History of Osamu Tezuka's Unico in Sanrio's Lyrica Magazine | My Unico Fans

In our first video, we'll be going over a brief history of Osamu Tezuka's manga "Unico" during its run in Sanrio's Lyrica (Ririka) Magazine from November 1976 until March 1979. It's quite an info dump, but we hope you'll enjoy!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:10 Who is Unico?
1:17 What's Unico's Plot?
2:07 What's Lyrica?
3:03 Were There any Problems?
5:02 Changes to the Comics
8:06 When did They Finish Coloring the Comics?
8:39 The End of Lyrica Magazine
9:29 Outro
“All That” - Music by: Bensound.com/free-music-for-videos
License code: VACK3KU2Y6OJLL9R
※ Unico and all other characters, artwork, advertisements, etc used in this video are owned and © Osamu Tezuka, Tezuka Productions, Sanrio, Shogakuken Inc., Kodansha Ltd., Scholar, Sony Magazines, and all other companies/people associated with rights.

[@rinheus2202]

Amazing video! I already followed your content from the My Unico Fans facebook page. Keep going with this project, it is really good! Love the tiny Unico reactions on the video, Unico is so cute.

[@xellis84]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words. I'll definitely keep going. I'm a little slow, but I promise there will be more videos. :D Unico is definitely cute!

[@user-ux5hm6bu9u]

This is soooo amazing! Please don't stop making this kind of video, the quality, information, and your narrating is so well done! I'm very happy I got to know something new about Unico and Osamu Tezuka because of you. Thank you for this beautiful video ❤

[@xellis84]

Awww! Thank you! I appreciate your comment! I'm a little behind on making videos, but I hope to pump out more soon. Thank you again!

[@kiwikarp9509]

I didn't know or care about Unico before I watched this video, so I think you did a good job explaining its history in this magazine.

[@xellis84]

Thank you so much!

[@weirdproq]

Loved the video! Thanks! What I would like to suggest though is that you fix your microphone setup (or whatever going on) for future videos, since your voice is only coming through in my left ear on my headset.

[@xellis84]

Thank you so much for your comment! I appreciate it! Sadly, I realized too late that the mic and audio recorder I used was set to record in mono, and I didn't fix it in the editing process. Rookie mistake, on my part. Haha! In the future, hopefully I won't do it again, and if I do, I know what I did wrong and how to fix it. I appreciate you letting me know, as it helps me improve and keep track of what I'm doing. Thank you! :D

[@HolyDemonSnap]

Damn, what perfect timing. This was only released three weeks ago? I just finished the OG manga finally after some months putting it off. I found it through the myunicofans blogpost. I found a lot of relatability in the Unico manga, far more than I did in the movies. From the themes like reincarnation (Unico actively obtaining new experiences as he goes through new struggles, often being a teacher to others not just their hero, and sometimes acquiring new skills per each 'lifetime,' but then always being taken by the West Wind leading to him forgetting his prior experiences, much like a death, only to slowly remember who he is and his powers as he spends time in each new land, as well as the Night Wind not being an explicit antagonist in one of the chapters), how he's the younger brother to Corn's older sister role. As well as the fact that at the end of the series, while many apparently miss it, Unico does indeed return home due to the fact that Venus regretted her actions and sent the West Wind to retrieve him from his time on the Isle of Solitude.

[@xellis84]

It's really neat to see the differences in the manga and Unico movies. While Sanrio aimed the films to be for families, you can definitely see Tezuka's personality and interests showing through the comics. I'm glad you could read the manga and that this video popped up for you! :D

[@HolyDemonSnap]

@@xellis84 It's for sure. Also there's a lot of clear dark undertones despite the happy go lucky approach and pastel feel of the comics. Like Chao was discarded in the river in a basket - which is similar to being discarded in a sack. A bit less dangerous, but still it was Unico who had to save her. Also contemplating how much Unico had to go through to save and teach others, even outside of the fact he kept forgetting everything. It didn't pop up for me, I found it through the blog - possibly your blog? I forget how I found the blog but I believe it was through a google search.

[@HolyDemonSnap]

That map of Unico and Tezuka traveling the world is precious af. Thank you for this precious little video essay, please keep going! Looking forward to it - subscribed. Also maybe need to work on the audio a bit - make sure it comes in through both headphone sides, not just one side. Otherwise your narration is great, the writing is on point, and the use of images works superbly!

[@xellis84]

Thank you for your kind words! I'll continue to improve and share what I can. And thank you for letting me know about the audio. I hadn't purchased a real mic yet, so I'm not surprised something went wrong in that area. Haha! Hopefully, that won't be an issue in future videos.

[@HolyDemonSnap]

@@xellis84 Sounds good, and np at all.

[@DennisTamayo]

Sanrio sold Unico's rights to Tezuka Productions in 1989 after the creator passed away.

[@xellis84]

Hello! While I'm not familiar with how Sanrio and Tezuka Productions handled any copyright/trademarks of Unico after Osamu Tezuka's passing, I know when Lyrica magazine was discontinued in 1979, Sanrio returned the comics and characters to the respective owners so they could republish or continue the comics in any way they wanted. Tezuka then created a new comic series of Unico for Shougaku Ichinensei (First Grader) magazine which ran from 1980 to 1984. I doubt it's changed recently, but Sanrio still has some rights to Unico today, but mainly for distributing the pilot episode and original films as part of their movie collection in Japan since they helped produce them.

[@DennisTamayo]

@@xellis84 But Sanrio didn't own Unico anymore after Tezuka died!