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 OEL 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 manga keeps the left-to-right Western reading style as the original manga which is a rarity in Japan.note
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.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- Unico's mother and siblings are present during Volume 1's prologue explaining the origins of unicorns and when Unico was an infant. Unico's mother and family didn't appear until midway through the manga's run in 1978, debuting in the chapter "A Hometown Visit".
- In the original manga, the Night Wind only made a brief appearance in "The Tale of the Fangs of Athens" chapter near the manga's conclusion. In this incarnation, she appears during the prologue section of Volume 1 where she's established as The Dragon to Venus.
- 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.
- A Hero Is Born: The prologue begins after Unico's mother gives birth to a litter of unicorns, including Unico. He's described as "The most peculiar, both brave and curious" of the bunch.
- Art Evolution:
- While Tezuka's design of
Unico was notably feminine. Gurihiru's redesign of the character decided to give him a more androgynous appearance◊ with a more horse-like design (such as longer hooves).◊ He's also given much longer hair/mane around his head to make him look more like a boy. - Chloe's redesign◊ is also similar to Tezuka's design, but is given whiskers and her red bow is now located around her neck.
- While Tezuka's design of
- Big Good: Sphinx is huge and actually towers over the West Wind. When the West Wind wakes her up to seek her wisdom, she's intimidated by Sphinx and almost gets squished by her front paws. Despite her large size, Sphinx is very knowledgeable and tries helping her out on Unico's situation. She even empathizes with the West Wind's situation since Sphinx's daughter was kidnapped by Venus.
- Chasing a Butterfly: Unico is first seen chasing after a blue butterfly and a grasshopper as he leaves his mother and siblings. The grasshopper 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.
- Cute Kitten: Chloe the cat, who wishes to become a "Witch's Cat", is a spirited and energetic kitty similar to Tezuka's portrayal of the character. Despite her cheerful attitude, she's very unfamiliar with human life with Unico, having to teach Chloe about the responsibilities of being human (especially as a human girl) and the dangers that comes from it.
- Evil Is Bigger: In this incarnation of Unico, Venus is depicted as a gigantic evil goddess. Her massive size makes the West Wind, the Night Wind, and Sphinx look small. Even Venus' fingers are the size of trucks compared to the West Wind's head.
- Evil Overlooker: The Volume 1 cover depicts Venus angrily overlooking Unico with glowing red eyes as she's preparing to grab him.
- Explosive Breeder: Unico's mother birthed a total of 15 foals, including the titular protagonist and his sister Corn.
- Gender Flip: Marusu (Piro in the manga) is a female sphinx cub in this incarnation. In the original manga, Marusu/Piro was a boy but was easily confused as being female due to having very feminine hair and eyelashes.
- Give Me a Sign: When the West Wind becomes remorseful and wishes to find a way to end Unico's cycle of getting separated from his friends and forgetting his own identity. She hears a whisper on the zephyr and sees a message reading "There Is A Way" written by leaves. She decides to drop Unico off at a nearby city to follow the whisper.
- Glowing Eyes: Unico's eyes glow white when he channels his powers after a person performs an act of kindness towards him and he feels truly loved.
- 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 sweetest member of the Greek gods and goddesses' this is fitting since she actually lives up to her title.
- P.O.V. Cam: When Unico wakes up inside a city at night. Two panels are shown from Unico's perspective, his vision getting less blurry until he gets a clear vision of a neighborhood.
- 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 prologue shows 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.
- Tears of Remorse: When realizing how cruel her methods of protecting Unico by constantly wiping his memories and endlessly separating him from his friends were. Zephyrus, the Spirit of the West Wind starts shedding tears as she wishes there was a way to end Unico's cycle of forgetting his friends and his own identify.
- 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.
