Week 10: Manga and the Japanese comics tradition

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Buddha v.1 by Osama Tezuka is a unique interpretation of the life of Buddha and how Buddhism came about. The first impressions I got from this manga were that the story was interesting. As someone who is Indian, I have learned a lot about Buddhism while growing up. Even after learning about it multiple times, I still chose to read this manga as the style of the comic made the story very interesting. I have never read any manga before so this was my first time experiencing it and I really enjoyed it.  

The story was incredibly easy to read especially because of the illustrations. Tezuka sets the story up in the very beginning just from his landscapes and black and white imagery. The contrast of the humans being drawn really cartoony with the backgrounds and animals being very detailed, brings a lot of depth to the story while also being comical. The characters really bring the story to life. Also, the format of the comic made it more enjoyable to read. 

 Overall, I really enjoyed reading manga for the first time. I would like to read more manga comics similar to this one. 

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