Geoff Darrow's stunning artwork clearly marks this work as a celebration of Japan's bouyant visual culture and inventive spirit, and Frank Miller clearly enjoyed penning this tale; yet his script, while crediting Japan's fighters with dignity and honor and its leaders with the humilty to recognize the need to call upon the USA for assistance, simultaneously belittles the Japanese nation's prowess.  It is difficult to interpret Miller's treatment of Rusty the Boy Robot as anything other than a dismissive swipe at Tezuka's trademark creation Tetsuwan Atumo (aka Astro Boy), at the same time that Big Guy is a swipe of the Japanese-originated concept of the piloted robot that Miller nationalistically appropriates as a symbol of US power.  This makes for a jarring reading experience.  But the combination of Japanese setting along with Darrow's amazing artwork that is so clearly indebted to the spirit of manga (via Moebius) makes the book an homage to Japanese popular culture in spite of the narrative's contorted distortions.