TV-Series
Description
Azumi no Muraji Saruta is a recurring character who appears throughout Osamu Tezukas Phoenix universe, with one of his most notable roles being in the story of Phoenix 2772. In this future-set narrative, he is introduced as a prisoner held in an Icelandic labor camp mining facility. He presents himself as a professor, using this guise to offer counsel to the protagonist, Godo, while secretly harboring his own escape plans. His most defining physical characteristic, which remains consistent across his various incarnations, is a large and grotesque nose marked with pockmarks.
Sarutas personality is complex and shifts depending on the timeline, but he often embodies a mix of deep ambition, greed, and ruthlessness. His motivations are typically driven by a powerful obsession with the Phoenix, a mythical bird whose blood he believes holds the power to rejuvenate Earths depleted resources. This goal compels him to manipulate situations and people around him to facilitate his pursuit. Following a catastrophic earthquake, he escapes the camp with Godo aboard a stolen spacecraft called the Space Shark. During their voyage, Saruta reveals his true objective: to capture the Phoenix by exploiting his scientific knowledge of its specific weakness.
His role in the story is that of a catalyst who propels the mission forward through his unwavering fixation. However, his journey is cut short when he perishes before he can fully relay the critical information on how to subdue the Phoenix. His fragmented final words hint only at the creatures vulnerability, forcing Godo to decipher the solution on his own. This failure underscores the tragic consequences of his consuming ambition.
While his role in Phoenix 2772 is defined by obsession and self-interest, Saruta manifests in every story within the larger Phoenix manga series, with roles that shift dramatically across different historical and future timelines. He can appear as a heroic scientist working to restore a dying Earth in the Future arc, or as an officer serving under Queen Himiko in the Dawn arc. Across these stories, he often endures extreme hardship and reflects humanitys cyclical nature of ambition and suffering. This recurring presence gives him a deeper, more implicit awareness of the series themes of reincarnation and karmic cycles than many other characters. His appearance in Tezukas other works, such as Black Jack, further cements his role as a thematic anchor exploring humanitys relationship with mortality, ethics, and redemption. In English and German translations of Phoenix 2772, his name was altered to Salter.
Sarutas personality is complex and shifts depending on the timeline, but he often embodies a mix of deep ambition, greed, and ruthlessness. His motivations are typically driven by a powerful obsession with the Phoenix, a mythical bird whose blood he believes holds the power to rejuvenate Earths depleted resources. This goal compels him to manipulate situations and people around him to facilitate his pursuit. Following a catastrophic earthquake, he escapes the camp with Godo aboard a stolen spacecraft called the Space Shark. During their voyage, Saruta reveals his true objective: to capture the Phoenix by exploiting his scientific knowledge of its specific weakness.
His role in the story is that of a catalyst who propels the mission forward through his unwavering fixation. However, his journey is cut short when he perishes before he can fully relay the critical information on how to subdue the Phoenix. His fragmented final words hint only at the creatures vulnerability, forcing Godo to decipher the solution on his own. This failure underscores the tragic consequences of his consuming ambition.
While his role in Phoenix 2772 is defined by obsession and self-interest, Saruta manifests in every story within the larger Phoenix manga series, with roles that shift dramatically across different historical and future timelines. He can appear as a heroic scientist working to restore a dying Earth in the Future arc, or as an officer serving under Queen Himiko in the Dawn arc. Across these stories, he often endures extreme hardship and reflects humanitys cyclical nature of ambition and suffering. This recurring presence gives him a deeper, more implicit awareness of the series themes of reincarnation and karmic cycles than many other characters. His appearance in Tezukas other works, such as Black Jack, further cements his role as a thematic anchor exploring humanitys relationship with mortality, ethics, and redemption. In English and German translations of Phoenix 2772, his name was altered to Salter.