The Latest Unicorn: Scholastic Adapts Manga for the Middle Grade

Manga sales have boomed in North America the past several years, but there’s one readership that has been left out of the party: children. Manga for readers 12 and under is still a small category in the U.S., but with Scholastic set to begin publishing manga under its Graphix imprint, that could be changing. Sattin and Gurihiru have created new stories based on Tezuka’s characters for a planned four-to-eight-volume series. PW talked with Sattin about crafting original English-language manga for a younger American audience. What’s the origin story of this new Unico series? I love Osamu Tezuka, and I wanted to reimagine Unico for a new generation of readers. Venus, the goddess of beauty, becomes jealous of Unico’s ability to spread kindness and happiness and tries to have him destroyed. Whenever he starts to remember who he is, his powers awaken and he attracts the attention of the gods. There are some interesting philosophical ideas in there. Return to main feature.