Tribulations of love are often immense, yet in this work, they're of cosmic proportions. Our -- sort of -- villainized hero is sent on a metaphysical journey which serves as a punishment for his atrocious sins. It is a blend of psychopathy and sexuality which is supposed to explore love as the primary theme. Not the romanticized form of it much, but more like a raw view of it, even atavistic at some parts. Given the time in which it was written, it is to be expected, albeit probably won't accommodate some of the more open-minded masses of today. The overall pace is chaotic, conveyanceof desired themes is done without any superfluousness to it, albeit the narrative structure has its hiccups. Panel to panel transitions are not ideal and conversational fluidity tends to suffer due to clunky translations. Tezuka's art is mostly clean and polished, however, it has to be noted that it's a period piece by contemporary standards.

Side characters serve as mere mechanisms to roll the plot forward. On the other hand, the development of the main character is done somewhat believably. Despite that his chances for redemption are already spoiled at the very start, it pertains to the overall pessimistic tone and stays loyal to the source material Tezuka drew inspiration from.

An effective piece, honestly. Whereas that same effectiveness is heavily determined by one's belief system.