Room For All
One might argue that in any narrative, the creator intends for the reader to personally identify with their protagonist. For example, in The Adventures of Tintin Hergé intends for his readers, particularly young boys, to identify with the cunning and intellectual hero that Tintin is; conveying the idea that you don't need superhuman strength to be a hero (among other things).
Interestingly, however, in Osamu Tezuka's The Mysterious Underground Men, Tezuka leaves room for the reader to pick and choose who to strongly identify with beyond just the stated protagonist. Mimio, arguably the secondary protagonist or even on an equivalent level to Young John, welcomes all the readers who don't quite click with John. John, the boy wonder who fits in from the start having been the son of a famous engineer and has legions of men working under his guidance, while might be someone we all want to be, realistically he might be a stretch for a large chunk of readers to identify with. Mimio, on the other hand, embodies a stage in life we have all experienced: a desire to fit in. Like John, Mimio exceeds the standards of the average person, but where they differ is in their societal acceptance; even Mimio's last words were concerned with his membership in humanity.
Perhaps Tezuka's goal wasn't to give the reader a fair opportunity to pick a character to identify with but rather aimed to emphasize that the only true difference between John and Mimio is their appearance; wrongly serving as a barrier for Mimio throughout the story. Regardless of what Tezuka's primary intention truly was, his dual-protagonist narrative creates room for all audiences to relate to.
The fact that Tezuka could add a character so easily amended to any background (as a hero even) pleasantly surprises me. Given that previously the Axis Powers were extremely ethnocentric, the complete 180 represents quick progress in terms of acceptance and awareness.
ReplyDeleteThe only problematic thing about this characterization is the fact that Mimio is a rabbit. While we can reconcile the fact that different looking humans can be equals, Mimio represent an outlier. Surely Tezuka doesn't mean to suggest that only exceptional beings of "other" origins can compare to the Japanese? Perhaps such a deep reading is unfair. But I'm sure someone else can push the idea in an interesting direction.