Mysterious Buddha

Buddha (Japanese: ブッダ, Hepburn: Budda) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrayed by Osamu Tezuka. It is an interpretation of the life of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The critically acclaimed series is often referred to as a visually explicit yet humorous and thought-provoking portrayal of the Buddha's life; the series itself has become a staple text in Buddhist temples for young adults and teens to learn about the Buddha's life. The series began in September 1972 and ended in December 1983, as one of Tezuka's last epic manga works. Buddha has over 20 million copies in circulation and won Eisner Awards in 2004 and 2005. Due to differences between the ways in which Japanese and English are read, the American volumes published by Vertical Inc. are presented as mirror images of Tezuka's original work so they can be read from left to right, rather than from right to left. Nearly three decades after the manga was completed, an anime film adaptation was released in 2011. A second film was released in 2014.