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Manga / Unico: Awakening

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After a 22 year hiatus note , Tezuka Productions has decided to revisit the Unico franchise.

UNICO: AWAKENING (ユニコ: 目覚めのおはなし, "Unico: AWAKENING Story") is an upcoming children's fantasy manga series by Octas Inc., written by Samuel Sattin, and illustrated by Gurihiru. The manga is a complete re-imagining of Osamu Tezuka's Unico that originally ran from 1976-1979 and a Japanese/American collaboration. Similar to the original manga and film series by Sanrio, it will be near-identical to the original manga series but will expand more on the characters' roles alongside introducing brand new characters.

The first volume will be released August 6, 2024 in the U.S. and published as part of Scholastic Graphix imprint.

The official Twitter and Kickstarter pages can be viewed here.


Pre-release material for Unico: Awakening provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Dye-Job:
    • Tezuka's original design for Psyche depicted her with light brown hair. In Unico: Awakening, her hair color was changed to orange.
    • In the original manga and other incarnations, The West Wind was entirely colored white. Her redesign for the manga's re-imagining changed her body color to blue.
    • Baron Ghost's original hair color was a mixture of blonde and orange color hair while it was colored green in The Fantastic Adventures of Unico but notably long. In Unico: Awakening, his hair color has been changed to blonde and notably shorter than his original design.
  • Adaptation Amalgamation: The manga's prologue combines the prologue chapter from the original incarnation and the first Unico film. Like the 1981 movie, Unico is introduced minutes after his birth and has a relationship with Psyche from the original manga. A new addition shows how he first met Psyche after chasing a blue butterfly which led him to an ancient garden where she grows blooms that spread "Spirit like pollen" into the wind.
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • Chao/Chow the cat (Katy in the 1981 English dub) is renamed Chloe in this manga.
    • Baron de Ghost/Baron Ghost is renamed Byron.
  • Adaptation Species Change: In the Tezuka manga and 1979 animated pilot, Venus had a humanoid appearance. In the manga, she's redesigned as an otherworldly being who resembles an anthropomorphic flower and is larger and taller.
  • Art Evolution:
  • Chasing a Butterfly: Unico is first seen chasing after a blue butterfly as he leaves his mother and siblings. The butterfly ends up leading him to an Ancient Garden where Psyche is taking care of blooms. Happily, Unico's chase ends with her taking notice of the little unicorn and quickly develop a strong love for each other.
  • Continuity Reboot: To the original manga by Osamu Tezuka. It also ignores the Sanrio film series and 2000 anime short by Tezuka Productions.
  • Innocent Flower Girl: Psyche is the keeper of an Ancient Garden where she grows blooms that spread spirit like pollen into the air. Considering Psyche is "The Goddess of Soul" and the most sweetest member of the Greek gods and goddesses' this is fitting since she actually lives up to her title.
  • Rage Against the Reflection: Unico and Psyche's growing friendship causes them to unknowingly create a force which harnessed "Life's Secret Undercurrent". The force manages to cross from the realm of The Gods to the mortal realm, where it overcomes humans by its power. This causes humans to become very fascinated and inspired by unicorns, which Venus quickly takes notice of. She's so enraged by witnessing her subjects inspired by something other than her that she ends up smashing a large crystal ball.
  • Screw Destiny: The Kickstarter preview pages show that, after years of the status quo, the West Wind is attempting to break the cycle of Unico's constant travels and being made to forget everyone he met along the way.
  • Surveillance as the Plot Demands: In the prologue, Venus is surrounded by plantlike flowers that grow crystal balls which allows her to observe the mortal realm. Each one also serves as a mirror which allows Venus to admire her own beauty and appearance. It's also how she first discovers Unico's love towards Psyche, the Goddess of Soul. She even uses them to closely observe Unico's friendship with Chloe and an old lady, which she looks upon with disgust.
  • Unicorn: Like the 70s' manga, unicorns mainly live at an unknown location close to Mount Olympus and the mortal realm. In this version, unicorns were created from life's secret undercurrent during the dawn of time when humans were younger. Unico's mother is also revealed to have been the very first unicorn that came into existence.

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