Castle of Dawn

Written in 1959 prior to the creation of Dororo, in many ways Yoake Shiro can be seen as a precursor to the tragic period piece's of later manga. While Tezuka was far from the one to invent this style his ability to translate those stories to a visual form like manga has a clear artistic influence on the pieces set in the same era, such as Inuyasha or Demon Slayer. Both the visual and tonal elements in this manga are some of the earliest examples of this sub-genre. While lacking some of the maturity and complex of later works there is no doubt a lotof value to be gleamed from such a short story. For a single volume, Tezuka packs it full of twists and turns making it feel longer than the actual span of the manga.