An all-star lineup of popular characters created by the late Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) will team up to fight for peace in the universe in a new science fiction manga to be serialized simultaneously in Japanese and European manga magazines
Written and drawn by a Spanish comic artist Kenny Ruiz, the series will ｉnclude such characters as Sapphire from "Ribbon no Kishi" (Princess Knight) and Leo from "Jungle Taitei" (The Jungle Emperor, or Kimba the White Lion).
The aim of the project is to take the world by storm with a "Tezuka version" of the "The Avengers" series, which bands together popular individual characters from American comics.
The manga series will be titled "Team Phoenix," and carried in Japan in the Bessatsu Shonen Champion monthly magazine published by Akita Publishing Co., starting with the June edition to be released on May 12.
The story is set in a universe in which robots rule after winning a war with natural life forms. Sapphire, a human knight in the robot confederation, grows disenchanted with the tyranny of the robots and becomes a pirate to lead a rebellion.
Among her allies are Leo and Sharaku from "Mitsume ga Toru" (The Three-eyed One).
The feature of the manga is that it creates a situation in which famous Tezuka characters appear as allies and enemies, a reversal of "Tetsuwan Atom" (Astro Boy) in which it was the robots that were oppressed by the humans. "Black Jack" and "Maguma Taishi" (Ambassador Magma) are other title characters said to be making appearances.
Ruiz, 40, is a popular artist of French language comics known as "Bandes Dessinees." Living in Spain, he is known as a new generation artist who is greatly influenced by Japanese manga, and is a big fan of Tezuka.
"I wanted to breathe life into the popular characters from Tezuka's work in a modern form, without losing any of the original appeal," Ruiz commented.
The idea for the project evolved from discussions between Tezuka Productions staff and Ruiz, and the manga will be developed with the full support from the production company.
In the French-speaking world, the series will start at about the same time as in Japan in the long-established weekly comic magazine "SPiROU," produced by the Belgian publisher Dupuis.
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