Ayako

I've found most of Tezuka's hard-boiled manga suffers from some degree of tonal whiplash, or otherwise loses its grounding. Ayako on the other hand is a mature work from a steady hand.

The sense of place created with Yodoyama in the shadow of the American occupation is visceral. The Tenge family are clinging to what remains of an old way of life. They are the last rasping breaths of a dying dynasty.

Ayako is a story about Japan and its sequestration in the fallout of the second world war. Suppression is the arm of corruption and domination.

Currently this is my second favourite Tezuka manga after a Phoenix.