About this project
Publish Tezuka's "Storm Fairy" & reprint "Unico"
$38,142
625
Please check our UPDATE SECTION, including:
Update #5, June 25th: Ready for Unico? YES.
Update #10, July 13th: All the ADD-ONs in one place
Update #13, July 14th: Crime and Punishment ADD-ON
Hello, everyone, and welcome back! Thank you to all our previous backers for your support of Tezuka books. Because of you, we are able to print 4 books in our higher quality paper, and a digital-only book will finally be available in print. Thank you so much!
We've taken some time and listened to your requests, and for our next project, we'd like to print Osamu Tezuka's shojo manga, Storm Fairy.
Shojo is a type of genre born in Japanese magazines that were segregated according to gender. Shonen and shojo was printed similarly like the funnies in your Sunday newspaper. Magazines aimed at boys created the genre shonen, magazines aimed at girls created shojo. Post-WWII showed a surge of girls interested in manga, and when Tezuka published Princess Knight, he raised the bar on what was acceptable for Japanese girls (at the time) could read. Now, we are asking you to help us print another of Tezuka's lost work to English readers.
Storm Fairy is a collection of 3 short stories with the first comprising the first half of the book, and the other two split the remaining pages.
Once upon a time, an Empress flees her burning castle to the nearby forest where she encounters a forest fairy. A deal is struck where in exchange for the fairy's favor, the Empress must give up the face of her next born child. Thus, two girls' lives become entwined: one has to wear a mask to hide her disfigured face, the other born with the face of the first. One night, a malcontent discovered Princess Ruri's curse and steals her mask to put his own daughter on the throne. Ruri, now on the run, meets a samurai Tonosuke who decides to care for her. Hakobe, the fairy born with Ruri's face, finds out the princess is on the run and decides to help her win back her kingdom, but little does she know, she wears the face of the one she's trying to save...
The second short story, “Kokeshi Detective Agency,” has a similar tone and feel to young adult book series Encyclopedia Brown. Fearless little Paco goes around solving spooky mysteries because she is not afraid of things that go bump in the night while her dog friend Waco does his best to protect her. In the third short story, fairy Pink from the realm of beautiful sunsets morphs into whatever she wants so she may help those who are unhappy and in need, but King Brown and Sepia from the realm of thunderstorms do their best to make people miserable.
Even though this manga is classified as a shojo manga, Tezuka still questions what is perceived as beautiful or ugly, and I love it. – Hikaru Sasahara, President of DMI
In addition to printing Storm Fairy, we also have two stretch goals. The first is a reprint of Unico. Some pledgers can also get the original Japanese Hard Cover edition of Unico in a surprise tier that we'll announce soon (!) and other swag for the reprint. Our second stretch goal is to print Crime and Punishment, which was released previously as digital-only.
There will also be specifically designed products for this campaign: knee-length gray dress with a blue storm trim in 100% cotton, and a t-shirt with Hakobe casting magic in 50% polyester / 25% cotton / 25% rayon. There is a super sturdy tote bag with the Storm Fairy logo. Check below for the specs on the bag. And last of all there will be a silk screened poster of Storm Fairy with 5-6 colors. Snag this poster to hang next to our previous silk screened Barbara poster!
(Click image to enlarge)
Here are the specifications for Tezuka's Storm Fairy.
- Paperback High-quality paper that is denser, smoother, and off-set white/ or natural offset
- Size: A5 (5.875"x8.25"), same as our other Tezuka releases
- Right to Left Manga reading format
- Pages: 224pgs
- Release date: 11/2015
- MSRP: $15.95
- Rated: 13+ Teen
Stretch Goal #1: Reprint Unico
We reached $26,000 and now we will be able to reprint Unico! Thanks, everyone!
We reached $27,000 and now Unico will be reprinted with updated colors! Hooray!
Stretch Goal #2: Publish and print Crime and Punishment
We reached $32,500 and now we will be able to make Crime and Punishment available in print! Check the updates page for more information regarding the Crime and Punishment ADD-ON.
Why Kickstarter?
We believe that all of Tezuka's work carry a spirit of global community, and there is no better way to reflect that than on a crowd funding platform such as Kickstarter. The Tezuka fan community has grown over the years on this platform and we want to continue to see it develop to where all generations, old and new, can convene into a place of common interest. Let's once again get together to achieve this goal!
Check out our press release posted on Crunchyroll about our partnership with Tezuka Productions: "Digital Manga, Inc. to Bring the Remaining Tezuka Library to the Rest of the Manga Reading World!"
Risks and challenges
We weigh heavily on the comments, praise, and criticisms from you, the fans. As many of Tezuka's work heavily explores the human condition, we at Digital Manga, Inc., also try to follow suit from his message—recognize and analyze where we went astray, get back on our feet and make good to get back on the correct path, and then strive to improve even more so in future endeavors.
We also provide backers with clear explanations about our goals and giveaway tiers, fast responses to questions, and frequent updates on the progress of the books and the giveaways. With that said, if you have any questions or concerns please message us (through the "Contact Me" button above) and we will reply as swiftly as possible.
"What if the merchandise is late?"
This would be because we were not satisfied with the makers of our merchandise and had to find an alternative company to produce them or demand a complete redo. Backers will be informed the minute it happens, and when we receive the completed goods.
"What if the books are late?"
It's not uncommon for books to be late. There are multiple parties involved with publishing a book. Of course, you will be informed right away about the problem and how long of a delay you can expect.
DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that the tiers are set and we cannot switch items out in exchange for other items. If an item becomes unavailable or damaged before shipping out the rewards package to the backer, an item of equivalent or greater value will be substituted.
To stay updated on the latest happenings with our campaign, the progress of the production of the books, rewards, questions, comments, please follow us on the following SNS networks:
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Funding period
- (30 days)