Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

     The book is interesting both visually and story-wise. I was really impressed by the unique style the author used throughout the book. The style of art changes from time to time, each time fitting into the story nice and smoothly. Small things such as the color of the panels, shape of the bubbles, even the text varies from person to person. His creative ideas are not only carried out by the story, but it's also embedded in the art itself. I think of this piece of work as "design" over a illustrated narrative. Due to the fact, the art probably told me much more than the text did.

     Asterios Polyp, a middle age man who finally stepped on a journey to self-discovery after he had lost everything. He was particularly designed with architectural proportional lines and shapes, just like his personality. Most of the time Asterios is drawn in a profile view, his face is perfectly symmetrical as well. It's surprising to know that his face is exactly the same shape as his back head, forming an axe shape. I believe the author did this on purpose to emphasis on the existence of Asterios's twin brother, Ignazio. On the other hand, Hana who's completely different from her husband, was illustrated with sketchy hatching lines that represent her sensitive nature. She is also more round and less angular.

     Asterios's cool, clean and perfectly drawn lines versus Hana's warm, messy, but complex lines, the collision between the two different personality is like a chemical reaction. Their lines mixed into each other, Hana gets some of Aterios blue structural shapes and Asterios gets some of Hana's sketchy marks. At times when they are in argument, they will go back to their own form again. There's no doubt that the visual representation of the characters are the most unique element throughout the entire book. Not only the main character has their own style that's unique to their personality  so does the others. The massive amount of detail easily takes away my attention, everything has a meaning. It will take days to explore the whole.

Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka

     It's been more than ten years since I last watched Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy on TV. It's the very first anime I ever watched and it has formed a crucial part of my childhood, ultimately leading me into a career in animation. Even today, the image of the little robot boy is still vivid in my memories. Despite the fact that I had forgotten most of the plots of the story, Osamu Tezuka had carved the character into my heart. I will always remember the pointy hair, the big eyes, and the pair of bright red boots.
   
     Astro Boy has impacted on people of my age greatly. Different forms of media of Astro Boy were made throughout the years, first from manga, to anime series, to feature films and even video games. It's simply rare to see a piece of work to remain popular for decades.

     The setting of Astro Boy is fifty years from its publication, in the year of 2003. We have already arrived at 2012, but our society haven't yet develop into how Tezuka predicted. However, it's quite obvious of his influence on today's Japan, which is turning itself step by step into a mechanize country. Now we have factories full of machines, computers and smart phones that we can literally "talk" to.  It won't be long till the arrival of the entirely robotic age. Although a robot, Astro is portrayed by Tezuka as a regular human kid. He can think and he has emotions just like anybody else. He is a living soul inside of a robotic body. Tezuka gave him a lovable character, even under the condition when robots were discriminated by the human, Astro still maintain his good heart. He greatly emphasize on the respect of life and fulfillment of the spiritual world - even for robots. That's why Astro is a cute and lovable little boy than a big guy with muscular body like superman.

     Why Tezuka choose to make Astro a robot rather than a regular human boy? In the story, he treated Astro like a human. Well,  beyond human, because he is invincible. After all, Astro is a robot, he is a weapon. However, Astro uses his power to protect rather than destruct. I believe that this is the ultimate message told by Astro Boy, great power should lie in the hands of people who wish to protect others. After the mistreatment of human, after the abandonment of his "father", Astro still choose to stand on the side with human. He loves human, even if human doesn't necessarily love him back.