Unico
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| Unico | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Osamu Tezuka |
| Publisher | Sanrio |
| Serialized in | Ririka |
| Original run | – |
| No. of volumes | |
| Movie: The Fantastic Adventures of Unico | |
| Directed by | Osamu Tezuka, Yoshiaki Kawajiri |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Released | March 14, 1981 |
| Runtime | |
| Movie: Unico in the Island of Magic | |
| Directed by | Moribi Murano |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Released | July 16, 1983 |
| Runtime | |
Unico is a manga and anime character by Osamu Tezuka. Unico is a baby unicorn with red hair, and has the magical power to grant wishes and happiness to anyone who finds him. His friends in the various manga and anime incarnations of his story include Beezle, a bratty blue devil; Chao (or "Katy" in the English anime), a mischievous cat; and a warm-hearted human girl named Cheri.
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[edit] Back Story
Unico's way of making people happy gets him into trouble with the gods, who believe that happiness should only be obtained by years of sacrifice and hard labor and not from meeting a little unicorn. The gods order the West Wind to banish Unico to the Hill of Oblivion. The West Wind, however, takes pity on Unico and decides not to carry out the gods' orders. When the gods learn of the deception, they send the Night Wind to finish the job. To stay one step ahead of the gods and the Night Wind, the West Wind must continually transport Unico from one place to another. As soon as the gods discover where Unico is, it's time for the West Wind to take Unico away again, often without getting the chance to say goodbye to the friends he's made - and without any memory of those friends, because Unico's memory is wiped clean each time.
Unico appeared in several comic strips by Tezuka, with an ecological message. Tezuka's original manga was serialized in Sanrio's "Ririka" (Lyrica) magazine from 1976 to 1979, and was re-published by Shogakukan in 1984 in a learning magazine for children.
[edit] Unico Anime
In 1979, the same year the manga ended, Unico made his animated debut in an ecologically-themed pilot film which was eventually released straight to video, Kuroi Kumo Shiroi Hane ("Black Cloud, White Feather"), in which the unicorn meets a young girl named Chiko who is ill because of the pollution from a nearby factory. Unico becomes determined to destroy the factory to cure her.
The OAV was meant to be a pilot for a TV series which never materialized, but Unico reappeared in two feature-length animated films produced by Tezuka Productions and Sanrio in collaboration with the Madhouse animation studio (whose best-known works in the U.S. include Trigun and Perfect Blue). The first movie, The Fantastic Adventures of Unico, released in Japan on March 14, 1981, was an animated musical that presented the back story of Unico's banishment and subsequent travels, and his friendships with Beezle (to whom he grants his own horn) and Chao/Katy (whose wish to become a human girl is granted by Unico). Tezuka himself directed this film, which also employed several staffers legendary in the anime industry, including screenwriter Masaki Tsuji (who had previously worked on many of Tezuka's TV series, including Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and Princess Knight) and Madhouse animation director Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
The second movie, Mahō no Shima he (released in English as Unico in the Island of Magic), directed by Moribi Murano, was released July 16, 1983. The villainous Lord Kuruku wishes to turn all humans into zombie-like beings called "Living Puppets" to be his slaves. Unico meets a sweet young girl named Cheri (also spelled "Cherry"), whose older brother Toby (in Japanese, "Torubi") is being used as a "Pied Piper" to change people into Living Puppets and lure them to Kuruku's castle. Cheri's parents and neighbors all get turned into Living Puppets, and she and Unico team up to stop Kuruku. The Trojan Horse reveals to them that Kuruku is himself a puppet who was was mistreated by his owners and discarded. He washed up at the edge of the world - where all unwanted "junk" ends up eventually - and was brought to life with the power of sunlight, determined to take revenge on the human race. With help from Marusu, the Sphinx's daughter, Unico - who realizes that Kuruku is really just a lonely, friendless creature - is able to break Kuruku's spell, but since Kuruku's hate was the only thing that kept him alive, Kuruku reverts to puppet form. Cheri keeps the puppet Kuruku as a toy and resolves to take good care of him. Soon afterward, the West Wind finds Unico and spirits him away once again.
Unico had one more anime appearance afterward, in a short film called Saving Our Fragile Earth made for showing at the Tezuka Osamu Animation Theatre at Tezuka Osamu World in Kyoto. This short, like the original pilot, had an ecological theme: Unico and Tsubasa, a talking tree boy, are distressed by the fact that the planet Earth has become polluted and drained of resources to the point of being uninhabitable. With help from the Sphinx and the "Time Fairy" (Astro Boy), the two travel back into the past to try to prevent humans from taking the wrong path and spare the Earth from ecological devastation. Famed voice actress Akiko Yajima (the voice of Relena Darlian in Gundam Wing) provided the voice of Unico in this film. (In the movie versions, Unico was voiced by Katsue Miwa, and in the pilot film, the voice of Unico was Hiroya Oka.)
[edit] U.S. Distribution
Unico may be third only to Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion as the most popular of Tezuka's characters in the United States, and this is largely due to the 1981 and 1983 theatrical features, which were dubbed into English and received Stateside exposure through VHS release in the mid-1980s and airings on The Disney Channel.
[edit] Note
Unico also made an appearance in the Game Boy Advance game Astro Boy: Omega Factor, where he gives Astro Boy the ability to have a warm and tender talk with Dr. Tenma, his father. Unico also appears in the Astro Boy manga in a comic book. In the story, he was Dr.Foola's inspiration for a new robot: a mechanical unicorn.
The Unico films (pilot, Fantastic Adventures, and Island of Magic) were done with Sanrio, so Hello Kitty makes cameo appearances in the films.
[edit] External links
- http://www.fujikoma.com/unico/ - a Unico fan site maintained by an American fan, mainly focusing on the second movie and including a scan gallery, song lyrics, and a transcript of the English dub script of the second movie
