Osamu Tezuka: Ayako

Ayako is definitely not the sort of story most people would associate with Osamu Tezuka. I was only able to made it to about chapter six before I had to call it quits. The story is dramatic and heavy, and it doesn't really have you rooting for any character in particular. For most of the first few chapters Tezuka makes it seem as though Jiro is the only decent person in his family, until he beats O-Ryo and lies to his family about her coming onto him as an excuse for why he had blood on his shirt.

Actually, the abuse of O-Ryo is one of the reasons, among many others, for why I ended up stopping after chapter six. O-Ryo literally did nothing wrong, at least up until the point I read she was just constantly getting ripped on by the other characters with the exception of Ayako. While she is a gross stereotype of mental illness, for some reason the abuse she suffered just felt worse than that of the other characters. I don't mean to undermine the other characters' experiences though, because it's all pretty nasty. This whole family needs a really good therapist, and someone should probably call Child Protective Services too.

There's something to be said about a manga that can make you feel things the way Ayako does. Tezuka really does a great job of making you hate just about every character in this story, and you really start to root for them to get what's coming to them. I found this to be similar to Tsugumi Ohba's Death Note and its "protagonist" Light Yagami. Similarly to Jiro, you are initially made to believe that Light is the good guy, but after a couple chapters you quickly realize he most definitely is not the good guy (although Light may mean well in his own twisted way).

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