posted on by Alex Mateo
© Gurihiru, Samuel Sattin, Osamu Tezuka, Scholastic
Scholastic announced on Wednesday that its Graphix imprint will release Unico: Awakening (Unico: Mezame no Ohanashi), a new manga based on Osamu Tezuka‘s Unico series, on August 6, 2024.
The series will get four volumes, a handbook, and an activity book. The new manga reads left-to-right, as Tezuka’s original Unico manga did.
The Gurihiru illustrator duo (Marvel Comics‘ The Unbelievable Gwenpool, Power Pack comic series, Avatar: The Last Airbender comic series, Spacebug anime) and Samuel Sattin (co-writer of Crunchyroll Essential Anime: Fan Favorites, Memorable Masterpieces) launched their Kickstarter campaign for a 162-page Unico: Awakening manga in May 2022. The campaign raised its US$50,000 goal in 24 hours. The project raised US$179,794 in total.
The new manga is inspired by Tezuka’s original “The Cat on the Broomstick'” storyline. The campaign describes the story:
In this re-imagining, Unico befriends a stray cat named Chloe, and the two new friends aid an old woman who Chloe mistakes for a witch. When Chloe realizes Unico can do actual magic, she begs him to turn her into a human for a few moments of each day. Unico agrees – so long as Chloe doesn’t lose touch with her feline identity. When a dangerous man and the Goddess Venus set out to destroy Unico, the Spirit of the West Wind must search the ends of the universe for a way to end Unico‘s eternal cycle of suffering.
The story of Unico centers on a unicorn who has a power to help those who love him. The titular character travels through time and to different countries to make new friends.
Tezuka first launched the manga in Sanrio‘s Ririka magazine in 1976.
Digital Manga funded the English-language release via Kickstarter in 2012 and then crowdfunded a reprint in 2015.
The manga inspired the The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic anime films. Toshio Hirata directed The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (1981), while Moribi Murano directed Unico in the Island of Magic (1983).
Source: Press release
