Characters used back and forth in Tezuka manga

[Astronomical girl]

Reading the Astro boy and Black Jack Manga,i have found many characters from each being seen in another world as a different character,such as Tenma,Ochanomizu,Drake,and other characters as well,i'm rather curious as to why? is a form of artistic recycling or a style? what?

[Androids101]

Awesome sig !!

And pretty much using the same is better than inventing characters for every single episode. And easier ...

[Dr. Jerk]

Shunsaku Ban, Kenichi and Tezuka himself are probably the most used characters in Tezuka's Star System. Kenichi even existed in the beginning when Tezuka got his first big break with New Treasure Island.

Duke Red, Hamegg and Lamp were also very commonly used.

[Astronomical girl]

as a means of not making new characters or for entertainment,in other words character recycling?

[Dr. Jerk]

Not really. Osamu Tezuka grew up watching a lot of theater plays as a child, a Star System is actually a common thing for directors to do where they recast common actors for multiple works under different roles. The theaters could have inspired Tezuka to create such a system. He even joked about it by adding how much his 'actors' would get in their paychecks.

But otherwise yes, it sort of is 'recycling' characters, however it may not necessarily be that, since he had grown fond of some of his characters and simply wanted to reuse them under different roles. Although he still did created many original characters that would not be used in the star system.

[Astronomical girl]

I understand personal affection for his characters but would you consider it a manga style?

[diehard67]

it's a tazukaism!!! lol

it is one of those things that makes his stuff so cool, the charicters are not typecast.
astro was evin a human in a black jack story.

[Dr. Jerk]

I understand personal affection for his characters but would you consider it a manga style?

Why should something, such as a system, be limited to one thing? Of course it can be used in manga, and other mangaka have done it as well. If you were to ask me, it's also a very practical idea.

[Xenops]

[QUOTE=Astronomical girl;117457]I understand personal affection for his characters but would you consider it a manga style?

Why should something, such as a system, be limited to one thing? Of course it can be used in manga, and other mangaka have done it as well. If you were to ask me, it's also a very practical idea.[/QUOTE]

Indeed, should I finish more than one graphic novel I would consider using a "star system". My thinking is that I would spend less time trying to figure out character designs each time.

I got the idea that Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist) is making a star system, since some characters from FMA look like they appear in Hero Tales. Which mangaka were you thinking of, Jerk?

Edit: And we must mention Rock Homes! Probably one the most famous actors in Tezuka's star system.

[Dr. Jerk]

Well I actually don't know of any other mangaka who uses a Star System. I really do not keep myself up to date with mangaka, so I guess it was an assumption on my part, but hey it's good to know that there are others out there doing it.