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Digital Manga to Launch Kickstarter for Tezuka's Under the Air, The Crater, Melody of Iron Manga (Updated)

posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Kickstarter campaign launches on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. EDT

North American publisher Digital Manga Inc. (DMI) announced via press release on Wednesday that it will launch a Kickstarter campaign for Osamu Tezuka's Under the Air and The Crater manga on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. EDT. The campaign will also feature a stretch goal for Tezuka's Melody of Iron (Tetsu no Senritsu) manga.

The company previously hinted earlier this month that it will publish Under the Air and The Crater.

The campaign will have an initial goal of US$25,000 for Under the Air. DMI had cancelled its previous campaign for the manga that it launched on Tuesday, as the previous campaign had "minor glitches in the shipping settings for a select few of the reward tiers." Backer pledges from the previous campaign are now null and void.

The Crater will be Add-On item in the campaign, and DMI plans to release the three-volume manga in a single omnibus volume. DMI will also release Melody of Iron if the campaign reaches a stretch goal of US$50,000.

Tezuka's Under the Air manga collects a series of 14 short stories that Tezuka drew between 1968 and 1970. The stories share no continuity or story, and are tied together only by themes of human nature and duality. Melody of Iron is also an omnibus of short story works, and features "a story of love, hate, revenge, and a pair of prosthetic metal arms." The Crater features "excruciating themes of horror, mystery, suspense and sci-fi, centering around the dark nature of man."

Kansai Club Publishing previously ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for The Crater in 2013, but the company never released the manga.

DMI told ANN regarding the previous license by Kansai Club Publishing that it has "no affiliation with, or connection to" Kansai Club Publishing, and that it has no "leverage within Kickstarter to issue any direct refunds to the previous backers" of the Kansai Club Publishing campaign. DMI added that "after the rights to [The Crater] became available, [DMI] pursued them in hopes of 'rescuing' it from the controversy that sprung up from that campaign and [DMI has] actively been in the works for a remedy to the situation as a way to give back to the community."

DMI said it will "[do its] best to reach out to all backers of the Kansai Club's campaign and offer them a special pricing for our current Kickstarter with the assurance of all our prior successful campaigns that, if funded, they will receive their product."

Update: Added link to Kickstarter campaign, which is now live.


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