Unico: Awakening Releases New Animated Trailer

A new animated trailer for Unico: Awakening has been released. Unico: Awakening is a modern reimagining of the 1976 Osamu Tezuka manga, Unico. With art from the award-winning art team, Gurihiru, and California-based author, Samuel Satin, 2024’s release of Unico: Awakening strives to draw young people into Tezuka’s characters for the first time.

The animation was done by Denver Jackson, while Mason Liberman did the music. The trailer is also available in the Japanese version:

Scholastic, the manga’s publisher, describes Unico: Awakening as such:

UNICO tells the incredible story of a young unicorn who, after enraging the evil goddess Venus, is banished from the heavens and forgets all he once was. Saved from oblivion by the kindhearted West Wind, Unico continues to help others, before having to escape Venus again and begin a new adventure.

In this first manga, Unico awakes in a mysterious land and is befriended by a resourceful watch cat, Chloe, who feels protective of the young unicorn. When they find themselves near a small village in the forest, they take refuge with a kindly, but helpless, old woman. To take care of her, Chloe begs Unico to turn her into a human girl, but that act of kindness has unforeseen consequences: Unico’s love has awakened Venus and her minion, Byron, who want to destroy them both!

Osamu Tezuka’s original Unico work was adapted into various anime films and featured in many collections in the decades since its release. Tezuka Productions, the animation studio founded by Tezuka himself in 1968, began a Kickstarter in May 2022 for Unico: Awakening which reached its funding goal in just one day. According to Scholastic, the manga will run for four volumes, with the second volume planned for a 2025 release.

Anime Corner had the opportunity to interview the author of Unico: Awakening, Samuel Sattin. You can also check out our review of the first volume.

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