Osamu Tezuka remains one of the most famous names in all of manga history with his most recognizable work being 1952’s Astro Boy, or Tetsuwan Atomu in Japan. Countless creatives, including Western comic authors and illustrators, have been inspired by Tezuka’s unique characters and art style for nearly seven decades. In 2022, Tezuka Productions announced a Kickstarter to fund a reimagining of Osamu Tezuka’s manga Unico, originally released in 1976, called Unico: Awakening.
Unico: Awakening involves writer Samuel Sattin, from California, and award-winning art team, Gurihiru, based in Saitama, Japan. This reimagining combines Western comic and Japanese manga styles to create a modern and fun tale that is perfect for kids and adults to jump into the world of Osamu Tezuka’s characters for the first time.
A Friend Named Unico
Unico is a small unicorn who brings joy and happiness to everyone he meets, including a young girl named Psyche, whom he comes across in an ancient Greek garden. Unfortunately, jealousy brought on by Unico and Psyche’s friendship and positive influence overwhelms the goddess, Venus, and she sends her henchwoman, Zephryus, to get rid of Unico by taking him to other worlds. In this process, Unico’s memories of Psyche are wiped, and Zephyrus pities him, taking him one last time to a world where he can’t be found by the goddess Venus – the modern world.
Unico is very quick to make friends in his new world, but with friendship comes trust, responsibility, and encounters with dangerous people. Unico has special powers that he can use to help people. Still, with a powerful goddess looking to get rid of his positive influence, he easily attracts danger throughout his adventure that he’ll have to readily face.
Tezuka Inspired Art and Storytelling
My favorite part about Unico: Awakening is the colorful art that we don’t often get to see in traditional Japanese manga. The illustration is a modern take on Tezuka’s style and stays respectful to him while also feeling new and refreshing. While Osamu Tezuka is regarded as one of the most creative and iconic manga artists, it is fair to say that going back to his original works might be hard to digest for young people. While I’m a huge fan and owner of the original Astro Boy manga series, I understand the need and market for remakes/reimaginings of older series to engage people today. I enjoyed the artwork in this volume so much that I hope to see other Tezuka works such as Astro Boy and Black Jack get a similar treatment.
Unico: Awakening‘s illustration invokes facial expressions that I think Tezuka was a master at in his works. The Gurihiru team seems to have carefully carried Tezuka’s attention to emotional detail within his characters over to this reimagining. From human-like characters to animals, the artistic team captures each delicate emotion and expression beautifully.
The story, admittedly, is not my personal favorite from Tezuka’s works, but Samuel Sattin writes fun characters that are engaging to follow throughout Unico’s adventure. The modernization of the dialogue is at a level that kids can read easily and understand, while also keeping adults interested in the story. The characters are also fun for those interested in Greek mythology, but the themes are not overwhelming for those who aren’t knowledgeable about the subject. With a careful balance of slow beats and whimsical action, Unico: Awakening builds alluring characters and keeps the suspenseful moments coming.
Unico as a character thinks carefully and logically despite his innocent and sweet appearance. Often, characters that look like him can be annoying and predictable, but Unico gives sound advice to those he befriends and truly wants to help people with his powers when they need it most. Unico is a powerful main character and I look forward to see how he grows and uses his powers responsibly in the future.
Unico: Awakening releases on August 6th in the United States, and whether you are a long-time fan of Tezuka’s works or just becoming interested, this reimagining is a fun way to jump into a modern take on one of his worlds.
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Anime Corner recieved a free copy of Unico: Awakening for review purposes.
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