 1984, however there was almost a ten-year break after the completion of Phase III, with Phase IV not beginning until 1993 – a few years after Osamu Tezuka’s death in 1989.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to note the final 18 volumes (MT383-400) are not actually manga, instead they features collections of his essays and talks.\u00a0 Also, since not all of Tezuka’s manga stories are stand-alone book length, many of the shorter stories have been combined – usually with similar themes – for publication.\u00a0 Please check our complete listings below\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n

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Release Schedule<\/h3>\n