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Three Unpublished Osamu Tezuka Manga Drafts Found in Studio Archive

The drafts, dating to Tezuka’s 1973 turning point, will be published on November 14 for public access.

Overview

  • Tezuka Production says the penciled layouts were discovered in June in two cardboard boxes at its original-art storage in Niiza, Saitama.
  • Two drafts are previously unknown and unfinished—one 27-page story about a boy raised by a high-performance computer and another 28-page mountaineering tale set on the Eiger North Face—with reasons for nonpublication unknown.
  • The third manuscript is a complete 44-page prototype believed to relate to the 1975 one-shot Teizoku Tenshi.
  • Staff and researchers authenticated the materials and praised their strength and clarity, with the studio’s materials manager calling it the largest posthumous find of Tezuka’s work.
  • Publisher Rittosha will release the three drafts in the collection Osamu Tezuka: Missing Pieces on November 14 at about ¥7,000.