A trailer has been released for an upcoming feature-length documentary film titled TEZUKA! God of Manga, spotlighting the life and legacy of manga artist Osamu Tezuka.
Peabody Award-winning director Jason Andrew Cohn is directing the documentary film in collaboration with Bread & Butter Films — a production team consisting of producers Camille Servan-Schreiber and Jinko Gotoh, academic and philanthropist Glen S. Fukushima, and author Roland Kelts.
A Kickstarter page for the documentary has been opened, with a funding campaign for the project set to launch at a to-be-determined date and time. The campaign will include several reward tiers and merchandise from Tezuka Productions, limited edition collectible prints, and a collectible Blu-ray of the documentary. Filming for the project will continue once the project is fully funded on Kickstarter. Production on the documentary is scheduled to finish sometime in 2028 to coincide with Tezuka’s 100th birthday.
TEZUKA! God of Manga will feature interviews with several manga and anime creators in Japan, as well as creatives worldwide such as:
- • Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira)
- • Riyoko Ikeda (The Rose of Versailles)
- • Naoki Urasawa (Monster)
- • Go Nagai (Devilman)
- • Yoshiyuki Tomino (Gundam)
- • Masao Maruyama (Tokyo Godfathers, Madhouse co-founder and anime producer)
- • Rintaro (Metropolis)
- • Ada Palmer (Too Like the Lightning)
- • Samuel Sattin (Unico Awakening)
- • Jorge R. Gutierrez (The Book of Life)
- • Helen McCarthy (The Art of Osamu Tezuka)
- • Natsu Onoda Power (God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga)
- • Frederick L. Schodt (Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics)
Additional interviews with cartoonists Paul Pope (THB) and Ron Wimberly (Prince of Cats) are also planned once the documentary is fully funded.
TEZUKA! God of Manga is described on Kickstarter as:
Osamu Tezuka is known as the “God of Manga.” He was the genius Japanese artist who pioneered manga and anime after WWII. He’s often compared to Walt Disney, but that’s a disservice to Tezuka —that’s how much he contributed and how influential he was.
Now, Peabody Award-winning director Jason Andrew Cohn and the Bread & Butter Films production team (Camille Servan-Schreiber, Jinko Gotoh, Glen S. Fukushima, and Roland Kelts) —will spotlight Tezuka’s life and legacy with TEZUKA! God of Manga, an all-new, feature-length documentary.
More updates and information on the documentary film will be posted on its official Twitter/X and Bluesky accounts.
Source: press release