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Ablaze Licenses Osamu Tezuka's One Hundred Tales, Tomorrow The Birds, Neo Faust Manga

Ablaze announced on Monday that it has licensed Osamu Tezuka's One Hundred Tales, Tomorrow The Birds, and Neo Faust manga. The company is also releasing Tezuka's Shakespeare Manga Theater - manga adaptations of William Shakespeare's works such as Hamlet, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merchant of Venice - in the fourth quarter of 2023. The company will release the manga physically and digitally in cooperation with DI Books.

Ablaze will release the One Hundred Tales (Hyaku Monogatari) manga in August. The company describes the story:

An adaptation of the Faust legend as a samurai period piece. Ichirui Hanri is an ordinary accountant servicing his lord. Though innocent, he is sentenced to death by hara-kiri after being entangled in a power struggle. A witch named Sudama appears and offers Hanri three wishes in exchange for his soul. Hanri accepts. Is it worth it?

Tezuka debuted the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in July 1971, and it ran until that October.

The company will release the Tomorrow The Birds manga in the second quarter of 2024, and it describes the story:

A science fiction manga depicting a future society in which evolved birds surpass humanity, Tomorrow The Birds is a parable about how we treat those who aren't like us, and the eventual price that must be paid for arrogance. An unforgettable tapestry of seven-page chapters and longer stories.

Tezuka launched the Rise of the Birdmen anthology of short stories in 1971 in SF Magazine.

Ablaze will release the Neo Faust manga in the fourth quarter of 2024. It describes the story:

This adaptation of Goethe's Faust is Tezuka's third rendering of this classic and one of the serializations he was working on at the time of his death. Despite being terminally ill, Tezuka continued to develop his already legendary storytelling and illustrations and left behind this enthralling take on a timeless theme.

Tezuka debuted the manga in the Asahi Shimbun in 1988.

Source: Press release