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Osamu Tezuka's The Vampires Inspires New Manga Set in Modern Kyoto

The fifth issue of Micro Magazine Publishing Company's Tezucomi Osamu Tezuka tribute magazine began serializing Bokutengō's new Kyōjū Monogatari (Kyoto Beast Story) manga on Tuesday. The series is inspired by Tezuka's The Vampires manga.

The manga is set in modern Kyoto (as opposed to Tokyo in the earlier manga) and centers on aspiring manga creator Ako Kitayama. One day, while on a train station platform, she witnesses a battle between a "hunter" and another young man who can also transform. She decides to use the incident as story material for her manga. Ako submits the storyboard draft for the manga to her editor. But not only does he reject the manga, he says "He told me to bring you," delivering Ako to a young man who suddenly appears in the room. The man takes Ako to the head of his clan.

The first part of The Vampires ran in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine from 1966 to 1967, followed by the second part in Shueisha's now defunct Shōnen Book magazine from 1968 to 1969. The official Osamu Tezuka website describes the Macbeth-inspired story:

In this unconventional work, a boy named Toppei who can transform himself into a wolf is the main character.

The story begins when one day Toppei visits Mushi Productions, an animation production company, and persuades President Tezuka Osamu to hire him. Toppei, who actually belongs to a vampire tribe whose members transform themselves into wolves, has come to Tokyo to look for his missing father. The villain of the story, named Rock, discovers Toppei's secret, and then tries to plot against Toppei.

In the meantime, Toppei's tribe, which has long been oppressed by human beings, secretly plans a revolution against them. Toppei and Tezuka Osamu try to stop the revolution; Rock tries to use it to the advantage of his own wicked designs; and then the police get involved. Everyone's intentions got entangled, and Toppei is in danger of being cornered.

The Tezucomi magazine celebrates the 90th anniversary since the pioneering manga creator Osamu Tezuka's birth in 1928. The magazine launched last October and will run monthly for 18 issues.

Source: Comic Natalie