How Violence Becomes Memory: The “Blood of Immortality” in Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix and the Responsibility of Testimony and Memory

Key Points

• The paper analyzes how the concept of 'blood of immortality' in Tezuka’s Phoenix illustrates the structure of violence and transitions into memory and testimony.
• Analyzed Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix using Mary Douglas's discussion on pollution/boundaries and Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection.
• Investigated the role of bodily substances like blood in shaping language around disgust, taboo, and justification.
• Examined the narrative devices that address responsibilities of memory and testimony within the context of violence.
• The narrative presents 30 billion years of time as both burden and mission rather than a blessing.
• It contextualizes the placement of 'long-term witnesses' within the world to prevent forgetting the consequences of violence.
• The language of sun, kinship, and rituals reveals the transformation of national legitimacy into religious exclusivity and political violence.