Takarazuka City's fame does not stop with the Revue. Takarazuka is also the birthplace of Osamu Tezuka, the father of the Japanese comic book. Though widely known in the West simply as the creator of Astro Boy, Tezuka actually created over 700 distinct comics (over 150,000 pages) during his lifetime.

A little known fact is that Osamu Tezuka was a licensed medical doctor, though he never practiced, choosing to become a comic book artist instead of pursue a career in medicine.

Tezuka was a large fan of the Takarazuka Revue during his youth. An oft-parodied trademark of Japanese comic art and animation are characters with huge, larger-than-life eyes. In fact, this "large eye" style of animation was pioneered by Tezuka. He claims to have taken inspiration for how to draw faces from watching Revue musicals on-stage*.

Pictured is the phoenix from the comic series of the same name (Hi no Tori).

*I've already decided how I'm going to blend these various components together into a potential Ph.D. topic in Japanese Studies, should I head off to grad school.