This is like hell for him he's an educated man that wants to be respected as a human. There, he regularly gets thrown on stage and laughed at for his appearance. While trying to escape from the village, he ends up being captured and sold into a freakshow run by a rich Taiwanese man. Kirihito ends up contracting the disease himself, and he spends much of the book struggling with the implications is he a man or a dog? Does he belong in society any more? Does he deserve the fear, scorn, and laughter that are now directed at him? And check out this freaky depiction of his mental state as he's going through the initial transformation: Tatsugaura, plans to present a report on Monmow at a large medical conference, in hopes that it will get him elected as the head of the Japanese Medical Association. The protagonist, a young doctor by the name of Kirihito Osanai, gets sent to a small village in Japan where this disease seems to be prevalent he's supposed to see what he can find out. They grow hair all over their body and their bones warp, giving their faces canine features. The plot and cast of characters are pretty sprawling, but it's basically all about a weird malady known as Monmow Disease which seems to transform people into a dog-like form. It's a medical thriller, but there's also sex, violence, globetrotting adventure, corruption, religion, and romance. He covered a wide variety of genres, and Ode to Kirihito was an attempt to do a story for adults. He was a master of the form, creating exciting, artistic comics that are exciting to read. Osamu Tezuka is known as the 'godfather' of manga, and from what little of his works I've read, I can definitely see why. I've been a little writer-blocked about this one, but I'm just going to knuckle down and talk about it:

Osamu tezuka ode to kirihito