Mitsume ga Tooru

The premise of the story revolves around the main character Hosuke Sharaku ("the Evil Prince" 悪魔のプリンス). Hosuke is the heir apparent to an ancient civilization of three-eyed superhumans who built an advanced civilization long ago. The story sees Hosuke go around solving problems (most often by his own causing) and investigating lost ruins to learn more about his origins. He is often accompanied on these deeds by his best friend Chiyoko Wato.

On a stormy night, Dr. Kenmochi was visited by a strange woman bearing a child. The woman, who had a third eye on her forehead, encourages him to take care of his child in exchange for her having a "long and prosperous life" she will want for nothing and ran off from the house. Before Kenmochi could stop her, she was hit head first by a lightning strike , and burned to a flaming cinder.

Kenmochi went on to raise the child, named Sharaku, as his own. As the doctor was taking care of Sharaku, he noticed that a third eye was forming on his forehead; after the eye grew, Sharaku began to develop a high intelligence and an evil behavior beyond that of any mortal. To repel any further development from this weird desposition, Kenmochi stuck a cross -shaped bandage on his forehead shutting his third eye, and Sharaku went on to have a mostly normal childhood, bearing a dumb mind and being a strictly obedient person. Sharaku is frequently bullied for his childishness, and as such the story is also about how he fights back when the cross-shaped bandage that covers his third eye is removed.

Hidden behind the bandage is Sharaku's malicious third eye, and the boy's hidden evil genius emerges when it can see. Sharaku's rivalries with teachers or students are occasionally developed into major plot points. To learn about his roots, Sharaku must investigate the mysterious ruins that a long lost civilization called the Three-Eyed Ones bequeathed to him. In his worldwide search, which takes both he and Wato- san to locations like Arizona , Easter Island , and Mexico , Sharaku deciphers ancient scriptures and uses gadgets he invents to help solve (or start) problems and mysteries.

Some of the story's appeal is that Osamu Tezuka, the story's author, has Sharaku investigate actual historic ruins that are shrouded in mystery and offer his own unique ideas.