Dichotomy in Mysterious Underground Men

What I noticed while reading, at least in my mind, is that there is one main dichotomy that exists in Tezuka’s The Mysterious Underground Men, and it exists between the scientific, realistic-reality, quality of the book and the unrealistic, fantastical quality. On the realistic end, there is a sense of seriousness that carries on throughout the book. To me this made the book appear very mature; it isn’t comedic and is filled with violence, but also has two tragic deaths, content which isn’t exactly meant for children. Another realistic quality of the book is all the science related material that essentially drives the plot. There was one page that had a collection of dinosaur bones and fossil, which to me (not that I am well versed in anyway on that stuff) looked accurately drawn. Although that information seemed advanced, I was then swayed to believe that the book is meant to be didactic, and more childish. I think the childishness comes out more through the fantastical elements of the comic. I think the manga, at least the manga in this comic, is childlike because of the abundance of round edges that make up mostly every characters body, all of which are drawn unrealistically with respect to the human body. There’s also the obvious fantasy—one of the main characters is a talking rabbit. With both of these sides considered I think having an air of both made me like the book, I think, more than if it were the extreme on either side of the spectrum.