Frontispiece/Yagyu no Oka (1st part)/Lilica/Sanrio/1976

Unico

1976/11-1979/03

Story

This is a fantasy of a young Unicorn, known as a mythical animal appearing in Greek myth, by the name of Unico. Unico brings happiness to people he encounters while traveling from one place to another.

Venus, the Goddess of Beauty has a very jealous nature. She gets jealous of Psyche, a human girl who is prettier and more popular than her. Psyche has a young Unicorn by the name of Unico as her pet, and Unico has a mysterious ability which he can demonstrate to help people who come to love him. Knowing Unico is the reason of Psyche's beauty, Venus orders the spirit of West Wind to take Unico away from Psyche and leave him at the end of the world. The spirit of West Wind, feeling sorry for Unico but not able to disobey the order, takes Unico to various places beyond time instead. A place native American live, a castle in the Middle Ages, the forest in modern Europe, a country governed by fairies, Russian Empire and more - Unico wanders from one place to another, and loses all the memory of the place he visits before moving to the next.

Description

Serialized on Lilica (1976/11-1979/03) (Sanrio)

The main character of this fantasy is Unico, a young Unicorn coming from the world of Greek myth. He is a super cute boy with gender neutral attraction. He travels around the world beyond time, taken one place to another by the spirit of West Wind, but his memories of people and animals he encounters are deleted on visiting the next place. How pitiful Unico is. Unico's endless adventures beyond time and place bring us unexpected story developed anywhere in the world.

Frontispiece/Uruwashi no Roselia (3)/Lilica/Sanrio/1977

Unico was serialized on a girl's magazine, Lilica, published by Sanrio that was a company famous for its character products. Initially the magazine was planned to be published not only in Japan but also overseas, so it was bounded on the left side, written horizontally from left to right, which was quite unusual then. Accordingly, Tezuka laid out the frames for a left-opening magazine. Furthermore, the first few issues were in full color. Tezuka also adopted bleed pages and drew illustrations to the edge beyond the outlines of the frames, which was a very unique frame assignment. He also adopted this style for Futureman Kaos later. At the time, Sanrio was enthusiastic in animation production and had a studio in Los Angeles. Tezuka came up with the idea for Unico when he visited the studio.

Characters

Unico

Unico is a young Unicorn boy and is a pet of a beautiful girl by the name of Psyche. He has a mysterious ability to bring happiness to people who come to love him. Thanks to the order by Venus who gets jealous of Psyche's beauty, Unico is taken away and left at various places by the spirit of West Wind. But he is always helped by people wherever he goes, and brings happiness to them.

Unico

Psyche

Venus

Psyche

She is a very beautiful, attractive girl and the owner of Unico. Due to her beauty, Venus gets jealous of her. Even Eros, Venus's son, falls in love with her.

Venus

Venus is the Goddess of Beauty. She gets jealous of Psyche that has a reputation for her beautiful appearance, and takes Unico away from her. As the spirit of West Wind says "beauty means brutalness", Venus is incredibly beautiful but mean. She cannot stand the existence of any woman more beautiful than herself.

The spirit of West Wind

By order of Venus, she takes Unico to various places and leaves him behind. Since she is wind, she is transparent and can fly high in the sky. Despite her kind nature, she is not able to resist Venus's order.

The spirit of West Wind

Chao

Devil II

Chao

Chao is a black kitten. She used to be a house cat, but was discarded by the owner due to her clumsy nature. She dreams of becoming a master of magic and hopes to learn it from a real witch by living with her.

Devil II

He is naughty but lovable Devil's son. Unico encounters him on the island of solitude. Although he is still very young, it seems he lives alone. He longs for a single horn like his father's.

Comment by Author

Unico & Ragon from Unico(Shogaku Ichinensei)

（Excerpt from afterwards on Unico, vol. 2 of Tezuka Osamu Manga Compilation by Kodansha）

(omitted)
I faced one problem which bothered me after starting the serialization on Lilica - Unico was too cute. Main characters of today's manga must be a bit evil. They are not attractive if they are too good. On the other hand, Unico is too innocent. Therefore, I had to let other characters have strong personalities.
The serialization, initially started on Lilica, was continued on the magazine, Shogaku Ichinensei.
Subsequently, Unico, supported by various unique side characters such as Chao, a kitten girl, and Ragon, a dragon boy, came to be loved by a lot of readers.

(Please note the above is a liberal translation of the original text in Japanese. )

Unico & Ragon from Unico(Shogaku Ichinensei)