In ‘TEZUKA! God Of Manga,’ Jorge Gutierrez Explains Why Astro Boy Was ‘More Mexican Than Tezuka Realized’ (Exclusive)

In an exclusive clip from the upcoming documentary TEZUKA! God of Manga, The Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez reflects on discovering Astro Boy as a child in Mexico and recognizing something unexpectedly familiar in Osamu Tezuka’s storytelling.

Watch the clip below:

Directed by Peabody Award winner Jason Andrew Cohn (Eames: The Architect and the Painter), TEZUKA! God of Manga examines the life, work, and global influence of the artist widely known as the “God of Manga.” The feature-length documentary is planned to be finished by 2028, the centenary of Tezuka’s birth.

In the new clip, Gutierrez recalls encountering Astro Boy on Mexican television in the early 1980s, when Japanese animation provided an affordable alternative to American cartoons for local broadcasters.

“The way animation came to Mexico was different than the U.S., because American cartoons were too expensive to license,” he explains in the clip. “So, for a lot of Mexican companies, they just decided, ‘Hey, this stuff that’s happening in Japan is way cheaper.’ And so a whole generation, my generation, grew up with Astro Boy.”

The serialized nature of the show also distinguished it from many of the American cartoons airing at the time. For Mexican viewers accustomed to telenovelas, Gutierrez says, Astro Boy’s continuing narrative felt immediately accessible.

“We were bombarded with Mexican soap operas, and these were stories that progressed from episode to episode,” he says. “And Astro Boy fit that perfectly because it was a linear story. The few American cartoons that were coming in were not. They were all gag-based and basically reset every episode. So stuff like what Tezuka was doing was more Mexican than he realized.”

Gutierrez was also drawn to the emotional contrast at the heart of Tezuka’s work, which featured charming character designs paired with stories capable of becoming surprisingly tragic.

The filmmaker’s connection to the character took on another meaning later in life. Gutierrez, who was diagnosed as autistic at age 40, now sees parallels between his childhood attachment to Astro Boy and his love of Disney’s Pinocchio.

“Both of these characters were not human, and they were trying really hard to be human, but they knew they were different,” he says. “And in Astro Boy’s case, being different was his strength. And so I really loved that.”

Along with Gutierrez, TEZUKA! God of Manga features interviews with prominent manga and anime figures including Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo, The Rose of Versailles creator Riyoko Ikeda, Monster creator Naoki Urasawa, Devilman creator Go Nagai, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, producer Masao Maruyama, and director Rintaro. The documentary also includes contributions from writers and scholars Ada Palmer, Fred Schodt, Helen McCarthy, Natsu Onoda Power, and Roland Kelts.