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Kickstarter Launches to Publish Fist of the North Star Manga in Bilingual eBook

Progress Technologies launched a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday to fund an eBook version of Buronson and Tetsuo Hara's Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken) manga. The campaign aims to publish the entire manga in both English and Japanese versions on a device Progress Technologies calls an "eOneBook." The device has a high resolution display inside that allows readers to browse through the whole manga and switch between languages. The display is sandwiched between physical paper pages and an interchangeable dust jacket cover, to emulate the physical appearance and feel of a book.

The campaign will end on November 11. The campaign has already more than doubled its 3-million-yen (about US$27,000) funding goal. The campaign expects to begin mass production in January, and start shipping the product in February.

Buronson and Hara's original manga's story is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The story centers on a man named Kenshiro, a master and successor to a deadly martial art, as he wanders the nuclear wasteland protecting the weak and innocent from violent thugs. In his travels, he must contend with other master martial artists and figures from his past, including his "brother" Raoh, who has crowned himself the king of the new world.

The manga ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1983 to 1988. The latest incarnation of the manga – the DD Fist of the North Star II and Fist of the North Star: Strawberry Flavor comedy anime spinoffs – aired alongside each other in 2015. Crunchyroll streamed both anime as they aired in Japan.

Thanks to Rukiia for the news tip