But as I argued previously, once you factor in the influence of American comics, it becomes clear that the two went together, at least in the case of New Treasure Island. Traditionally the two are considered separately: simulated camera work and editing, on the one hand, Disney-esque stylized characters, on the other. In the literature on New Treasure Island, the terms “cinematic” and “Disney style” are used frequently. Carl Barks and Jack Hannah, Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold (Dell, 1942). For now, let me demonstrate how the mutual interest in “animated Disney” can be motivated in a different way. Some scenes in New Treasure Island are based directly on old Mickey films, as I will show in a future essay on the adaptation of small-gauge filmstrips in early postwar akahon. Given their mutual interests, it’s hard to imagine that Disney didn’t come up. M anga eiga (“manga movies”) became one of their favorite topics of conversation. “Just as I thought, Sakai used to work on animation.” He saw the animator in the cartoonist. “I liked Sakai Shichima’s drawings the best,” he wrote on June 21, 1946, after attending his first Kansai Manga Man Club meeting. It is important to note that when Sakai’s name first comes up in Tezuka’s diary, it is as a former animator. Features Tezuka Osamu Outwits the Phantom Blot: The Case of New Treasure Island cont’d

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