Apollo's Song

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Apollo's Song is a manga created by Osamu Tezuka. It was originally serialized in Shukan Shōnen Kingu in Japan in 1970 (1970/04/26-1970/11/22).

It tells the story of a boy named Shogo Chikaishi, who grows up lonely, bitter and angry because of his mother's hatred for him. This leads Shogo into a pathological hatred of love and sex, killing animals as they mate or nurture their young. After murdering a hen, he is arrested and taken to a mental institute.

When he receives electric shock therapy, Shogo gets an out-of-body experience and meets the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. For his hatred of love, she condemns him to be reincarnated in different timelines, suffering pain and heartbreak, in order for him to find the true meaning of love.

Through the manga, Shogo encounters love as a soldier in Nazi Germany, as a pilot stranded on an island with a beautiful photographer, and as a revolutionary in a far-future world ruled by synthetic humanoids, only for it to end in tragedy every time. In the modern world, an encounter with a nymphomaniac and Shogo's murderous hatred of love cause more deaths, forcing him to go on the run from the police, where he shacks up with a female athlete named Hiromi, who puts him through a fierce training regiment in order to become a marathon runner... and, almost by accident, teaches him to fall in love. But even as Shogo learns his lesson, fate is not kind to him or his lover...

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Tropes included

• Author Tract - During the 2030 chapter, Tezuka manages to squeeze in a Green Aesop alongside the series' usual one of "Love is painful and complicated."
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished - Naomi in Chapter 2 is brutally attacked by many animals at once, but the most she ever shows for it are some scratches.
• Crapsack World - Earth in the year 2030. Pollution kills most humans on the planet, leading to synthetic beings taking control of Earth and making humans their slaves and guinea pigs.
• Freudian Excuse - Shogo's abusive mother is part of the reason he hates love.
• Love Hurts - Pretty much the whole point of this series.
• Love Makes You Crazy - Didn't help that Shogo was already nuts to begin with.
• No Swastikas
• Reincarnation Romance
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog - Shogo and Naomi's love affairs always end in tragedy.
• Slap Slap Kiss - Shogo and Naomi in "No Man's Land".
• Son of a Whore - Shogo.
• Star-Crossed Lovers - Shogo and Hiromi in their various incarnations.
• Time Travel - The main plot.
• Used to Be A Sweet Kid - Shogo.
• Uterine Replicator - Used by the Syntheans in the 2030 arc.
• What Is This Thing You Call Love? - The Synthean Queen in 2030 demands to see what human sex is like. It doesn't end well.