Ode to Kirihito

I finally finish reading this manga after buying it at Kinokuniya a few years back. Its quite an amazing book. First of all, its the thickest manga I have in my collection, which is why it took me so long to read it. Besides that, its story is also one of the darkest and most complicated. The artist is Dr Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion, Phoenix and Black Jack. Ode to Kirihito is a story about a promising young doctor, Kirihito Osanai. He is assigned to visit a remote Japanese mountain village to investigate the source of the latest medical mystery called the Monmow Disease. There seems to be no cure for it. Its a life-threatening condition that transforms a person into a dog-like beast. Ode to Kirihito demolishes naive notions about human nature and health by showing us the dark side. It is both entertaining and shocking to read.