Message to Adolf, Part 1

Adolf (2 parts) #1

by Osamu Tezuka

It is 1936 in Berlin, Nazi Germany. A Japanese reporter named Sohei Tohge is covering the Berlin Olympic Games for the Japanese press. As he sits in the Japanese press box watching the many track and field events of the day, he receives a call from his younger brother Isao, who has been studying in Germany as an international student. The two make plans to meet as Isao mentions he has something of importance to share with his sibling. While Sohei initially thinks his little brother may have found a young frau, Isao's tone is clearly that of one who is troubled by topics much heavier than romance.

When Sohei arrives at Berlin University, he finds his brother's room has been through some sort of violent ordeal. A mysterious message was left on a note pad and a window was left wide open. And tangled in the branches of a tree directly below Isao's window rested his dead body. Isao was murdered.

Sohei would immediately launch an investigation to the murder, but almost instantly all traces of information regarding his younger brother's study in Germany has vanished. The police were of no help. Isao's room was also cleared and rented out to another person. Even his building manager feined ignorance. It was as if he had never existed.

Investigating the matter, it is later learned that this murder is connected to a document he mailed to Japan with information regarding Adolf Hitler. As events progress, the lives of three Adolfs, each from distinct origins, intertwine and become more and more tangled as Sohei Toge searches for his brother's murderer.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Seinen, Japan

648 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Dr. Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga" and "the God of Manga."

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

You’ve probably heard the rumour that Hitler was part-Jewish thanks to a distant relative – the shock, the irony! etc. The rumour’s long been debunked but comics legend Osamu Tezuka took the idea and ran with it in his massive 1300+ page book, Message to Adolf, with Part 1 clocking in at a whopping 650 pages! It sounded like an interesting comic, especially with Tezuka behind it, but disappointingly, it wasn’t – in fact, I ended up hating it.

Our story begins during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games when Japanese journalist Sohei Toge receives an urgent call from his brother about a dire secret he has to tell him (but not over the phone!) and, when he goes to meet him, he discovers his brother has been murdered! Hot on the trail of his brother’s killer, Toge finds out his brother had papers proving Hitler had Jewish relatives and therefore made him part Jewish – such a revelation would bring about the fall of the Third Reich! Meanwhile in Japan, two young Germans boys, both called Adolf, one of which is Jewish, are torn apart when the non-Jewish Adolf is sent back to Germany to be taught at a Hitler School. And all the while, Nazi Germany is gearing up for the war to end all wars…

Let’s start with the premise: it’s extremely flimsy. Some paperwork that somehow proves that Hitler’s grandparents were part Jewish would bring about the fall of the Third Reich? Take Obama (and, without getting too political, I actually like Obama and don’t think he’s a secret Muslim socialist from Kenya who’s also the Antichrist) and the matter of his birth certificate. Even after he produced it, showing he was an American citizen, look how many idiots refused to believe it was real. Even if a Japanese newspaper printed this bizarre paperwork, would enough people in Germany see it AND believe it to be true, so much so that they would overthrow the Fuhrer? I’m not convinced.

And if they – the majority of the German people - did overthrow the Fuhrer, what then? By their very actions, they would prove that they still hated Jews, so much so that they killed their beloved dictator for having 1/16th Jewish blood, and the march toward war and the Holocaust would likely still happen. Another high ranking Nazi official – Goebbels maybe – would take over and WW2 would continue forward. The whole point of this book seems utterly futile!

The premise bothered me but not nearly as much as the characters. When they weren’t loathsome, they were stupid, and I mean REALLY stupid, like how-the-hell-did-they-dress-themselves-this-morning stupid.

Take, for example, the Jewish Adolf character. Through a series of events, he winds up with the papers and, being just a kid, should probably hand them over to a trustworthy adult like his dad who also happens to be an important figure in the Jewish community in Japan – perfect, right? Except idiot Adolf gets all bashful and cryptically tells his dad to look at these papers when he’s got time as they’re important. The dad, of course not fully understanding their import, doesn’t get around to looking at them and, through a bizarre sequence of events, ends up going back to Germany and straight into a concentration camp! Idiot kid Adolf could’ve stopped all of that if he’d just told him – “Dad, Hitler’s Jewish and these are the papers to prove it.” Simple, right? They were sat at dinner with no interruptions, one sentence, done – AND he’d have saved his dad’s life!

Another example of moronic characters is the Gestapo goon chasing Toge whose name is, and I’m not joking, Acetylene Lamp. After somehow tracking down Toge from Berlin to a small mountain road in rural Japan, he’s driving alongside the bus carrying Toge and decides to drive ahead of the bus and wait for Toge in the next town. Now, after such a feat as to track down Toge to this very specific location, wouldn’t he rather make sure not to let him out of his sight by driving behind the bus until it arrives at its destination AND THEN grabbing him? But no, he drives ahead giving Toge the chance to escape, which he does. IDIOT!

These are just two examples of every one of these characters behaving like twits but I could go on and on about scenes that just played out like a child wrote them (that retarded shootout sequence!). Simple decisions escape them as they bumble around foolishly, making bad choices, one after the other. The Nazi characters on the other hand are character-less – they’re just one-dimensional bad guys. And while there wasn’t anyone in the cast I particularly liked, I hated the protagonist the most: Sohei Toge.

At first he’s your generic hero – good looking, upbeat, idealistic and he’s fighting for a good cause, to avenge his brother’s death and bring about the downfall of Hitler.

And then he rapes a woman.

Whaaat?! Yup, before the first 100 pages are over, he’s beaten up and raped his brother’s German girlfriend. Oh and the girl kills herself shortly afterwards. I’m not going to list the qualities that makes the main character of any story sympathetic, but the one quality you wouldn’t expect to see would be a tendency to sexually assault women. That scene not only made me hate the protagonist instantly and made me indifferent to the many challenges he has to overcome, but it was a warning sign that I should’ve just closed the book there. Then again, how many main characters commit a rape in the first act? I had to read on. BIG mistake!

But I did finish it. I struggled with the last 200 pages but I got there in the end and that says something – this book, while dislikeable on so many levels, is readable and that’s thanks to Tezuka’s prowess with the comics medium. He knows how to tell a story so that it’s beats are just so, fast or slow when it needs to be, with scenes flowing nicely into one another and the art is generally good too. While reading a 650-page manga isn’t the same as reading a 650-page prose novel, not least in terms of time commitment, I have abandoned shorter books for being unreadable and I kept going with Message to Adolf Part 1. That’s about all I’m going to give this one though.

Tezuka tries to make his poorly constructed story have an emotional atmosphere by shoe-horning in tragic events like war, discrimination, fascism, and so on, even plopping in historical events to set the time, but it’s ineffective here. Sure, WW2 and everything that led up to and during it were awful and moving, but here it sits awkwardly alongside the bad fiction, flat and separate from the story, like a b-movie director ineptly using stock footage in-between his poorly filmed scenes. Also, Tezuka doesn’t even seem to quite grasp the Nazi/Jewish situation – it was a racially motivated prejudice, but he presents it here as religious based, that is, if the Jews converted to Christianity the Nazis would have left them alone, which couldn’t’ve been more wrong.

Message to Adolf Part 1 is simply an overstuffed book. Non-Jewish Adolf’s father gets his own storyline which is a murder mystery but it’s never resolved as everyone involved dies and disappears and none of it matters anyway (not to mention how unconvincing it was for a white supremacist openly marrying a non-white). Too many story threads are set up that never go anywhere or are even relevant to the plot. There are too many contrived coincidences in the story, too many moments that are done to make the plot seem to work rather than make sense in themselves – Jewish Adolf’s father having to suddenly go back to Germany for instance – for it to be even halfway convincing as a grown-up story, despite it’s mature subject matter.

This book shows Tezuka’s limitations as writer. He’s unable to create even semi-realistic characters and everything from the core premise to the execution, to many key scenes didn’t make any sense at all. The writing itself is very sloppy with characters literally saying what they’re feeling because Tezuka doesn’t seem to know how else to do it – a beautiful bar owner falls in love with rapist Toge (women are constantly throwing themselves at him in this book – probably because he’s a superhero. The dude caught up to a train despite being shot and running uphill!) and when he’s talking with a younger woman she says “I love him, I must make sure he doesn’t fall in love with that girl and go away with her. He must stay with me here” (I’m paraphrasing but you get the idea). Tezuka’s writing in this book is amateurish at best, which is surprising given that this book was written at the tail end of his career, after literally decades of working in the comics medium!

The dialogue is just bad in general. The Japanese style of melodramatic declarations and over-emotional, hammy even, physical gestures to get across a cheesy line is acceptable in most manga; in a supposedly serious historical fiction like Message to Adolf, Tezuka really should’ve left that stuff out to give the story more weight. Sometimes less is more, and more restrained scenes are infinitely more powerful to the reader – abandoning that for cartoony scenes disrupts the tone and takes away the potential artistic merit of the book.

I just about made it through Part 1 but I won’t be picking up Part 2 to see how it all ends. If you’re looking for a good Tezuka book, try Buddha instead of this drivel.

[Tomáš Fojtik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Osamu Tezuka byl českému čtenáři zatím vzdálen v mlze japonštiny. Pokud tímto jazykem nevládnete, neměli jste šanci si od něj cokoliv přečíst. Možná se ptáte: „A měli bychom?“ Rozhodně měli, protože Osamu Tezuka patří mezi největší klasiky ve svém žánru.

Tím žánrem je manga a velký dluh českému čtenáři začalo splácet nakladatelství Crew. Bylo z čeho vybírat, protože Tezuka toho měl za sebou opravdu hodně. Zpráva pro Adolfa (rozdělená na první a druhou část) byla asi to nejlepší, čím mohli začít. Tezukův styl bývá někdy přirovnáván k západnímu stylu komiksů – a tím pádem je pro západního čtenáře přijatelnější (podobně je u nás oblíbený Haruki Murakami, jehož japonské romány hodně odkazují na evropskou kulturu). Navíc část příběhu (ke kterému se ještě dostanu) se odehrává v Evropě a i to je nám blízké. A třetí důvod, proč je toto ideální vstup do Tezukovy tvorby (ale vlastně i do mangy jako takové): Tezuka se zde krotil, co se týče svých vyjadřovacích způsobů.

Příběh Zprávy pro Adolfa začíná v roce 1936, kde zrovna probíhají olympijské hry. Zatímco v Německu se už Adolf Hitler pevně drží kormidla, svět s ním zatím příliš velkou zkušenost nemá – jeho nejhorší dny mají teprve přijít. A tak zatímco němečtí atleti stoupají na stupínky vítězů, japonský novinář Seiko Tóge sledující olympiádu přímo z tribuny má hovor od svého bratra žijícího v Berlíně. Chce se sejít, protože má dokumenty, které otřesou pozicí německého vůdce. Než ale k setkání dojde, bratr je po smrti. Druhá linie příběhu sleduje dva Adolfy v Japonsku – kamarády, z nichž jeden je syn židovského pekaře a druhý syn významného japonského armádního hodnostáře. Jejich životy, na začátku spojené silným přátelstvím, se pochopitelně vinou dějin rozejdou, ale jak už to u správného příběhu bývá, nakonec se zase shledají. Příběh se ale vůbec nevyvíjí tak, jak čtenář může očekávat. Tezuka se nebojí odbočit z vyprávěné linie a rozehrát jinou, zdánlivě a na první pohled nesouvisející partii.

Kniha má jedno hlavní téma – co s člověkem udělá zlo a jak se mu můžete postavit. V příběhu vystupuje hned několik záporáků – a ten s černým knírkem překvapivě nepatří k těm nejhorším. Protože on funguje víceméně jako lampa – lampa, v jejímž stínu se odehrávají mnohem zajímavější osudy. Příběh má filmové tempo, takže dojde k několika dramatickým obratům a k několika scénám, kdy se čtenářovo srdce zastaví. Silné téma pochopitelně přináší silné momenty, a Osamu Tezuka se jich rozhodně nebojí. Umí jít až na dřeň emocí a na hranici snesitelného. Ale velmi dobře ví, kde ta hranice je a kdy už nedojít do světa emočního kýče.

Dovedu si představit, jak bolestné to musí být například pro Japonce – svůj národ nijak nešetří. Kniha vyšla už na začátku osmdesátých let a k nám jí to tedy trvalo skoro čtyři desetiletí. Pro mangu jsou typické kresby, které zdůrazňují emoční vypětí a často toto zobrazení sahá až někam k parodii nebo k americkým animákům. Osamu Tezuka se ve Zprávě pro Adolfa v tomto směru dost krotil. Stále to sice je manga se vším, co k ní patří (takže se připravte na to, že budete číst „pozpátku, tedy od konce knihy na začátek“), ale protože vypráví vážné téma, s těmito prvky nakládá obezřetně, jako se vzácným kořením. Co se mi hodně líbilo je, že způsob vykreslení postav odpovídá jejich charakteru. Poznáte tak záporáka nebo klaďase – a to dokonce tehdy, když se z klaďase stane záporák. Oceňuji také důkladnou práci s panely, kdy klasické a očekávatelné rozložení čas od času nahradí jiné, které umocní nebo zdůrazní právě probíhající děj.


Vyzdvihnout je třeba také práci překladatelky – Anny Křivánkové. Oba díly – cca 650 a 600 stran – jsou plné japonské faktografie a terminologie. Přeložit to a uvést do správného kontextu muselo být náročné, ale celkový výsledek působí impozantně a pečlivě.

Ať už se na knihu (respektive na knihy, dva díly se prodávají samostatně, byť vyšly jen pár týdnů za sebou) podívám z jakéhokoliv hlediska, nemám ji vůbec co vytknout. Je to má první manga, kterou jsem četl takto důkladně a zažil jsem něco skvělého. Po dočtení jsem začal studovat, jak má manga vypadat, co se zde dělá a jak a otevřel se přede mnou úplně nový svět. Poslední měsíce jsem měl komiksové – jen namátkou: Essex County, Padoucnice, Kosmo knedlíci… Zpráva pro Adolfa toto období završila jako pověstná třešnička na dortu. To dílo je ohromné, bezchybné a dechberoucí. Jestli chcete začít komiksem, nebo přímo mangou, nemáte asi lepší volbu. Vedle zmíněné Essex County je toto nejlepší komiksový počin roku 2019 (do této soutěže ještě patří Providence, která mi leží na nočním stolku). A já jen doufám, že to nebyla poslední manga od Osamy Tezuky, která vyšla v českém překladu.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you who don't know, Osamu Tesuka is the godfather of manga, who for many years produced Astro Boy and other comics for kids, and then decided to broaden his range and create comics for adults, to explore what it is manga/comics could do. So, I am also reading another epic, multi-volume story by Tezuka, a kind of historical fiction fantasy Buddha, which I think is more cartoony and (at this point, at least) less effective at telling history through fiction.

I think Adolf (which I own in two omnibus volumes) is Tezuka's masterpiece, his crowning achievement. Both the 8 volume Buddha and Adolf are historical fiction, commentaries on actual historical figures and history itself, weaving fictional characters and events throughout, but Adolf is to me far more satisfying and enjoyable, more sophisticated in the telling and artistry. It's a kind of political thriller that reveals some (at the time) surprising news about Hitler (his partly Jewish ancestry), and a few other sensational details.

Tezuka's Adolf is about two Japanese boys named Adolfs (and also Hitler), one boy Japanese/German whose father is a German Nazi sympathizer, and this boy gets sent to Germany to be a Hitler Youth. At one point he actually does well enough as a Hitler Youth to actually meet Hitler himself. His Japanese friend, also named Adolf, is a Jew. There's the youth/YA angle, the friendship across the issues of the Holocaust, Japan/Germany relations, and then there is a Japanese guy who has his hands on some top secret information about Hitler that he got from his dying brother, who is being chased across Japan by Naziis. The thriller aspect combined with actual controversial historical documents (about Hitler's ethnic heritage...) sounds dicey, sensationalistic, and it is, but combines to make a pretty amazing tale, especially considering he really had no models for this kind of comics tale.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good --

It's compelling: Despite Message to Adolf's flaws, it is a story that builds inertia in the reader. Once I started reading, I slowly picked up speed until I finally raced to the end at breakneck pace, even losing some sleep to get to the end of this first part.

The chapter structure, heavily reliant on cliff-hangers, makes it very hard to put down, especially when Sohei Toge is unconscious again from his umpteenth injury, but I think the primary agent of Message to Adolf's readability is that it's Manga. The comic book format makes the action much more compelling than I think it would be in prose. The action is, I suppose necessarily, comic booky, which suits this medium, but wouldn't work at all in a novel. It makes it fun rather than tedious, and with such serious issues as anti-Semitism, facism, and misogyny as its themes, some "fun" action bits are required to "lighten" the mood.

The Axis Perspective: Probably my favourite part of this read is that it gives us a rare glimpse into the Axis perspective -- albeit a flawed and self-serving one (more on this later). The only location we see beyond Germany and Japan is Lithuania, and that only for the briefest of moments. Moreover, only one time do we see any of the "Allies," one French and one American intelligence agent. That's it. The rest of the books is comprised of Germans, Japanese, Japanese-Germans, and German-Jews, and they all move through their respective Axis nations. While this isn't totally unique (I have certainly read a few), there aren't enough books that adopt this setting and point of view, so I am always on the lookout for more books that do this. Please point me in the right direction if you have a suggestion, fair reader.

The Bad --

The Manga-y Manga: There are times that come too often for my taste when the Manga cheesiness overcooks. Times when the giant mouths, moon eyes and fluid skeleture undermine the seriousness of the subject matter. Perhaps it makes such things more palatable and allows for Tezuka to deal with his subject -- especially in a Japan of the 80s -- with more openness than he could otherwise, but thirty years after creation, this cheesiness is disruptive, feeling far too foolish for what is on display.

Argumentum ad Hominem: Tezuko never engages in an actual criticism of Nazi policy, but he is clear throughout that the Nazis are the enemy. Every Nazi, but our one Japanese-German boy and a Nazi fraulein driven to "badness" by her Gestapo father, is a hamfisted caricature of evil. They are universally "evil," universally without nuance, and universally unbelievable, and they do nothing to show us how and why the Nazis are wrong. In fact, the very existence of the Nazis in this story feels like apologetics, a way to prove that Japan wasn't bad because "Japan weren't the Nazis" -- almost as though the Japanese were victims of Axis necessity rather than active agents in their WW2 fate. That they made a deal with the devil, and the devil himself is responsible for that deal. This story could have been vastly more effective if the Japanese and Germans had been more realistic, especially if a genuine argument had been made.

The Questionable --

The Core is Unconvincing: The core of this story is the idea that "evidence" has been uncovered that Hitler has a Jewish grandfather, making him one quarter Jew, and that this information is the single most important evidence of the war years -- that it alone could topple the Nazi government. It's pretty to think so in our temporal distance from Nazi Germany, but even the teensiest knowledge of Goebbels propaganda machine, the Nazi talent for trumping up conspiracy and their ability to manufacture opinion tells us this is false. Now I can still cut the story slack on this because I do think that German Intelligence would seek to destroy the evidence, and I can see how some in the war, particularly the Jewish dissidents would see this as a possible opportunity, but I can not cut the same slack to serious journalists, such as Sohei Toge, and serious communist opponents of Nazism, such as Toge's brother and Miss Ogi, who must surely have had less emotional bias and more room for logical thought -- but then maybe I give humanity too much credit. Suffice to say, then, for me this didn't work.

I will definitely be reading the second part of Message to Adolf, but I must first sign off with a one word summation of the piece at half time: eccentric.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fantastic storytelling. I immediately requested Part II.

The author is considered to be the "Father of Manga." He was the creator of Astro Boy, and was thought of as the Japanese equivalent of Walt Disney, who greatly influenced his style.

For whatever reason, I don't recall anyone having had recommended him to me, so I consider it great fortune to have stumbled upon him. I now want to read all of his stuff! What sets him apart for me is his great moral compass.

I don't think I've read many Japanese writers who have expressed such a clear-eyed indictment of authoritarianism, nationalism, propaganda, and the power of hate-driven bigotry. The author was a young boy during the Japanese lead-up to conflict with China and their eventual entrance into WWII. Tezuka made no excuse for, and readily exposed the horrors inflicted by his own nation upon others. To read his perspective and especially his command of historical detail, is fascinating. 

It's also eerie to trace the events from 100 years ago to the current right wing reactionary shift towards strongmen, charismatic leaders, overt racism, eugenics, co-opted cultural symbols, and repression of dissent. Just like back then, people who speak out against Fascism are labeled communists and traitors. It's incredible to see the exact same playbook being run. Every power usurper knows that you have to take over the government, the courts, and the military. By controlling those three, you will be able to take control of the press and shape the narrative you want the public to adopt.

This has all been done before , and it led to horrors for everyone. After three generations are gone, though, the people forget. 

Tezuka made crystal clear that there is great power in labels. Populism depends on identifying not just by who you are, but also by who you are not. Only those in the fold are considered "real" citizens, and patriotic fervor is a performative requirement. Students and intellectuals, really anyone who questions the party line, is called a troublemaker, and likely to face severe punishment. The country and its politics become synonymous.

The author also established what we all know, but few of us are willing to admit: it's often the victim, not the perpetrator of a crime who suffers punishment by association. 

Part I is very long, but the story is jam-packed and it is well-paced.

[Gabriell Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neskutečná paráda. Přes 600 stran a člověk hltá každou jednu z nich. Takovéhle věci tady rozhodně můžou vycházet častěji.

[Václav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Každý vydavatel si ve své produkci sem tam splní přání co jsou více jeho než ruky trhu. Crew není výjimkou. Nevím, který z dua Pavlovský a Litoš to byl, ale tahle volba se povedla. První část je masivní kniha, tudíž hardback je správná volba a celkově po stránce zpracování nemám co vytknout. U Crwe často trpím u překladů, jak po slovní, tak bohužel častěji i po dramaturgické stránce. Tohle není ale ten případ. Překlad i jeho zpracování je tu výborné, poznámkový aparát až akademický. Anna Křivánková si tu rozhodně zaslouží čestnou zmínku, protože tohle je paráda. České vydání se hodně povedlo, navíc Crew dodržuje původní manga layout, takže ani nemůže dojít k prasárnám jak od Dark Horse, když se rozhodnout to přezrcadlit a přeindexovat do klasické komiksové formy čtení.
Samotný komiks je neméně skvělý. Tezuka byl opravdový mistr svého řemesla a na Adolfovi je to znát. Příběh má filmový drajv, čte se jedním dechem a já měl pomalu pocit, jako bych sledoval nějaké anime, třeba Lupina. Šest set něco stran vypadá jako hodně, ale tempo komiksu je "filmové" a já neměl problém se do toho vždy okamžitě ponořit tak, že stránky mizely pod prsty jako nic (spolu s minutami a hodinami). Všechny dějové linky jsou skvělé, primárně to táhne ta Togeho vyšetřovací, ale ostatní ji skvěle doplňují, kříží a ovlivňují (stejně jako sebe navzájem). Tezuka představí opravdu komplexní síť postav, míst, událostí a času a výsledek je velmi čtivý a grafická stránka je neméně skvělá. Už se těším na zbytek příběhu v druhé knize a doufám že dostane víc prostoru Adolf Kaufmann, když už ho nedostal tolik zde (což ale není kritika, Tezuka to má výborně seřízené a funguje to skvěle, jen ta linka co míchá dospívání v kombinaci s nacistickou indoktrinací někoho, kdo je sice "tvárné" dítě ale antisemitismus mu nedává smysl a nechce ho vnitřně přijmout, je hodně zajímá a chtěl bych jí prostě víc. Stejně jako toužíte u jídla po větší porci skvělé přílohy i přes to, že v daném chodu bylo její množství naprosto adekvátní.).
Zpráva pro Adolfa je komiksová (manga) pecka, kterou rozhodně musím doporučit komukoli, koho alespoň trochu zaujme.

[Hal Incandenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prima lettura di questo 2019 e non potevo cominciare meglio di così. Non conoscevo le opere del Maestro Tezuka ma avevo letto della loro portata e importanza. Dopo questo primo volume ne capisco le ragioni, ma andiamo con ordine: I tre Adolf (nella splendida edizione targata J-Pop) è uno story manga ambientato tra Germania e Giappone durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Un’opera quindi che mischia sapientemente finzione e fatti storici e che tiene il lettore letteralmente incollato alla pagina grazie a una macchina narrativa perfetta, a dei disegni dal tratto pulito e classico (strepitosi) e a una caratterizzazione dei personaggi solida e mai banale o sopra le righe (e vale per tutti anche per le figure in secondo piano).

Un volume che in queste feste natalizie mi ha fatto fare le ore piccole. Consigliatissimo a chiunque ami il buon Fumetto e la letteratura di qualità.

[Santiago L. Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tezuka dándolo todo. Con un fuerte aroma hard boiled en superficie, en profundidad una novela política, histórica, bélica e intimista. La historia se desarrolla con un gusto narrativo exquisito, cuyo sinuoso recorrido arropa al argumento central con excelentes subtramas y personajes repletos de significado. En este primer volumen, el peso recae principalmente en la peripecia de Toge, perseguido, amenazado y torturado por ser guardián de unos documentos que podrían acabar con el auge del nazismo. Paralelamente, se desarrolla una historia de amistad infantil cuya caída en la fatalidad se presume inevitable. Es precisamente esta historia de los dos Adolf la que se adueña de los últimos capítulos y promete adquirir preponderancia, como marca también el título de la obra, en el segundo y último tomo.
De momento, una maravilla narrada con un ritmo excelente, inaudito por su gran extensión, y que apenas flaquea en algún detalle estructural, por ejemplo en el escaso paso del tiempo entre algunos hechos. Al principio, quien no esté acostumbrado al manga se sorprenderá de esa tendencia tan japonesa a la caricaturización gráfica de los personajes cuando son sorprendidos por fuertes emociones, pero se acostumbrará en un par de capítulos.
La edición de lujo en cofre y tapa dura, exenta de extras, adolece de los problemas propios de su pequeño tamaño. No es que el dibujo de Tezuka, más efectivo que bello, necesite de viñetas más grandes, pero la lectura de los datos cronológicos que aparecen en fila al final de algunos capítulos exige el uso de una lupa.

[Derek Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book has been on my to-read list for a long time, and I finally decided to tackle it, due largely to my and Shea's decision to discuss this book (along with Muzuki's Hitler) for the November manga episode of the podcast. This is quite an ambitious, and impressive, story that Tezuka mapped out. This first volume, alone, is over 600 pages. This is a wide-vista narrative, and I'm eagerly jumping into the second volume.

[Jordi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ofereix una perspectiva diferent de la IIGM des d'òptica Japonesa i centrant-se en la vida de tres personatges anomenats Adolf (un d'ells el Führer), les vides dels quals es veuen interrelacionades.

La major part del relat és una història policíaca-detectivesca que et manté enganxat al misteri d'uns documents i les persones que hi entren en contacte.

En ocasions el dibuix fa que no et prenguis seriosament moltes de les coses que et vol explicar. El seu traç no acaba de ser del meu gust.

[Ondra Král · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tezuka se skvěle čte, výtvarný styl se mi coby fandovi Barkse moc líbí, jen ten děj se až příliš vleče. Příběhy Adolfů jsou upozaděny detektivní zápletkou, která se zvlášť v druhé půlce už motá v kruhu. Škoda, že větší prostor nedostalo Adolfovo propadnutí nacistické ideologii - jak si Tezuka na všechno bere čas, tohle odmázl až moc rychle.

[Oneirosophos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A HUGE emotional & action rollercoaster, a wonderful tribute to european classics such as TinTin & Blake et Mortimer!

[Pavel Pravda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pokud se mě někdo zeptá, jaký komiks o druhé světové válce bych mu doporučil, tak mu řeknu, že si musí přečíst manga příběh o třech Adolfech. Jsou komiksy, které si přečtete a přestože vás pobaví, tak hlubší stopu nezanechají. A potom jsou komiksy, ke kterým se v myšlenkách ještě dlouho vracíte a tak nějak vás poznamenají navždy. “Zpráva pro Adolfa” od Osamu Tezuky je ten druhý typ.

Válka je naprostá zvrácenost. Nedávno jsem někde četl, že ukáže v lidech to nejlepší i to nejhorší. To tak nějak shrnuje, o čem manga “Zpráva pro Adolfa” je. Je to neuvěřitelně komplexní román o válce, o tajných dokumentech se sílou změnit historii, o zvrácených režimech a tajné policii, o přátelství a o tom, jak válka a víra ve všelijaké ideologie dokáže změnit charakter a srdce lidí. Příběh se odehrává v Japonsku a v Evropě, a z pro nás neobvyklého pohledu Japonců sleduje průběh celé druhé světové války od olympiády v Berlíně až po vznik Izraelského státu. Přibližuje politickou atmosféru v Japonsku a v Německu a hlavně sleduje příběhy několika lidí, jejichž osudy se vzájemně protnuly. Z tohoto hlediska se kniha krásně doplňuje se sérií Berlín od Jasona Lutese, která časově předchází “Adolfům” a sleduje předválečný vývoj v Německu z pohledu obyčejných chudých berlíňanů. Manga Osamu Tezuky je však mnohem epičtější a rozmáchlejší.

Obě knihy “Zprávy pro Adolfa” jsou pro mě teprve čtvrtou manga knihou, kterou jsem četl. Rozhodně tedy nejsem znalec mangy. Ale jestli manga v něčem vyniká oproti evropským a americkým komiksům, tak je to zprostředkovávání emocí. Zatímco popis průběhu války je takřka dokumentární, tak příběh hlavních hrdinů je podán velmi emocionálně. Japonští autoři do čtenářů emoce hrnou pod tlakem a to nejen scénářem, ale také kresbou, která je v některých chvílích až karikaturní. Kupodivu to ale ani v tíživých situacích nepůsobí nepatřičně a prostě to funguje a je to strhující. Já jsem čtení osudů hlavních hrdinů velmi prožíval (hlavně v první knize) a chvílemi jsem skoro nedýchal. Osamu Tezuka čtenářovými emocemi řádně mixuje. Oblíbenou postavu, kterou jste měli za statečnou, začněte skutečně nenávidět, protože se z něj stává zku*vená nacistická svině. Na druhou stranu ale víte, že by ho statečnost zabila a nikomu by to stejně nepomohlo. Je to obrovská směs protichůdných emocí a Osamu Tezuka vám stále nemilosrdně vypráví jeho příběh plný vnitřních pochybností a pomalu se měnící morálky. O co více jste ho předtím měli rádi, o to silněji ho nyní nenávidíte. A to je jen jedna z hlavních postav.

“Zpráva pro Adolfa” vycházela v Japonsku v letech 1983 – 1985. Na její vizuální stránce její stáří ale vůbec není znát. Kresba je svěží a je plná dynamiky. Styl kresby se na některých panelech mění v závislosti na ději. Někdy kresba vypadá jako typická manga a jindy zase máte pocit, že čtete evropský komiks a nebo sledujete animaci Walta Disneye. Nikdy to ale nevybočuje do nějakých větších rušivých extrému a jednotlivé postavy jsou vždy jasně rozeznatelné. Někdy jsem si říkal, že je škoda, že kresbě nevěnuji dostatečnou pozornost kvůli strhujícímu ději.

[Zai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho este manga. Este manga comienza en 1936, algunos años antes de que estalle la Segunda Guerra Mundial y continúa hasta 1940, en los inicios de ésta. La trama está ambientada sobre todo, entre Japón y Alemania.

La trama es la siguiente Sohei Toge es un periodista que está cubriendo la noticia de los Juegos Olímpicos en Berlín en 1936, cuando se entera que su hermano pequeño ha sido secuestrado y asesinado por la policía secreta. Toge se siente culpable por haber llegado a su cita con él, así que decide investigar y vengar la muerte de su hermano. En su búsqueda descubrirá que su hermano tenía unos documentos que los nazis quieren destruir, ya que su publicación cambiaría el curso de la historia.

Por otra parte, seguiremos también las historias de 2 niños que son amigos; Adolf Kaufman, que es medio alemán-medio japonés y de Adolf Kamil, que es alemán y judío. Las historias de estos 3 personajes acabarán entrecruzándose.

En breve seguiré con la segunda parte.

[Aurorix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho el manga y creo que es una muy buena introducción para el resto de la saga.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

quero o vol. 2 na minha mesa JÁ

[S.Q. Eries · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Summary

He’s no Astro Boy, but Sohei Toge is a compelling enough hero as he seeks to avenge his brother’s murder. The plot is packed with espionage, car and train chases, shootouts, and fistfights against Nazis and Japanese special police as Toge’s journey leads to a set of documents that can destroy Adolf Hitler. The story is oftentimes violent and intense but masterfully plotted and makes for an exciting read.

The Review

For those who know Osamu Tezuka only for Astro Boy, Message to Adolph will be a jarring shift in pace. There’s no science fiction here; this manga is a realistic political thriller set during the time of Nazi Germany and Japan’s invasion of China.

The story begins with newspaper correspondent and former college athlete Sohei Toge. He introduces himself as a “secondary character,” but at least for Volume 1, he is the star. While Toge is in Berlin covering the 1936 Olympics, his brother, an exchange student living in Germany, turns up dead. When Toge tries to investigate the murder, he gets marked by the Nazis and winds up in a desperate race to locate a set of documents that have the power to destroy Adolf Hitler.

The setting alternates between Germany and Japan, which at the time were allies. Having drawn the Nazis’ attention, Toge also gets targeted by the Japanese government and suffers torture under both the Gestapo and Japanese special police. Between that and the brutality inflicted upon Jews, Chinese, and suspected Communists in the story, Tezuka-sensei paints the political fanaticism that swept Germany and Japan as absolute evil.

As present-day readers, we have the benefit of history as we follow the story, but Toge seems almost a little too clear-eyed in his assessment of the German and Japanese governments. Granted, the Nazis torture him and the special police ruin his livelihood for being affiliated with a suspected communist, but the way he picks apart Hitler’s Nuremberg rally sounds more like modern commentary than the analysis of someone from that time.

Then again, Tezuka-sensei portrays Toge with a kind of superhero aura. He displays incredible physical strength as he outruns the Gestapo, leaps from balcony to balcony, survives electric shock torture, and endures brawl after brawl. At one point, he even manages to catch up to a moving train on foot despite a gunshot wound. He knows German and English, shows detective-like smarts, and possesses extraordinary tenacity. And for some inexplicable reason, almost all the women he encounters fall in love with him.

Tezuka-sensei’s plot and pacing are excellent, keeping readers constantly engaged as characters uncover clues, fall into life or death situations, and struggle to maintain their humanity under vicious regimes. Though much of the material is serious, especially Tezuka-sensei’s snapshots of key historic moments, Message to Adolph does include humor, often with a physical slapstick flavor (like Toge falling down stairs). One of the funniest moments is when Toge gets visited by a slew of international spies, all trying to outbid one another for the Hitler documents.

Toward the end of the volume, the spotlight shifts from Toge to two boys: Adolph Kaufmann, the son of a German consul and his Japanese wife, and Adolph Kamil, a Jew. The friendship between the Adolphs is intriguing enough, but Kaufmann’s enrollment in an Adolf Hitler School and Kamil’s involvement with the Hitler documents will leave readers eagerly anticipating the next volume.

Regarding artwork, the character designs lean toward the cartoonish end of the spectrum. As such, the violence depicted, while it is disturbing, isn’t as harrowing as more realistically drawn works. Also, because Tezuka-sensei created Message to Adolph in the early 1980s, illustrations include a lot of stippling and not much in terms of screentones. To convey shadows, faces and bodies are often inked in black, which conveys a very stark impression.

The book has a retail price of $26.95 US, but for that amount, you receive 648 pages bound in a sturdy hardcover format. Vertical did choose to print in left to right format though, which means that the artwork gets flipped. In keeping with Tezuka-sensei’s older style, the cover has an old-school design in four colors (orange, yellow, green, pink) with a creepy sketch of Hitler’s face on the front. No glossary is included, but the translation, though awkward and stilted at times, can be followed without one.

[Nuska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perturbador. Manga histórico ambientado en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Sufro por todos: Shoei Toge, Adolf Kamil e incluso Adolf Kaufmann, ¿qué haríamos nosotros en su lugar? El mero planteamiento provoca escalofríos.

[Javier Alaniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tezuka's most profound successes in Message to Adolf are his vivid, fully realized characters that populate WWII era Japan and Germany. The half Japanese/ half German boy who becomes a scion of the Hitler Youth, the Jewish baker's son who protected him from bullies as a child, the Japanese journalist who stumbles into secret documents detailing Hitler's Jewish ancestry; all are examined with honesty and care. Even when characters are drawn specifically as villains, (Hitler included) Tezuka writes them to be understandable, relatable, human instead of caricatures. Westerners do not often see the war from this vantage, and the book is remarkable for its' ability to illuminate an overwhelmingly prolific subject matter.
The narrative is rewarding both as an action/suspense/mystery as well as a polemic against fanaticism and absolutism. Published initially in serialized form over 2 years, it is perhaps a bit too drawn out, and dialogue at times feels awkward or like something's missing. I don't know how to judge whether that's a function of the author or the translator though. And it seems a common enough phenomenon in Manga, that I'm willing to overlook it as something "lost in translation". It's easy to forgive in light of Tezuka's engaging illustrations. He conveys extreme ranges of emotion with the simplest of line-work on his characters faces, contrasted by intricate, detailed inks in his shadows, architecture, and landscapes. This juxtaposition helps ground the stylistic manga faces in the realities of the war, and makes for free flowing quick reading.
Final Verdict: Message to Adolf is a tremendous work that was an early pioneer in validating comics as a medium for all subject matters. The 2 Vol. collection published in 2012 is gorgeous and intriguing on your bookshelf. This is one to own friends.

[Alessandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accostando la vita e la storia di fatti realmente accaduti durante la seconda guerra mondiale, la trama del manga ruota attorno a tre Adolf, nello specifico Adolf Kamil ebreo, Adolf Kaufmann nazista, e Adolf Hitler.
Interessante, a mio parere, sopratutto il personaggio di Adolf Kaufmann, per metà giapponese e tedesco, migliore amico di Kamil in età infantile, ma una volta costretto a trasferirsi in Germania nella Hitler Jugend, cambierà radicalmente i suoi ideali diventando un nazista perfetto difensore della purezza della razza ariana.
Un altro personaggio interessantissimo e centrale è Sohei Toge, giornalista ed ex atleta, forte idealista, anti-militarista e anti-nazista, farà letteralmente di tutto, fino a sacrificare la sua stessa salute e integrità fisica per proteggere documenti importantissimi che per lui rappresentano la memoria del fratello ucciso, ma che potrebbero segnare il futuro del partito nazista.
Un manga fitto, impegnativo e dalla trama articolata, che segna nel profondo ed estremamente educativo.
La pesantezza e la brutalità di certi temi e scene sono davvero ben rappresentati.
Interessante anche il palese lavoro dell’autore di mettere a contatto il Giappone con le sue responsabilità nel corso della guerra(ma non solo si parlerà di Giappone e Germania, ma anche di Palestina e Israele, nella speranza di dare una possibile definizione di “giusta causa”, sempre se ne esiste una, forse alla fine la domanda rimane più aperta che risolta).

Il mangaka è Osamu Tezuka, i disegni lasciano lo spazio che trovano, in quanto vanno contestualizzati con la storicità dell’autore(1980), onde evitare anacronismi volti a compararlo troppo con disegni di opere più recenti.
Tuttavia mi sono abituato in fretta al suo stile di disegno che alla fine ho anche parecchio apprezzato.

[Io Usagi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart wrenching mystery about love, hate, loss, old friends, new "friends", new beginnings. Tezuka's narrative storytelling and art take you all the way back to Japan and Nazi Germany on the dawn of World War II. Watch families and friends be torn apart for how they were born, persecuted for being who you've always been, things you can't change.
Two young boys are best friends, then suddenly they are forced to relocate and, hate and segregate.

A touching story. I can't wait to read the next and final volume. . . What will come of the Adolfs and Togé?

[Álex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imprescindible, bigger than life y todos los tópicos que se os ocurran sobre las obras maestras, pero en este caso de verdad. Rica, expresiva y repleta de matices.

[Tran · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story unfolds very slowly, things only start to get more exciting in last 50 pages or so. I couldn't be less interested in the journalist Toge Sohei who kept a document containing the secret of Hitler's birth, his various encounters (and his women). What kept me going with this book, I believe, were Osamu Tezuka's vivid depiction of daily life in wartime Japan "Luxury is the enemy", and my curiosity towards the friendship of Adolf Kauffmann and Adolf Kamil once they came of age. Looking forward to reading Part 2.

[Elettra Petricola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allora devo dire che questo primo volume l'ho trovato molto bello. Una storia che prende e un intrigo politico che coinvolge ogni personaggio mostrato nella storia, oggi inizio il secondo volume. Veramente fantastico questo primo lo consiglio vivamente.

[Adina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5

[Monica Mendiola · Rating 5 out of 5]

... Wow. I've never read anything like this...wow. Tezuka is the GOAT.

[Adam Šilhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jasně, velká část charakterů se ve velmi vysoké frekvenci chová dost nepochopitelně a debilně, ale i přesto se to Tezukovi podařilo napsat velmi chytlavě.

[Charlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trigger Warning: rape, fantasing/thinking about murder during sex, suicide, (not particularly graphic) torture and murder.

I feel like it should be necessary to trigger warning for the holocaust, but mostly there's a trigger warning for stupidity instead. All of these characters are so stupid. Nothing about the plot holds up for more than the single page it's on, if that.

What this book isn't: It isn't an intellegent conversation about the relationship between Germany and Japan in WWII, which is definitely what I was expecting and hoping for when I picked it up. It starts at the Berlin Olympics, with all the nationalism and journalism and jingoism that implies, which is why I borrowed the thing in the first place. Potential! Talking about what nations are in times of war and in relation to each other, through the metaphor of sport!

It's more of a glorified action-adventure novel with loose plot links to reality, WWII, and the realities of Japan in the pre-war years. The lead character is not any of the three Adolfs, which it could have been, but instead it's a uber-sexy, uber-muscled, ex-athlete Japanese journalist who rapes the girlfriend of his dead brother just to check that she was a virgin and never slept with him. She then commits suicide. It doesn't get much better than that.

Most of the plot is illogical. The entire point is that someone (well, a sequence of someones, all of whom are not particuarly fond of Hitler) have documents which prove Hitler has Jewish heritage. But they are all, unlike the whistleblowers of our own times, sitting on this information until the timing is 'perfect'. Unfortunately, the rise of Hitler isn't the perfect time, the beginning of WWII isn't perfect, being in an international location to protect the leak isn't good enough... WHY THE HELL can't they just publish the damn papers whenever someone gets a hold of them? WHY won't our rapist hero sell them to the Americans, or the French, or the British? (Who all come and offer him suitcases of cash and expatriation.) THEN THEY'LL BE PUBLIC! The whole thing relies on the documents being hidden and passed from hand to hand to coincidence to awfully painful conjecture. But their value is in being public, and all of the people who have their hands on them want them to be public. So why not make them public? The plot would work better if they were being passed between Nazi sympathisers and party leaders who were trying to hide and destroy the evidence, because at least that would make sense.

It's like if Edward Snowden was like, I have vitally import things which need to be made public, so I'm going to hide them as best I can and run away from all the people who don't want me to let these things get public, but I can't possibly tell anyone about them, because then SOMETHING might happen. Thanks, Mr Snowden, for not doing that. You are much braver and smarter than any of the characters in this story.

On a practical level, the drawing is good, but the script is terrible. The dialogue is stilted, and often as illogical as the plot. Characters say their feelings, and not in particularly interesting metaphors. I thought it might be the translation, but I think it's not fully accounted for by a stilted translation.

The copy I read had a note on the back to the effect of: the values expressed in this graphic novel is a product of the time it was *written*, and hasn't been changed to reflect modern values. But it was written in the 1980s, and it's got all the misogyny, demonisation of particular races, rape, disregard for life, and stereotypes that would be appropriate for the 1940s, with none of the distance that implies it's making a commentary on how these functioned during the war.

Not worth having Hitler's face staring up at you from your bedspread, for all that there is very little of Hitler in this at all.

[Ashkin Ayub · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Message to Adolf, Part 1" is not Tezuka's finest work. But Tezuka, with its genius storytelling style, has turned a pretty gossiping story into a catchy, climax or rhythmical story, or touched when needed.