Review by Frank Plowright

The holy grail of any comic creator is the concept that hooks a reader from the beginning and keeps their attention, and Record of the Glass Castle hits immediately. Osamu Tezuka introduces the distinctively designed Fudanuki family home sitting atop a mountain in the then future of 1992, establishing the family patriarch as an unrepentant crook who’s evaded the law. He’s invested his money in a form of immortality, technology that keeps his family in suspended animation, only briefly awakening to see the future. What an idea!

Tezuka’s thoughts on immortality, though, are hardly comforting. Fudanuki only awakens for the single day each year, but his mind has gone, leaving only his women-chasing instincts, while many family members have remained in stasis, meaning some children are older than their parents. In exploring their world further Tezuka shows little inclination of softening his view. The focus becomes Ichirou, a bad apple even by his family’s standards, awoken after twenty years, his niece Mari, and Hirn another survivor of cryogenics.

Few people were as cheerful as Tezuka, and that optimism is reflected in most of his back catalogue, but the early 1970s was a time of turmoil for him, and his work reflected a darker outlook. Nearly every character here is compromised in some way, and as Tezuka leaps from one bleak idea to another there’s little in the way of comfort, although there are brief amusing moments, such as a police detective drawn to resemble Dick Tracy. Sexual content is also uncharacteristically high. It’s a theme Tezuka has used elsewhere, but never conceiving an entire society where sexual gratification is all. It’s all in flashback, but explains Hirn.

There was a two year gap in the original serialisation, seemingly around the halfway stage, as that’s where Tezuka’s focus is restored to the initial family, and where the mood lifts a little despite continuing poor behaviour. Comedy sequences now accompany the dark deeds, not least police detective Holly Day with his pet pig.

While the cartooning is as lively and accomplished as it is on any Tezuka story, Record of the Glass Castle is a curiosity, not a lost masterpiece. It’s bonkers and energetically entertaining, but descends from the compelling opening premise into a standard action thriller with a few quirky touches. The exceptionally rapid and derisory ending indicates the plot had run away from Tezuka and it seems he felt his time was better spent on other projects. We can only agree.