Ode to Kirihito

In an out-of-the-way Japanese village, there is an illness known as Monmow disease. Its symptoms are a wide variety of very bad things: The bones begin to atrophy, the patient exhibits an extraordinarily high fever, and eventually even loses the ability to breathe. But the most curious part of Monmow Disease is its visual symptoms: The patient begins to turn into what looks like a humanoid fox. His bones crumble into dog-like shape, even forming a snout; hair starts growing all over the body, and the patient's body starts losing the ability to digest nearly anything except raw meat.

Young aspiring doctor Kirihito volunteers to go into Tokushima village to investigate this disease and, he hopes, come up with an explanation for its origin. But it turns out that he's in for an experience which is most certainly not what he was expecting.

Ode to Kirihito is a work by Osamu Tezuka with a genre bent that's rather difficult to describe. It's psychologically complex, dealing not just with Kirihito's experience with Monmow Disease, but also his friend Doctor Urabe's psychosis and deterioration without Kirihito around to help keep him grounded. It deals heavily with medical politics and intrigue as Tatsagura, their boss, tries to work his way into being elected president of the Japanese Medical Association. There's a deep religous angle as Helen Friese, a nun, is struck with the disease and must come to terms with her identity before God when she appears to the world as a monster. And Rape Tropes? Prepare to be shocked by how many are used here.

Suffice to say, there's a lot of stuff going on here. Ode to Kirihito is one of those "artsy" manga, dealing heavily with substantative issues in a medium where even today this kind of introspection is unusual. Suggest it to friends who dismiss comics as all being something for kids. And don't forget to tell them it was written by the same guy who made Astro Boy.


 * Beware the Nice Ones: Don't piss Kirihito off.
 * Big No
 * Break the Cutie: How much pain and humiliation can Kirihito go through before he snaps? It is also implied it happened to.
 * Butt Monkey
 * Cruel and Unusual Death:
 * Despair Event Horizon: Urabe is finally  after   and.
 * Devolution Device / Evolutionary Levels: Played slightly realistically. Monmow Disease is described as an atavistic disorder that causes the expression of genes left over in the human genome from a dog-like early mammal.
 * Diabolus Ex Machina
 * Double Standard Rape (Female on Male): Played straight with Tazu, whom Kirihito eventually comes to love despite the circumstances surrounding . But it's . Let's also not forget that he also gets   and that the manga makes it very clear that   nearly degrade him into a shell of his former self.
 * Driven to Suicide: . Very nearly happens to.
 * Freudian Excuse: Mahn pursues extremely sadistic and degrading entertainments because . In other words, his motivation is.
 * Gambit Pileup: The war for information and manipulation involves Tatsugaura, Kirihito, Urabe, Izumi, Manheim, Mahn and his entourage, the mayor... Phew.
 * He Who Fights Monsters
 * If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him: Kirihito decides not to kill  in the end. He does kill in self-defense, but chooses not to kill.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal
 * I Love Nuclear Power:
 * Karmic Death: A few characters, but  in particular.
 * Kavorka Man: Possibly Kirihito.
 * Love Makes You Evil: A possible interpretation of Urabe.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Tatsugaura.
 * Messianic Archetype: Helen; Kirihito.
 * Oedipus Rex: Kirihito-Tatsugaura and Urabe-Tatsugaura.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: If you look over Tezuka's body of work you'll see he was quite fond of the trope. Kirihito is probably the most "realistic" interpretation out of them all, indeed perhaps, in all of fiction.
 * Petting Zoo People: Monmow disease effectively turns people into these.
 * Rape as Drama: Oddly enough,.
 * Rape Is Love: In fact, thanks to, it actually works.
 * Red Herring: The elements that seem to indicate that Monmow, especially  . Medical RedHerrings, baby!
 * Sacrificial Lamb:  die so that Kirihito can live on and be psychologically reborn. At a more metaphorical level, Kirihito himself.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses: Usually indicates Urabe's off his kilter.
 * Shadow Archetype: The whole point of the manga.
 * Ship Tease: Particularly cruel in the case of.
 * Shout-Out: Some of the hallucination scenes seem to allude to surrealism (more specifically, to Magritte) and to Pink Floyd's The Wall. There are also clear graphic references to Picasso and to film noir --a real potpourri of allusions, really.
 * Stripperiffic: Reika
 * Sunk Cost Fallacy: Tatsugara spends so much time trying to prove that Monmow is contagious that he will listen to no counterargument.
 * There Are No Therapists
 * Town with a Dark Secret: Inugamisawa.
 * Transformation Trauma: Ohhh boy.
 * Trauma Conga Line
 * Tragic Hero: Kirihito Osanai. He actually has two tragic flaws, his naivety at the beginning and his (very understandable) anger management issues which nearly turn him into a monster.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Urabe towards his mentor, Tatsugaura.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?
 * What the Hell, Townspeople?
 * Yandere: A possible interpretation for Urabe. Also, Kirihito makes for a pretty decent Yangire.
 * Yank the Dog's Chain