Rock (manga character)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rock (known in some series as Rokuro Makube a.k.a. Rock Holmes) is a recurrent character in Osamu Tezuka's manga series, and he is an important part of Osamu Tezuka's Star System.
Rock (sometimes spelled Roc) is a young boy with shiny dark hair. He first appeared in the manga series Detective Boy Rock Holmes, as a child detective. (His name was then based on Sherlock Holmes).
While most of other Tezuka child characters (such as Kenichi) stayed the same age, Rock grew up throughout the years and his character was reused for more mature "roles" in Tezuka's manga, where he gradually developed a darker personality. Often cold and brutal, his character tends to be used as an antagonist, who later, in works such as Phoenix, raped, kidnapped and murdered people. In this older form, Rock is often wearing a three-piece suit, a striped tie and dark sunglasses, the last of which became something of a trademark for him. Rock's dark persona appeared for the first time in the uncompleted Vampire manga, which was the first time Rock went by the name "Makube Rokuro", based on MacBeth for Makube and Kuro ("dark" in Japanese) for Rokuro (mixed with "Rock").
He is often presented as a considerably more complex antagonist than many of Tezuka's other villains (who are usually bad people simply because that's what they've always been and always will be), and his actions are sometimes explained by a difficult childhood (in Metropolis and the newest Astro Boy series, for example).
One of the very few instances in which he's been given a lighter and more comedic role was in 1985's Say Hello to Bookila, in which he was a hack writer investigating the truth behind a series of mysterious occurrences at a TV station. He is also the hero in the 1980 film Marine Express, throughout which he is usually seen without his trademark sunglasses.
Rock was most recently seen in the animated version of Tezuka's Metropolis (the manga for which he did not appear in) and in the recent Astro Boy series (as the secret identity of villain Deadcross). He also appeared in the 2005 Black Jack: Two Dark Doctors movie. A character named Rock (but of a different appearance and personality) also appeared in the 1980 animated Phoenix 2772. In addition, Rock's image (sans sunglasses) was used to portray the young King Bimbisara in Tezuka's sprawling Buddha. In sum, Rock has appeared in more than 60 different manga and animated works, in the live action Vampire TV series, and in the Astro Boy: Omega Factor video game (in which he meets and falls in love with Princess Sapphire, who manages to reform him).
