Kickstarter Launches For Osamu Tezuka's 'Under The Air'

Even though I know intellectually that he was a prolific creator with a career that spanned five decades, I'm always a little shocked at the sheer amount of "new" work from Osamu Tezuka --- work that's never been brought to America despite its creator's worldwide popularity. Over the past few years, the folks at Digital Manga has been steadily making an effort to collect some of the legendary creator's more obscure work, and now, they're back with their latest.

Launching this week on Kickstarter (with a slightly NSFW cover), Digital Manga's latest campaign aims to reprint Under the Air, with stretch goals including new printings of Melody of Iron and The Crater, following up on the company's previous campaigns to reprint books like Storm Fairy, Clockwork Apple, and Alabaster.

With The Crater, though, there's an interesting twist. There was actually a previous Kickstarter campaign --- one that did not involve Digital Manga --- that failed to reach its funding goal in 2013. Having delivered on a series of Tezuka-themed Kickstarters, DMI seems fairly confident that it can make this one happen.

Here are the official descriptions of the books:

Under the Air:
From science fiction, historical fiction, to contemporary drama, Under the Air includes a variety of tales that depict the duality of man—good and evil; loving and violent. An injured white-supremacist struggles with the fact that he was brought back to life by a black organ donor; a young man in the wild west seeks revenge for his father’s murder; an escaped convict holds a family hostage in a cave that causes hallucinations; the only two survivors of a nuclear apocalypse dare to explore the outside world—Tezuka’s characters are put to the test when the delicate balance of their minds are disrupted, discovering something dark hidden deep within themselves. Don’t miss this uncommon, unheard, unusual, out-of-the-ordinary collection of short stories by the late Osamu Tezuka.
The Melody of Iron:
When Dan Takuya’s sister marries into the mob, he is also automatically thrown into the dark underworld of organized crime. While unknowingly breaking the family’s code of silence, Dan is brutally tortured, arms severed and left for dead as punishment. He somehow manages to survive, and with the help of an eccentric doctor, he makes his journey to recovery. But there is a catch! He must tap into his psychic powers to move his new limbs: metal prosthetic arms. Through the use of telekinesis, he trains to make use of his new arms and vows revenge to those who did him wrong.
The Crater:
A man from the slums faces his doppelganger from the other side of the tracks; three guests visiting a hot spring are reminded of their past sins by a magical ringing bell only they can hear; stranded on the moon, an astronaut is stuck within a crater, sustained for a century by a mysterious life-giving gaseous fume the moon crater expels. The Crater is a collection of self-contained short stories, ranging from horror, mystery, to science fiction. World renowned author Osamu Tezuka introduces you to an ominous world of sin and regret—you don’t want to miss this one!

The Kickstarter campaign runs through Saturday, November 26, with an estimated ship date of April 2017.