{"id":823,"date":"2014-01-22T05:08:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T05:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=823"},"modified":"2023-02-10T03:01:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T03:01:17","slug":"unico-manga","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/?page_id=823","title":{"rendered":"Unico (Manga)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Also known as \u30e6\u30cb\u30b3 (Yuniko)<\/h5>\n
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\"Unico<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
English Title:<\/strong><\/td>\nUnico<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
In English?<\/strong><\/td>\nYes<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japanese Title:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u30e6\u30cb\u30b3
\n[Yuniko<\/em>]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Type:<\/strong><\/td>\nChapter Serial<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original run:<\/strong><\/td>\nNovember 1976\/11 – 1979\/03<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Published in:<\/strong><\/td>\nLyrica<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Published by:<\/strong><\/td>\nSanrio<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Volumes:<\/strong><\/td>\n2\u00a0(MT-285<\/a>\u00a0| MT-286<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Originally serialized in Sanrio’s Lyrica<\/em> magazine from November 1976 to March 1979, Tezuka’s story about a magic little unicorn, Unico<\/em>\u00a0(1976-79), is one of his\u00a0best known manga series specifically aimed at children.<\/p>\n

What it’s about<\/h2>\n

The story begins in ancient Greece where he has befriended a young mortal girl of unparalleled beauty named Psyche.\u00a0 She is so beautiful that even Venus, the mythological goddess of love, is jealous of her.\u00a0 So, after Venus discovers that Unico<\/a> is the source of Psyche’s happiness, she plots to do away with him.<\/p>\n

\"Unico<\/a>

Unico and Psyche<\/p><\/div>\n

When Psyche is pressured into entering\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0into a contest for exceptional pets, Venus makes her move.\u00a0 During the competition,\u00a0Unico<\/a>‘s trusting nature is used against him and he is tricked into being kidnapped by Venus’ minions.\u00a0 When\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0is brought before Venus, she summons Zephyrus<\/a>, the West Wind and commands her to transport\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0through time and space to the Hill of Oblivion.\u00a0 Unable to disobey,\u00a0Zephyrus<\/a>\u00a0does as she’s told and deposits\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0on the hill, leaving him with no memory of his former mistress.<\/p>\n

Despite having no memory of his previous life, he quickly makes friends and uses his magic powers to turn their love for him into happiness.\u00a0 From there\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0begins a series of unrelated adventures, each ending with\u00a0Zephyrus<\/a>\u00a0there, one step ahead of Venus’ wrath, to whisk him away to the next location in time and space – often without giving him a chance to say good-bye to his new friends.<\/p>\n

Along the way\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0helps a young Indian brave find true love with a white settler’s daughter, becomes embroiled in a “Romeo & Juliette” style story of young lovers caught between two warring kingdoms, meets a little kitten<\/a> who dreams of being a human girl, rescues a sickly girl from the clutches of an industrial waste-spewing computer tyrant, helps a baby sphinx learn a thing or two about being true to your nature, reforms a thief and helps her find true love, and teaches a little demon the true meaning of friendship.<\/p>\n

\"Teepee<\/a>

Teepee and Mary<\/p><\/div>\n

What you should know<\/h2>\n

Although written primarily for children, Tezuka was not afraid to tackle tough issues, albeit in a subdued way.\u00a0 Many of\u00a0Unico<\/a>‘s adventures deal with complex issues such as interracial love and marriage, animal rights, and environmental issues.\u00a0 As with much of his work, Tezuka is not afraid to shy away from a nice, pat, “Hollywood-style” ending, preferring instead to let his readers, even his very young readers, make their own judgements.<\/p>\n

Tezuka also uses Unico<\/em>\u00a0(1976-79) to explore his favourite theme of reincarnation, albeit in an interesting way.\u00a0 Each of his adventures being with\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0having his memory wiped, with nothing to tie him to his previous “life”.\u00a0 In this way,\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0is a good example of Tezuka’s Star System<\/a>, as in each of his lives he is true to his own sweet and gentle nature, and carries none of his “karmic baggage” with him.<\/p>\n

It also interesting to note that\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0is somewhat of a “dual citizen”.\u00a0 As Tezuka states in the postscript to the Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works<\/em><\/a> edition (MT-286<\/a>), “Unico<\/a>\u00a0was born in the United States, but that doesn’t mean he was created by an American artist” (1983, p. 190).\u00a0 During a visit to Sanrio’s (home of “Hello Kitty”) Los Angeles animation studios, Tezuka was suddenly struck by inspiration. \u00a0He asked for a piece of paper and quickly sketched out his vision, a little unicorn.<\/p>\n

\"Meet<\/a>

Meet Chao!<\/p><\/div>\n

At the time, Sanrio was preparing to release a shojo<\/em>\u00a0(young girls) magazine called Lyrica<\/em>\u00a0and asked Tezuka to participate.\u00a0 Although a bit hesitant at first, given how long it had been since he’d done a shojo<\/em> series, he agreed with the vague idea of using an animal as the central character.\u00a0 While flying back to Japan, Tezuka struck upon the name derived from the English word for “unicorn” and\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0was born.<\/p>\n

As such, Unico<\/em>\u00a0(1976-79) began serialization in Lyrica<\/em>\u00a0in November 1976, in full-colour, read in the Western-style, right to left, and with artwork that continued beyond the panels and bled right off the page.\u00a0 Although Unico<\/em>\u00a0(1976-79)\u00a0was successful and matched the “Hello Kitty” house-style Sanrio was looking for, Tezuka was unsatisfied.\u00a0 According to him, “Unico<\/a>\u00a0was too perfect, too smooth. \u00a0It was necessary to have him partner up with characters with stronger personalities” (1983, p. 190).\u00a0 He achieved this by introducing popular characters such as Chao, the kitten and Piro, the baby sphinx.<\/p>\n

Following up on the successful run in Lyrica<\/em>,\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0began appearing in First Grader<\/em>, a magazine targeted at young students learning to read.\u00a0 Running from April 1980 to January 1984, most of the stories feature\u00a0Unico<\/a>\u00a0living with a young boy named Esuo, and a dragon named Ragon. \u00a0Although some of the stories are similar in nature to the original series, the stories are shorter and simpler – usually on a few pages long.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Lyrica<\/em> version, First Grader<\/em> was designed to be read in the traditional right to left Japanese style. \u00a0However, it has been published in full-colour as well as black and white.<\/p>\n

Where you can get it<\/h2>\n

Luckily, for English-speaking fans, Unico<\/em><\/a> was successfully funded on Kickstarter<\/a> in 2012, alongside both Atom Cat<\/em> and Triton of the Sea<\/em> as part of the “Osamu Tezuka Family Pack” project.\u00a0 It was later published by DMP<\/a> in 2013 as a full-colour, single-volume edition, in it’s original left-to-right reading format – the product of Tezuka’s early attempts to break into the North American market.<\/p>\n

What else you should check out<\/h2>\n

Check out the link below for chapter summaries and more detailed publication information on\u00a0Unico<\/em>\u00a0(1976-79) serialization in both\u00a0Lyrica<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0First Grader<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\"Unico<\/a><\/div>

Unico (First Grader)<\/a><\/h3>
Coming Soon!<\/div><\/div>\n
\"Unico<\/a><\/div>

Unico (Lyrica)<\/a><\/h3>
Coming Soon!<\/div><\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally serialized in Sanrio’s Lyrica magazine from November 1976 to March 1979, Tezuka’s story about a magic little unicorn, Unico (1976-79) is best known manga series specifically aimed at children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":824,"parent":9270,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[285,295,286,114,313,289,343],"class_list":["post-823","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manga","tag-animal-tales","tag-chapter-serials","tag-childrens-tales","tag-cute","tag-lyrica","tag-magic","tag-manga-for-kids","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6vZWu-dh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10770,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/823\/revisions\/10770"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezuka.strobez.ca\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}