THE OSAMU TEZUKA MUSEUM ENTERTAINED MORE THAN 90,000 PEOPLE WITHIN TWO WEEKS FOLLOWING THE OPENING ON APRIL 25, 1994.

Osamu Tezuka has a huge fanclub. On February 0, 1989, the day after Tezuka passed away, Japan's Asahi newspapers paid tribute to Tezuka, and his contribution to manga: "Foreign visitors to Japan often find it difficult to understand why Japanese people like comics so much. For example, they often reportedly find grown men and women engrossed in weekly comic magazines on the trains during commute hours. One explanation for the popularity of comics in Japan n, however, is that Japan had Osamu Tezuka, whereas other nations did not. Without Dr Tezuka, the postwar explosion in comics in Japan would have been inconceivable".

While Tezuka legitimised comics as popular art, making collecting manga a sport for fanatics, he established his own status as a Japanese cultural icon. His name name might not be as familiar, but only those w ho live in a cultural vacuum would not recognise his children - Astro Boy and Kimba. The Tezuka brand of manga is derived from a kind purity and innocence, that sparked a world-wide devotion for these big bright-eyed heroic characters.

As you enter the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum, an extreme caricature of Tezuka's comical round face complete with sliding black beret and heavy black-rimmed glasses encompasses the entrance floor.

Here, he is a cartoon character himself. The museum, located four hours south of Tokyo, has a permanent exhibit which introduces Tezuka, the person, and a rotating exhibition that explores aspects of his work. There's also 'Osamu Tezuka Library', multimedia workstations that permit searches of comics and video material, a mini movie theatre, even a reproduction of tezuka's studio.

The cylindrical tower built of titanium sheeting, topped off by a glass dome gives the museum the appearance of a misshapen cyber-castle, stylistic influences drawn obviously from everywhere and nowhere . Built of ferr-concrete, two floors above and below ground, the museum covers an area of 1400 square meters and uses thematic rooms such as the Jungle Emperor rest area, the Princess Knight Royal Palace Hall and the Mighty Atom classroom. It is not des igned simply to be a museum, but an active memorial.

Dedicated to Tezuka as the pioneer of manga, the museum materialises the rooms that occupies Tezuka's mind, a mind of fantastic animation.