Manga artist Tezuka Osamu was born on November 3, 1928, in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture. He passed away on February 9, 1989. The eldest of three children, his childhood passions were manga and insect collecting. He entered elementary school, shaved his head at age nine, and created his first manga, "Pinpin Sei-chan," featuring himself as the main character. He continued to draw manga and contribute to the animal club's magazine as a student, and in 1945 entered the Osaka University Medical School. The following year, he contributed a four-panel manga, "Maa-chan's Diary," to the Shokokumin Shimbun. This became Tezuka Osamu's debut work. In 1947, he published the full-length manga "Shin Takarajima," which became a huge hit, selling 400,000 copies. Taking this opportunity, Tezuka moved to Tokyo, where he began serializing "Jungle Emperor Leo" in the magazine "Manga Shonen" in 1950. After graduating from Osaka University, he shifted his base of operations to Tokyo, moving to Tokiwa-so in Shiinamachi in 1953. Many manga artists subsequently settled in this apartment building, which later came to be known as "Manga-so." Around this time, Tezuka rose to become one of the leading manga artists of his time, topping the Kansai Rich List in 1954. His most notable work of the time was "Princess Knight," which began serialization in Shojo Club in 1953. It featured a novel plot for girls' manga at the time, featuring a princess disguised as a boy battling evil. In 1955, a TV drama based on the story aired on Radio Tokyo. Meanwhile, in 1952, "Astro Boy" began serialization in the magazine Shonen. This series also became a huge hit, selling 100 million copies, and in 1963, it became the first Japanese-produced animated series to be broadcast on television. Its average audience rating exceeded 30%, and its worldwide broadcasts helped to make Tezuka's name known around the world. In 1961, he established the animation department of Tezuka Osamu Productions, which he renamed Mushi Productions the following year. In 1965, he produced Japan's first color animated program, "Jungle Emperor Leo," and the studio grew into one of Japan's leading animation studios. Tezuka himself was also devoted to animation production during this time, but in 1971, he resigned as president due to an internal dispute over company policy. Cash flow deteriorated, and Mushi Productions went bankrupt in 1973. Tezuka himself fell into a slump, and the public deemed his time over. However, when he began serializing "Black Jack" in Weekly Shonen Champion in 1973, it gradually gained popularity and eventually became one of the magazine's signature works. Tezuka continued to publish works such as "The Three-Eyed One" and "The Phoenix," returning to his position as a leading figure in the manga world. Even in his later years, Tezuka remained active, winning the Shogakukan Manga Award for "The Tree of Hidamari." In 1988, Tezuka visited China for an anime event, but fell ill on the way there. At the time, he was suffering from stomach cancer, and passed away in hospital the following year.

In his personal life, he married Okada Etsuko in 1959. They had a daughter, Rumiko, in 1964.