Kirihito Osanai, an intern at M University Hospital, who with his passionate nature is generally liked, is a member of the Young Doctors' Association and is unknowingly disliked by Tatsugaura for that reason. Dr Tatsugaura of M University Hospital plans to publish his theory that Monmow is a virus and to win the chair as president of the medical society (or JMA, 'Japanese Medical Association') by the strength of that theory.

The intractable disease known as Monmow, whose cases are found only in the village of Inugamisawa ('Doggoddale' in the English translation) in the mountains of Tokushima prefecture, makes the bones of the whole body shrink and enlarge at the ends at the same time, changing the sufferer into a form like that of a dog, and ultimately causes death. Kirihito is most likely a prototype for Tezuka's later medical manga series Black Jack. The series also includes a number of references to Christianity that is somewhat unusual in Japanese manga. Many of the characters are portrayed as neither outright good nor bad. He becomes infected with the disease himself and is led on a wild odyssey around the world as he is kidnapped and maltreated by the ignorant and the curious, meeting strange allies and stranger foes. This series is about a heroic young doctor named Kirihito Osanai and his efforts to cure a strange disease that deforms its victims so that they look like dog-people. It was originally serialized in Big Comic in Japan 1970-1971 and was published in English translation in 2006 by Vertical Inc.

From plutocratic Taipei and apartheid South Africa to backwater Syria and metropolitan Osaka, ambition and desire beckon “normal men” to behave uglier than any beast as we examine the true worth of human beings through and beyond appearances.Ode to Kirihito ( きりひと讃歌 Kirihito Sanka ?) is a graphic novel by Osamu Tezuka. While he ends up traveling the world to discover what it takes to be cured of such a disease, a conspiracy back home attempts to explain away his absence.

Said to have been the personal favorite of the artist, who held a degree in medicine, and surprisingly attentive to Christian themes and imagery, Ode to Kirihito demolishes naive notions about human nature and health and likely preconceptions about the comics master himself.Ī promising young doctor, Kirihito Osanai visits a remote Japanese mountain village to investigate the source of the latest epidemiological mystery. Yet Monmow Disease, a life-threatening condition that transforms a person into a dog-like beast, is not the only villain in this shocking triumph of a medical thriller by manga-god Osamu Tezuka.

Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka