Today’s word of the day, thanks to the New York Times, is tenuous. Tenuous is an adjective that means “lacking substance or significance,” “affording no ease or reassurance,” “very thin in gauge or diameter,” or “having thin consistency” (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/learning/word-of-the-day-tenuous.html).

It first appears in English in the “1590s, ‘thin, unsubstantial,’ irregularly formed with -ous + from Latin tenuis ‘slender, thin, fine; drawn out, meager, slim,’ figuratively ‘trifling, insignificant, poor, low in rank’ (according to Watkins from PIE root *ten- ‘to stretch’)” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=tenuous). Then the website adds something related to the “irregularly formed” part of the description: “The correct form with respect to the Latin is tenuious.” And then it adds an entry for tenuious: “’tenuous, attenuated, thin,’ late 15c., from Latin tenuis ‘thin’” (ibid.). But if you look up tenuious in a dictionary, you will not find it, so we should consider this word archaic or obsolete. It may that people stopped using this form of the word because it is just harder to say. One of the principles of language change is after all, the principle of least effort.

On this date in 1947, Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) published what is considered the first manga in the tankōbon format, entitled Shin Takarajima (“New Treasure Island”) (https://www.onthisday.com/events/april/1).

Tezuka was the scion of a relatively wealthy and well-educated family. He was the descendant of doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. He gave credit to his mother for telling him stories and taking him to the theater (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Tezuka). His father introduced him to the films of Walt Disney, and he would watch them over and over. His interest in Disney inspired him to start drawing cartoon figures when he was in elementary school. “Tezuka was also inspired by the works by Suihō Tagawa and Unno Juza.[9] Later in life, he would state that the most important influence on his desire to be an animator was not Disney but the experience of watching the Chinese animation Princess Iron Fan as a child” (ibid.).

While still in high school Tezuka went to work in a factory, in order to support the war effort, but he continued drawing. At 17, right after the war ended, he published “Diary of Ma-chan, which was serialized in the elementary school children’s newspaper Shokokumin Shinbun in early 1946” (ibid.). Then Shichima Sakai sold Tezuka on the idea of doing a manga on an adaptation of Treasure Island, the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. The adaptation was fairly loose, but Tezuka finished the project, and the manga was published in 1947. It was an overnight success and brought in what is called the Golden Age of Manga in Japan.

In 1951, Tezuka published Ambassador Atom, a very popular science fiction manga that turned into a series. Later, the series was translated into English, and the hero’s name was changed to Astro Boy. Tezuka then moved into the area of animation.

The wiki links to Tezuka’s website, where a complete listing of the 700 or so works can be found, but it lists these as some of Tezuka’s most famous works:

• Astro Boy, 1952–68. A sequel to Captain ATOM (1951), with Atom renamed Astro Boy in the US. Eventually, Astro Boy would become Tezuka’s most famous creation. He created the nuclear-powered, yet peace-loving, boy robot first after being punched in the face by a drunken GI. In 1963, Astro Boy made its debut as the first domestically produced animated program on Japanese television. The 30-minute weekly program (of which 193 episodes were produced) led to the first craze for anime in Japan. In America, the TV series (which consisted of 104 episodes licensed from the Japanese run) was also a hit, becoming the first Japanese animation to be shown on US television, although the U.S. producers downplayed and disguised the show’s Japanese origins.
• Kimba the White Lion, 1950–54. A shōnen manga series created by Tezuka which was serialized in the Manga Shōnen magazine. An anime based on the manga was created, broadcast in Japan from 1965 and in North America from 1966. It was the first color animated television series created in Japan.
• Princess Knight, 1953–68. One of Tezuka’s most famous works and widely regarded as a classic, Princess Knight has been very influential in the manga and anime industry.
• Phoenix, 1954–88. Tezuka’s most profound and ambitious work, dealing with man’s quest for immortality, ranging from the distant past to the far future.
• Buddha, 1972–83, is Tezuka’s unique interpretation of the life of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The critically acclaimed series is often referred to as a gritty portrayal of the Buddha’s life. The series began in September 1972 and ended in December 1983, as one of Tezuka’s last epic manga works. Nearly three decades after the manga was completed, two anime film adaptations were released in 2011 and 2014.
• Black Jack, 1973–83. The story of Black Jack, a talented surgeon who operates illegally, using radical and supernatural techniques to combat rare afflictions. Black Jack received the Japan Cartoonists’ Association Special Award in 1975 and the Koudansha Manga Award in 1977. Three Black Jack TV movies were released between 2000 and 2001. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Tezuka#Death)

Tezuka is also given credit for the big-eyed look of manga and anime characters. He influenced cartoon artists and animators in Japan and other countries, including Brazil. Sadly, he died of stomach cancer at the young age of 60.

Anime and manga have become very popular in the United States in recent years, though I remember watching some Japanese imports when I was a kid. I had, at the time, no idea that Tobor the 8^th Man and Gigantor were from Japan. And my son enjoyed anime and manga so much when he was young that he became quite adept at drawing the big-eyed characters. Honestly, I had never heard of Osamu Tezuka until reading On This Day today, and yet he has had a more-than-tenuous influence on my life.

Today’s image is of Tezuka “at play with his Astro Boy puppets” (https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/experimental-short-films-osamu-tezuka).